Beauty and the Beast to tour nationally from 2021

The 'tale as old as time' will open at Curve Leicester in May 2021.

A new production of Beauty and the Beast will tour the country next year, it was announced last week by Disney Theatricals. The musical will open with a five-week engagement at Curve Leicester, ahead of a national tour.

The original creative team from the Broadway production will work on the production, with casting to be announced. Beauty and the Beast features a book by Linda Woolverton, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

Adapted from the animated musical film, Beauty and the Beast tells of Belle, a young woman trapped in a castle who must convince her captor to change before he is doomed to be a beast forevermore. The musical features songs from the original movie, including "Be Our Guest", "Gaston" and "Human Again".

Beauty and the Beast opened on Broadway in 1994, playing over 5,000 performances until its final performance on July 29th, 2007. The musical transferred to the West End's Dominion Theatre in 1997, where it played for two years, garnered praise from critics and won an Olivier Award for best new musical.

^{Photo credit: (Courtesy of Disney Theatricals)}