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22 of 23 found the following review helpful:
 Original Bway Cast Recording is not what the show ended up being Jun 22, 2007
By NJ Mom
"Director/Choreographer"
If you are looking for an accurate recording of the Broadway show (that is available for rental through MTI), you should get the London or Australian Cast Recording of the show. The OBCR was recorded BEFORE the Broadway run even started rehearsals, so it does not reflect many, many lyric changes, music changes, and dance arrangements that happened between the show's Houston tryout and Broadway opening. Granted, there are waonderful performances on this CD, but if you want to know what the show ended up being for nealry all of its thirteen-plus-year run, get London.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 The Best CD EVER!! Aug 05, 2006
I really loved this CD. Being a HUGE Broadway fan, I absolutely crave new talents and soundtracks. First, the vocal sounds were wonderful, especially Terrence Mann as the Beast and Susan Egan as Belle. Second, the songs are so beautiful. 'If I Can't Love Her' is a wonderful way to see how lonely and depressed the Beast is. 'Gaston' shows what a hothead the guy is. 'Human Again',my personal favorite, expresses the enchanted objects' longings to be human once more. And, of course, we absolutely CANNOT forget 'Beauty and the Beast', which sort of tells the story of Belle and the Beast. This CD is fabulous and truly is something every Broadway fan should have in their collection. I give it 3 thumbs up!!!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Terry Mann at his best! Jun 04, 1999
I was a Terry Mann hater for years, but that ended with the purchase of The Scarlet Pimpernel OBC with his amazing portrayal of Chauvelin. On the Beauty and the Beast OBC I again got to hear the Terry I'd grown to love! This is Terry at his best! His beautiful voice makes the gorgeous "If I Can't Love Her" just that much more heartbreaking, and his innocent joy in "Something There" and "Human Again" is so darling! The others on this recording are also all amazing, especially Susan Egan's lovely Belle and Burke Moses' egotistical Gaston! Amazing voices, amazing show, and one amazing recording!
18 of 24 found the following review helpful:
Wonderful Soundtrack to an Outstanding Musical Sep 13, 2002
By Mark Baker
Disney's animated movie "Beauty and the Beast" is my all time favorite of their animated movies. And this is coming from a guy who owns them all on VHS and is working on DVD. When they first announced plans to turn their movie into a Broadway show, I was thrilled. And it works so well.All the songs from the movie are here, just as wonderful as in the movie itself. What I love about this soundtrack is the new songs, however. They add so much more to the characters and overall story. Belle's "Home" is such a powerful cry of despair after agreeing to stay in the castle. And the Beast's songs "How Long Must This Go On?" and "If I Can't Love Her" allow him to express emotion and make him a sympathetic character from act one before he starts showing it to Belle. And I must mention my favorite of the new songs. Gaston's marriage proposal "Me" is an absolute riot. Makes me laugh every time I hear it. I've listened to this CD so much; sometimes it feels like there's something missing when I watch the movie. Ironically, "Human Again" isn't one of my favorites. I wished they'd picked one of the other songs to add to the movie for the re-release instead of that one. Any fan of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, stage or screen, will love this recording. It's a must own.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
a brilliant extension for a brilliant film Jan 01, 2007
By musical <3
Let me begin by saying that i love beauty and the beast. the original soundtrack is one of my alltime favorites. its an amazing score with great songs and a nearly flawless cast. the songs are all so broadway-esque that this broadway show was just a natural move. so how does it live up to the brilliance of the original? well surprisingly it does so quite well.
I was actually prtty apprehensive at first. i mean there's no paig o'hara, robby benson, angela lansburry or jerry orbach. now as i write about this, i think how great that would rlly be, but at any rate i was skeptical. but for 10 bucks off amazon, i thought "ehh, what the heck." i was very pleasently surprised.
PERFORMERS
first up is the cast, i'll admit that they can't rlly hold a candle to that original cast from the film, but they all still do a great job of creating their own characters with separate identities from the film that work very well. Terrance mann's beast is very emotional and moving. susan egan's belle is good, but the only downfall is that she's not paige o'hara, but i can't stress how good she trully is at the part. the rest of the cast all favor quite well. the most important thing to remember is that this is NOT the movie; it is a seperate entity altogether, which works much better than if it merely tried to impersonate the film. that would've been a disaster
PERFORMERS 4 out of 5
SONGS
the original songs are just as fresh and brilliant as ever of course. howard ashman's brilliant lyrics stand the test of time brilliantly. for that reason, it seemed kinda shady that tim rice would step in to flesh out the piece, but he does a great job. the more satirical songs like "me" work great to advance the story and characters. and the more moving songs like "home" and "if i cant love her" are effective and moving. the best part is the music. alan menken pulls many of the themes for these songs straight out of his brilliant score. you can hear them all if you go back and re-listen to that great score like i did. that use of the score gives this a great coherence and you cant tell which are original and which are new to this production. truly top notch.
SONGS 5 out of 5
in the end, this walks a fine line between being an extension of the film and being a seperate piece altogether. it walks that fine line perfectly and is a great way to relieve the film since you can just hear where all these songs would fit in. there's a reason why this is the longest running american musical on broadway. A++
OVERALL 5 out of 5
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