It's hard to believe that Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" turns 20 this year, and it is hard to think of that film without immediately thinking of its most famous, oft-replayed scene, which is Belle, in her hoop-skirted yellow frock, twirling around a high-ceilinged ballroom with a dapper Beast.
We sometimes try and think of puffed-up, très in-amour-with-himself Gaston, but, sorry Gaston; that yellow gown has become downright iconic.
Now the big yellow gown, and Belle's preening would-be suitor, and Beast, and Belle herself are all waltzing into the Pantages for a nearly three-week stage run; "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" opens on Wednesday, March 9 and dances through Saturday, March 26.
You might have seen it on Broadway, where it ran for well over a decade. Solid. We'll wager its big success is due in large part to the Ashman/Menken/Rice songs, and how great they sound live. And a fab cast is essential too, of course; props especially to Beast, who not only is under some Beastly cosmetics but has to undergo one of the stagedom's most major transformations.
