Broadway to Books - Beauty and the Beast

Broadway to Books is a post idea that originally did as a guest post and have had wild and amazing plans to make a regular feature here on my blog. That first post was way too involved, even after I cut it… so I think I'm goign with one musical per post, because it's NaBloPoMo, and I’m an opportunist! 

Beauty and the Beast: I saw this play at the Auditorium Theater in Rochester a couple of years ago. It’s my favorite Disney princess story, though I LOVE all the Disney princesses so the margin is very fine, here. I’ll bet you already know the story but just in case: a very rich young man is an asshole to an old lady and turns him into a Beast until he learns some manners. He has to get someone to love him in order to return to his human form. And what is this!? A maiden desperate for adventure and to save her father falls into his paws and holds her as a prisoner. Guess what happens!

Locally, there are two organizations currently working on production of Beauty and the Beast. There is also a Junior and a Kids version so changes are you can see it staged somewhere near you.

Book Recommendations:

Obvious Recommendation: The original fairy tale. A French women wrote this story is 1740 with back stories for both Beauty and her Beast. And there are some parts that will remind you of Cinderella’s story. There are many many many retellings and versions of this story that vary in the reason for the Beast’s beasty appearance, Belle’s name and reason for meeting the beast, and the level of magic involved in the whole thing. I, myself, love the dancing dishes from Disney’s version but I don’t think that’s exactly true to the 1740 original.

Less Obvious: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Andieh. Technically, this is an Arabian Nights retellings… or a Blackbird retelling… or something, but the primary story line is that a handsome, cold- hearted prince takes girls as prisoners for some unknown reason and our lady of the Character Main takes one for the team to go to him but then doesn’t want to die. I LOVED this book and it’s worth the read regardless of you Broadway inclinations. I didn't review it when I read it, though [here are my thoughts in the outbox post] right after I read it.

Here's a great review I found over at the Dream by Day blog.

  

Even Less Obvious: Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes. This book is a trip. Through time! Ha! See what I did there? No? It might help to know there is time travel in this book. Get it?! I’m hilarious. Anyway, this book is soundly in the horror genre with a very bad man traipsing through time to get away with murder. I loved this book but the rest of my book club are wimps. It was really much more creepy than scary

Where to Go Next: