Beauty and the Beast - Scenic Design

Scenic Design

The task of translating the ephemeral magic of a two-dimensional animated film into the three-dimensional reality of live stage is complex. How do you depict a tangled forest or change massive castle pillars into a sunny village in minutes?

These were the challenges faced by the designers, choreographer, and backstage technicians, whose work takes the audience into a fantasy world that is nevertheless believable.

Scenic design must reflect and enhance the mood of each moment in the story. For scenic designer Stan Meyer, "The music evokes so much feeling it affects the design." When he first heard the song "Home," he envisioned Belle's room in the castle looking the way the music sounded. For Meyer, Belle's bedroom is "rich and lush -- but cold and stark at the same time. It juxtaposes every little girl's fantasy of a fairy-tale bedroom with the reality that Belle is the Beast's prisoner."

The way live performers move within the scenery also heightens the emotion. In the tavern, a tankard-clanking crowd celebrates "Gaston," and later a village mob marches to "Kill the Beast!" Choreographer Matt West points out, "You can't take a close-up on an expression of anger or fear. You have to find other ways of spotlighting these emotions." Lighting plays a major role in this. Meyer says, "Natasha Katz's lighting brings together the costumes and scenery to create key visual moments."
Coordinating every moment seamlessly is the task of dozens of backstage technicians, as well as computers, which help move stage sets automatically. When the Beast roars at Maurice, "I'll give you a place to stay," 27 pieces of automated scenery, plus some manual pieces, begin traveling at once. "I wish we could give people a glimpse of the activity backstage," says director Robert Jess Roth, "because that's as much a choreographed action as what's seen onstage."