Beauty and the Beast cast and crew look forward to show opening in Bristol

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is opening at Bristol Hippodrome on Wednesday where it will be on stage until September 18 before heading on tour to Liverpool, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Dublin.

The production has very much taken shape in our city, with rehearsals beginning at Bristol Grammar School in the first week of July.

Ahead of curtain up for the first time, some of the cast and crew spoke about the show and how welcomed they have felt being based in Bristol.

Courtney Stapleton plays Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast – photo: Disney

Emmanuel Kojo as Beast – photo: Disney

Emmanuel Kojo, Beast
“Growing up in Austria, I didn’t see people like me on billboards or on TV or anything like that. So I know for a fact that this is such a massive thing, but they (Disney) did it because that’s what they wanted and I think that’s what’s so special about it. Seeing the world that we live in reflected on a beautiful story, as this is. This is casting done right. And also, who doesn’t want to be a Disney prince!”

Courtney Stapleton, Belle
“The amount of kids that are going to come and watch this show. And the little boys and girls who look like us will be able to look up on the stage and think, ‘I can do that. I can be a prince. I can be a princess.’ And that’s something they maybe haven’t had before in their lives. I think it’s really important that every kid should be able to feel like that. It shouldn’t be based on race whether you can dream of something like that. For them to be able to come to this show and look up to have a role model, and to be able to relate to what they are seeing and dream something like that, that’s priceless.”

Emmanuel Kojo
“There’s something very real about this production where you really get to see these characters in 3D. I think that so many people are going to connect with them and understand, and really get the message of how love transforms us. That’s the message I get from this show.”

Courtney Stapleton
“I feel amazing in my costumes and my wig and my makeup. I think because the character has no racial history, there’s nothing to back up what race she ever was, it doesn’t have to be me recreating something that somebody else has already done before because there’s no relevance of my skin colour in the story. So it’s been amazing to come into it and accept that I am Belle, this is my version of Belle and I’m going to make it my own, which is all you can ever ask for as an actor.”

Courtney and Emmanuel have formed a close bond during rehearsals in Bristol – photo: Disney

Matt West, director & choreographer
“My joy in this project is the message of don’t judge a book by its cover. Go inside. Go inside the heart of someone.”

Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Theatrical Group
“I love being here in Bristol. We have done so much here so Bristol is very comfortably home… In this theatre, I was here for the whole creation of the out of town original production of Mary Poppins, living in a snappy little apartment on the river which was very nice. I’ve done two productions of Lion King here and now it’s my fourth time back, so I’m very pleased it worked out. It’s kind of a perfect venue for this show.”

Louis Stockil (left) as Le Fou with director and choreographer Matt West (right) – photo: Disney

Matt West
“The audiences here in Bristol are amazing. You can judge your work by their enthusiasm. They are a very savvy audience. The theatre is also so beautiful. You don’t get to work in theatres like the Bristol Hippodrome very often… I love that this theatre opened in 1912, it is over 100 years old, all the people who have played here, the original stage. You have this element of history when you come into a venue like this, and for me as a theatre-goer that’s the romance of theatre, just the whole romance of going to the theatre. So a show like Beauty and the Beast, which is about romance, fits really well.”

For more information and to book tickets, visit www.beautyandthebeastmusical.co.uk.

Main photo: Disney

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