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Egan and Fowler Relive the Magic of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
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Oct 31, 2022
On April 18, 1994, a musical opened that would change the face of Broadway for years to come. Beauty and the Beast not only took New York City by storm, but marked the birth of Disney Theatrical Productions. Since then, its 10 Broadway titles (including current hits Frozen, Aladdin and The Lion King) have been seen by over 160 million theatergoers and have been nominated for 62 Tony Awards, winning Broadway's highest honor 20 times.
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Welcome to Backstage with Richard Ridge
0:02
Disney theatrical productions is celebrating its 25th anniversary on Broadway, with blockbuster musicals like The Lion King, Aladdin and Frozen
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And it's my pleasure to be sitting with two of the original stars of Disney's first Broadway venture
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the classic landmark musical Beauty and the Beast. Please welcome the original Belle Susan Egan and the original Mrs. Potts, Beth Fowler
0:30
I am so happy to be sitting with you, too. I'm excited to be sitting with you
0:36
And we're all, we're such old buds. Yeah, totally. I've known all of you. It's about time
0:40
We've done this. We've never done this before. Yeah. But we've never had it
0:46
And I think I was telling you before we started, I remember going to the Palace Theater that morning
0:50
when you met the press for the very first time, and there was about 60 camera crews and still photographers
0:57
And everybody was there for Disney's first. Isn't that insane? It wasn't
1:01
Yeah, it wasn't just a show opening. It was an entirely new company coming into this
1:05
All the networks. And they brought you all through the doors and you were like, wow, this is how it's done
1:12
You know, I want to ask both of you, this was the first Disney show on Broadway, which, you know, they created their own world with a landmark musical that changed the face of Broadway forever
1:22
What was it like being a part of that glorious first show of Beauty of the East
1:27
I think we had different experiences because Beth, had been in so many Broadway shows
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and knew maybe how those worked. For me, it was my first
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show. I had no idea. And thank goodness had Beth and Gary
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and Terry to sort of like scoot me here. We were like family
1:43
Yeah, truly. The thing going on. Truly. I think for me, in retrospect
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looking back, I love that Disney took some of the traditions of Broadway
1:54
and ran with them and then also thought completely outside of the
1:59
in other areas, and that has influenced how other producers now produce things
2:04
Beth, do you remember? We did our out of town in Houston for a couple of months
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and we came back, we had about a month off, then we started rehearsals for the New York production
2:11
And on the second day of rehearsal for the New York production, we recorded the album
2:16
Yes, and I remember Cosmer's very upset about it. Michael Cosmer and the musical director
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he says, it's not a good time to make the album because you've been away from it
2:25
It doesn't have, usually, my experience, if your show makes it, you make the recording the next week
2:32
Of course, they don't do that anymore. In the next month, I should say. And so you're all, you're in it
2:37
You're so in it. He said, you're not in it anymore. We're in a rehearsal mode
2:41
We're not in that audience mode kind of thing. Well, you listen to that album
2:45
It's Magic Time. You're in the show. You're seeing the show. I love the way they did the album
2:49
interpolating all the incidental music. They did. And so the dialogue and everything
2:53
it's just your video show. And the amazing thing that nobody thought of, and of course, Disney thought of it, because they're brilliant
2:57
is that album was in the lobby at the first preview everybody wanted it
3:03
everybody wanted it also kind of great is that it captures the show
3:06
and the magic of the show but it also captures that time in the show there are lyrics that were
3:11
are vastly different that were never performed on Broadway or anywhere else that are on that album
3:16
how about the stuff they sold in the lobby in Houston remember the magic mirror
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every kid came in with the magic mirror that talked and we're up on the stage
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I don't think we're buying it. I will say this. Disney learns really quickly
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By the time we got to do, yes. But it was, they would buy it at intermission
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And then all through the second act, it would be like, show me the beast, show me the beast, shing
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And I just felt like Terry's like, I want one of those mirrors
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We've got to find those. Oh, my goodness, it was hilarious. Like, oh, I guess we really didn't think that one through
3:54
You know, these were the most covenant. roles to get on Broadway at the time. I'm sure for Bell, for Mrs. Potts, everybody wanted to be in
4:01
this show. What was the audition process like, and what do you remember about your callbacks
4:06
Well, for me, it was a staged reading that brought me first. Jay Binder cast a stage reading
4:13
and we went into this, I don't read, that was way downtown. And it was the first time I ever saw
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wall covered with storyboards, and they were all, of course, animated. Yes. But there were
4:24
supposed to be animations of real people, us, but it was eerie because we were just hand-picked
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We didn't audition for that reading. And nonetheless, they took measurements of us
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They did costume fittings, and I'm saying to people, you know, do you have a contract or something
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No, I don't have a contract. You know, we're hopeful. They took our pictures, putting things on and how long your arms or anything
4:51
Okay, whatever, this is getting more exciting. Did they ever ask you about do you want to go this way or this way
4:55
No. It's only one way that Mrs. Potts goes, right? Well, yes
5:00
That's right. You know how long it took me to that I could sing the song without doing this
5:06
So anyway, we had a vastly different cast. And so that was done, and it was, okay, that was nice
5:15
Now what? And then we went away. I don't remember how long it was. I was out in L.A., I think, doing Sister Act 2 or something
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and then I had to fly home for an audition. And so I auditioned after Barbara Cook
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You know, everybody wanted to be in it. That's why I'm saying. You're saying everybody wanted to be in it
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Everybody wanted to be in it. Wow. But I, you know, I did book it, obviously
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But this one, I mean, every ingenue, and every coast and Midwest of Dempidu, da-p-da-p-da-p
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This kid got it. I was out on the road, and I think my first audition was their last day
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of auditions. They had been auditioning forever in a day. And then I got
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a callback. In the callback situation, I don't know if it was the same for you back, it was
6:00
three days in a row. The first day was working with the director, the musical director, the choreographer
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Matt, Robin, Michael. The second day, or the last day was performing
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at the John Hausman Theater back in the day. And like 30 Disney executives
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So those days I didn't really care about because I didn't know who those people were, I was nobody, and ignorant
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But day two, I had to sing for Alan Manken. So day two was the Alan Mankin Day
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And I remember walking in the room and seeing him behind the table. And I remember walking out of the room five minutes later
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I have no idea what transpired in the room. But it got me to day three
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And day three, I was there at 9 o'clock, and I stayed till 5 o'clock. And I read with everybody, I read with all the beasts
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I read with all the Gaston's, including Richard White, who was Gaston in the movie
6:50
who was amazing. And then Burke Moses came in and he was guest on And so Totally I got a dozen red roses on opening night from Burke Yeah And a card that says the pleasure yours
7:06
That's Gaston. That is so perfect. So well cast. So well-com. But you kept yourself very quiet in the corner
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Weren't you reading a book at the frontal callback? Yeah, I was reading a book in the corner. I didn't think about the parallel of that to Bell
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but it was just on, there were so many girls in blue dresses and brown ponytails
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And I just sat in the corner and I was reading a book. Incidentally, the miss of Avalon, which is a King Arthur story, but whatever
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I had not seen the movie. So I didn't know the parallels to that
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Had not read a full script, only the size that they had given us. But Jay Binder, like a year later, he's like, I don't want to tell you a story
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Every time I would come back to get another girl, I would see you in the corner reading this book. And I just knew like, there's she
7:49
Go figure. I just lucked out. I completely lucked out. And then to work with that cast of Broadway veterans
7:56
And, you know, I used to make fun of Terry, though, because I would go to rehearsal. I'd get off at the 42nd Street subway
8:03
and they still had the original cast Cats poster in the subway
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and it was Terry right in the middle as Tugger. And I'm like, haven't really traveled too far, have you
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It's kind of the same costume. All right, let's talk about this cast. I mean, you work with some of the most incredible people
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Terence Mann, Burke Moses, two people who we lost, of course. my dear friend all in yours Gary Beach
8:22
and Tom Bosley and and Keith Lamberts Yeah I mean what was it like working and sharing the stage
8:28
with these people and learning it all together Well it's a good thing we had a long rehearsal period
8:33
Because we could get the laughs out of our system Before we got on the stage
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It was hard to look at those faces and not laugh It was very satisfying and you didn't
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It made the work easier because you knew When you hit the ball
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It was going to land someplace Oh for sure It was magic time Did you know some of them before
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I'd never worked with any of them. I knew Gary socially. No, I don't think I'd worked with anybody before
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It's hard to imagine. I'm not going to go back. Yeah, totally. Because you had done a lot of shows, but it was just a remarkable cast
9:08
Everybody who was cast in this show was absolutely perfect. We had been cast in Beating the Beast, but before rehearsals started, the summer before
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I did South Pacific with Gary as Luther Bill is, and I was Nelly, and that was it
9:19
That was where the relationship started because that Nelly Luther relationship is really similar to the Bell Lumiere
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And he really, you know, all puns aside, he really was the light of our show
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He just, you know, Disney was figuring out its way with things
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And Gary could roll the punches and bring everybody along with, like just, look, everything was joy with him
9:41
He would take me out front and we'd look at the lines around the corner. He's like, you can stay as long as you want
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Like, this is magic. and I don't know that I would have recognized in the moment
9:51
I would appreciate it years later but I can honestly say I appreciated it in the moment
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and it was because of Beth and Gary who truly were like you know maternal advice
10:02
and no nonsense and Gary just hilarity and I was the no nonsense
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yes but Beth taught me how to take a bow at the end of the show
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I was mortified by the bows at the end of the show because they were so grandiose
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and I'm in this giant, amazing Anne Hold War Tony Award winning dress
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And the music is swelling with this orchestra. And I was just mortified
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And I wanted to take like a Pratt fall during rehearsals. And Beth took me aside
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We were sharing a dressing room in Houston. And she said, and I love it to this day
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She's like, how dare you? I go, I'm just so embarrassed. And she says, no, no, no, no
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You have had two and a half hours to say something to that audience. And this is their chance to say something to you
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You bow like every little good. in that audience wants you to bow in that dress
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You take your time. You make it big. You be, and the great thing about it is that she taught me that it really wasn't about me
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It was about them. And so that courtesy. That's right. It's respect for the audience
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That's right. And it took the onus off of me and allowed me to take the bow in the way that it's meant to be taken
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And it was just a million lessons like that over three years
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from the masters. Well, you learned from the best. I did. Talking about the costumes
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Tony Award winner, Ann Hall Ward. These were such iconic. Yeah, well, let's talk about this
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Okay, so you were measured at your original reading, so you knew what you were going to get it
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So, like, the first time you got, put these iconic outfits on, like
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Which took a half an hour. Which they say, you know, the terminology is they're going to build the costumes
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Well, in our case, they literally built them with hammers and nails. Yes
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Gary, I said, geez, Gary. How are you managing you running up and down
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He said, what is it like? He said, well, just picture two big Hormel hams on fire
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And you got it. Is that carry or what? I never got that one
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They overtime they adjusted. But the first and second incarnations of those costumes were really, really rough on everybody
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Yes. They were gorgeous. They got Gary's down to, I think, five pounds each, but they started at like 12 to 15
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The crazy thing about Gary that blew me. away was his timing. He had these butane tanks and only we could hear it up close
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but you would hear k-k-k-k-k-k-k-s. So there would be like a kik-k-k-k-z for the lighter
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And the flames were oftentimes the punch to the joke. But he would have to time it so that the
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flames hit. So he would have to pre-hit while he's doing the setup so that it was kind of brilliant
12:42
You shouldn't break things. They have to think it's magic. I'm sorry. It's a good. It's all wear a technique, darling. I think, like
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I think when Disney first started out, they felt like audiences would feel betrayed if we did not look like the movie
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Terry and I shot a commercial six months before we started rehearsal. And I remember the conversation they had in how high of lifts to put Terry in, and I was in flats
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so that our silhouettes would be the exact ratio of the movie poster
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I think that's where the prosthetics came from. They wanted us to look like these animated characters, and then they lost the heart that, of course, the movie has
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And so in order, ironically, to regain the heart of it, they had to distance us from the look of the film
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And then Disney learned it in one show. Because while it was too late to redesign Beauty and the Beast
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Lion King, of course, went a whole other direction with Julie Tamor
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And audiences certainly don't feel betrayed. They can love the movie and love the musical. Yeah
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Yeah. Everybody here and we upset with your meal with your knees Yes indeed we aim to meet While the candlelight still glowing
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that us help you will be going. You do not to complain
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Cause one by one. Till you shout, enough I'm done, then we'll sing you off to sleep this in the larger
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But you know, be a game, be again, be again, be again
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and turned, please be you know, they created this whole genre
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Disney took these incredibly successful films and turned them into these beautiful Broadway
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musicals and they created a whole new mold of how we it's done
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And I think, and resurrected, I think Disney, by taking their own source material and musicalizing
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it, they resurrected Broadway in a lot of ways. When I moved here in the early 90s, people were saying, well, it's got like 10 years left
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good luck. But because of Disney's success with beauty and Lion King and everything after, you know, Universal
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came in and DreamWorks came in. And now all these different places are taking their source material and putting it up on
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They all learn from Disney. They see it as a community. They see it as a community
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The city is a community. and the world's community, and they treat it like that. And they come in like a blockbuster
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and we've got a lot of resentment from that as a production
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And there was a lot of Disney bashing, actually. And it was very unpleasant and very unkind
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because they were resentful. Everything was status quo. They didn't want that disturbed
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And there was like the new kid on the block and throwing their weight around and fix up theaters
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and all that sort of thing. And hello. They were doing it for the good of the community
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for the good of the street, for the good of the theater. And it's so helped that Jeffrey and Michael loved theater
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And they were New York kids. They'd been brought up, you know, going to be a big day
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We had minored in theater in college. We were their pet project. They loved. They loved
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And now look, pet project and now look. Yes. Let's talk about the glorious score
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Alan Mankin, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice. Talk about what it was like
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Like, the first time you learned these songs, you got to sing the most iconic song of all time
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with Beauty and the Beast. What was that like? I never tire of singing it. Yeah
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I never tire. It's a perfect song. It's a perfect song. It's like the perfect Rogers and Heart song
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You don't get in the way. You just serve the song. It says so much
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The lyric is so rich. And sometimes I've broken it down for people
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and they don't think about it when they listen to it. But then when I bring the awareness
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to it. It's so rich. And the music serves what it's saying. And it's about love. It's every kind of love
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Romantic love, filial love of a friend's, how love grows. It's all of this little tiny two and a half a week song
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It's perfect. I'm never tired of doing it. Never just the same. Ever a surprise
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ever as before, ever just as sure as the sun will rise
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Tale as old as time, tune as old as song. It's as sweet and strange, finding you can change, learning you can change, learning you
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were wrong, certain as the sun. Rising in the east, tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme, beauty and the bees
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You know, it's twofold. It was not having Howard there. And Linda Wolverton and Alan Mankin being very conscious of that and bringing him into the process at every step, including lyrics that were in the trunk, that they reinstated
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And of course, people sometimes ask, he was part of this. People ask for my favorite song, and it's our song
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It's human again. It's not a song I got to sing. But Terry and I sat up in that library and listened to it every single night
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And that is what the show is about to be human again, which is
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what Howard was feeling through his illness. It's the longing. The longing. The longing
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The longing for it. The hope. The dare I hope. And the fact that it's in 3-4 and this rousing, like everything about it
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It's just so stunning. And it had been written for the movie. But they felt the movie was maybe going to be a little too long for children
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And of course, now they've reinstated it into the movie. And then the other aspect, I think, is bringing in Tim Rice
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And what he brought to the table as well. You know, Bell didn't have a solo in the film
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So they gave her a solo of home, and it's a beautiful song, and the lyrics lovely
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And then Alan told me the evolution of that song. When Howard had passed away, Ellen Green asked him to write a song for Howard, for Howard's memorial
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And so Alan started writing, my old friend, da da da da, da, da, da. Spent a month on it and went back to Ellen and said, it's going to be 40 years before I can write a song about Howard
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I just can't do it. Several months later, we're now in the process
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of creating Beauty and the Beast, and they need a melody for Bell's song, so that for Tim
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to write some lyrics too. And so as a tribute to Howard, he used that melody as like the homage
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to Howard, which is what I thought about every single night. Is this home? Is this where I should learn to be happy
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Never dreamed that a home could be dark and cold
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I was told Every day in my childhood Even when we grow old
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Home will be where the heart is Never were words so true
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My heart's far, far away, homes too. So then there were the fans Everybody flew in from around the world to try to get a ticket to Beauty and the Beast I remember that was like the only show anybody wanted to see on Broadway was Beauty and the Beast Like when you saw the line around the corner with Gary you couldn steal a seat to Beauty and the Beast
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Let's talk about the fans. Like favorite fan moment or like when you came out in your dress or they saw you as Mrs. Pots
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just the joy in that audience. What was that like? You know, okay, so this is dating us
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But this is all pre-social media. There was no, like, selfies or anything like that
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but we did have people the stage door wanting pictures. But my favorite, of course, were all the little girls dressed up
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in the bell dress from the Disney store. And there was one day when, you know
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Terry's up in the West Wing with Lumiere and Cogsworth and he's getting ready to dance
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and you're coming out with Brian to sing Beauty and the Beast. And I'm revealed in this yellow dress
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and this yellow spotlight, which makes it even more yellow. And it's this gorgeous giant dress when I come up
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And it's this quiet moment. And a little girl, maybe 10 rows back
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shouts out, she looks just like me! And we all stop, everybody
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And that's what theater is. We're all sharing this space. All these strangers, all these people who come together
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eight shows a week to recite a bunch of words in a certain order. And everybody, everybody, the crew backstage, Terry, Gary
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and Heath lost it, I lost it. I think there was a teacup shaken in the little, you know
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and the audience. we all just stopped and it's like well that's why we're here yeah you're right i look just like you
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yes can we talk about papa's invention for a moment yes i have a real issue with it because
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you know we had to make this transition from the movie and philippe was the horse in the film and
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we didn't have philippe no so we had to somehow get this invention to travel right the invention
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had to travel from our little abode to the fair yeah and so they had this mechanized you know
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vehicle that everybody was astounded that it could chalk wood and Terry and I were always
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like, but it's a car it's a car is nobody impressed that he's invented
22:54
a car but it was like oh I can shock wood that's amazing
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but it's a vehicle and they haven't been invented and they haven't been invented years
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I didn't know that I don't know it's just little things you know
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You're there during 12-hour attack rehearsals, and I don't know why it took us like two months to figure out
23:18
It's a corner. It was sort of like we had puppet wolves at the beginning
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And we had these puppet wolves that would attack us. And I literally remember when they were explaining to his Terry
23:28
Terry Mann, who would just take care of me, you know? And he's like, they're explaining to us about the puppet
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he's like, I'm going to get rid of the puppet wolves. By opening night, we won't have puppet wolves. And then on opening night, I'm like beating these puppet wolves
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And he's standing in the wings ready to pass. I'm sorry. I didn't get to it at the time
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I'm like, all right, all right. But by L.A., we had, you know, people in wolf costumes
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But I remember the argument when Terry's sitting next to me where they're saying, I mean, so we're going to have these puppets
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they're going to come from the ground. And you've got Roxanne Barlow, the showgirl of all time, like, with puppet wolves on her arms
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And he's like, because we don't want people in wolf costumes. And Terry's like whispering in my ears
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He's like, we've got a lady in a teapot costume. I think we've crossed that line already
24:08
But it was just funny, like figuring out, that's what's so great about being in
24:12
part of the development is watching the evolution and the thought process. And we all accepted
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oh yeah, puppet wolves. Oh, yeah, we don't want people in wolf costumes. That would be ridiculous
24:22
And then we're like, well, why not have people to have gotten? That's a better idea
24:26
What is the other than the show? We had gelicol wolves in L.A. So, you know, you both have these incredible careers. I mean, you congratulations on all the
24:33
success of Orange is the New Black and all your SAG award winning and all that you have. You
24:39
tour all the time now with the Princess Princess. Princess concerts? I do
24:43
I'm a full-time mom, but it's like these concerts just make it really easy to be mom at home
24:47
and then to go do concerts. So, yeah, so I've been singing with symphonies for the last 15 years
24:51
and then in the last year put together a company with Laura Asnes and Courtney Reed
24:55
and Benjamin Rahala and all kinds of princesses and we sing. And, you know
25:00
hopefully pass goodwill along. Yeah. It's the 25th anniversary, of course, of Beauty and the Beast
25:06
of Disney theatrical productions, which they have so many beautiful shows on Broadway
25:10
It all started with Beauty and the Beast. They have Lion King, Aladdin, Frozen. I mean, can you sum up the best memory or what
25:17
it all meant to you being a part of this, this show? I think the thing that's most lasting for me
25:25
is how lasting this show is. And that because of that cast album, there's constantly new generations
25:31
listening to it. And because high schools are doing Beauty and the Beast, I still get letters
25:35
And they're still listening to our OBC, you know, cast album. And then it's, I'm a lot of
25:41
Being a part of the Disney family is different than, thank goodness I didn't go to that, call that for Carousel
25:48
Thank goodness. Because this is amazing. Thank God for all of this. I mean, on the 20th anniversary of Beauty and the Beast opening, I took my children to see Aladdin and to see the next Disney princess
25:59
And for that to come full circle. And it's, honestly, I am more, even more honor today to have been a part of it than, you know, than ever
26:10
That feeling just grows. That's for you. It spoiled me. I mean, it really spoiled me
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And I've done a little night music, a very beautiful show. But there was a feeling of, as you say, this familial
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And it came from the top, really. Michael and Jeffrey were so hands-on and so there and so supportive
26:34
and egging on all the design people and moving forward and having meetings all the time
26:39
We cared so much about it. They really spoiled us. Every show I did after that really had a lot to live up to
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I had expectations sometimes of where it met. But it was a wonderful, wonderful time
26:53
And God, the people, we had so much fun together. It was really..
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It was a silly, ridiculous, unprofessional amount of fun. I love that
27:02
Really crazy. Well, that's a perfect way to close. I've had the time of my life sitting with the two of you
27:06
You have massive fan base at Broadway World. who have been obsessed with you from the very first day of Beauty and the Peace
27:12
So thank you for sharing. That's very good to us. Yeah? The best
27:16
Tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme. Beauty and the bee
27:24
Beauty and the bee. Off to the cupboard with you now, Chip
27:35
Past your bedtime
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