Beauty and the Beast
By Eric Stedman
The original musical in two acts
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Running time: 90 Minutes
Characters
3 Men, 4
Women, flexible chorus of faeries
Beauty
Beast / Prince
Repella
Basilfort
Pierre,
a merchant
The Faery
Queen
Rina,
a faery (narrator)
Rose,
a faery (dancer)
Pea
Pod, the
tiniest faery
Warrior
Faeries
Faery Chorus: Buttercup,
Daffodil,
Violet,
Marigold, Orchid,
Lily,
Daisy,
etc.
Settings
Beast's Castle/Rose Garden / Merchant's Cottage / Forest at
Night
Scenes
and Musical Numbers
Prologue:
A Misty Forest at Night
The Faery
Queen's Magic Spell
Act One
Scene 1:
Basilfort's House
Deep
Inside (Beauty)
Chocolate
Pie (Repella)
Today's
the Day (Basilfort)
Scene 2: The Forest at Midnight
Faery
Dance
Scene 3: The Beast's Castle Garden
Scene 4: Basilfort's House
Somebody
Get Me a Bucket (Repella)
Scene 5: The Beast's Castle Garden
Where is
Beauty (Prince)
How the
Roses Grow (Beauty &
Faeries)
Beauty
and the Beast Dance
Act Two
Scene 1: The Beast's Castle Garden
Songbird
(Beauty)
Scene 2: Basilfort's House
A Long
Time Ago (Basilfort
and Repella)
Scene 3: The Beast's Castle Garden
Scene 4: Basilfort's House
Terwillager's
Fusilliers (Basilfort
and Repella)
Scene 5: The Beast's Garden
Nightfall
(Beast)
Deep
Inside/Finale
The
Story
Click
on underlined links to hear song
excerpts
Prologue:
A
Misty Forest at Night
In a misty forest at night, the fairy Rose lies dead in the
arms of her sisters. The angry Faery
Queen pursues a man through the
trees, traps him a grove, and orders her warrior faeries to
seize him. She takes the man's ring and uses a spell to
transform him into a terrible furry and fanged beast.
Act One
Scene 1: Basilfort's House
In his house, old merchant named Sir Benjamin Basilfort
regrets the loss of all his money in a shipwreck. Another
merchant, named Pierre, pounds on Basilfort's door
demanding money he is owed and offers to accept Basilfort's
daughter's hand in marriage as an alternative to payment.
Basilfort tells Pierre to leave. His daughter Beauty
reassures him that money isn't what's really important,
it's what's Deep Inside that really counts. Begging
to differ, Beauty's obnoxious sister Repella says she
prefers Chocolate Pie to anything else in life.
When Basilfort receives a message saying a ship thought
lost has sailed into port, he sings Today's the Day
and heads off
toward town, offering to bring his daughters back
anything they like. Beauty asks for only a single rose.
Unfortunately, when Basilfort reaches town, he discovers
his property has been entirely seized by Pierre, and
he's forced to travel back through the dark forest at
night.
Scene
2: The Forest at Midnight
Scene 3: The Beast's Castle Garden
When Basilfort awakens he sees he is near a beautiful castle with a garden containing many flowers. When he picks a rose from the garden, the master of the castle, a fearsome Beast who dresses and speaks like a man, demands either he be killed or give up his daughter in return for the theft of the rose. The Beast roars and Basilfort runs home in terror.
Scene 4: Basilfort's House
When he returns home, Basilfort presents Beauty with the rose but says he paid dearly for it. Beauty will not allow him to return and declares she will return to the Beast's castle and take his place. Not impressed by all the drama going on, Repella sings Somebody Get Me a Bucket to the audience as the scene changes.
Scene 5: The Beast's Castle Garden
The next evening, back in the Beast's garden, Beauty encounters him for the first time. He politely offers her his hospitality but when he exits, Beauty collapses in a faint, and dreams of a handsome Prince, trapped in a place he cannot escape, who pleads for her help (Where is Beauty) When Beauty awakens, dawn has broken and she discovers she is surrounded by lovely flower faeries who tend the Beast's garden. They tell her How the Roses Grow and she sings along with them.
The Beast sees Beauty with the faeries and offers all the pleasures of his castle to her. While showing her some of its wonders, including a magic mirror that can show any part of the world, the Beast scratches at something caught in his fur. Against his will, Beauty lifts the hood that he has kept over his face, and he finds himself totally disarmed and under her spell. He bows to her, then Beauty and the Beast Dance. The Beast asks Beauty to marry him, but she says she does not love him.
Act Two
Scene 1: The Beast's Castle Garden
Beauty lives in the Beast's castle then for a year. She sings that she feels like the Songbird that the faeries have brought her as a gift from the Beast, having everything she wants but her freedom.
Scene 2: Basilfort's House
Back at home, Repella isn't doing such a great job with the household chores. Basilfort remembers A Long Time Ago when Beauty would sing and make the house sparkle. Repella feels slighted and hurt and accuses her father of always favoring Beauty. She cries and assures him she misses Beauty too, and they make up and forgive.
Scene 3: The Beast's Castle Garden
In the Beast's garden, Beauty asks the Beast if she can return and see her father and sister for a week, then return to him. The Beast will give her anything but will not let her leave the castle. She asks him if she is simply a possession to him like one of his flowers, and he rages.
Beast. (Turning to her) No! Without you, I would die of grief. Don’t you see that?
Beauty. I’ll keep my promise. I won’t break it.
Beast. (Clawing at his shirt) No! Nooo!
Beauty. Beast!
Beast. (Falling to his knees) I cannot! I cannot! (He claws at the ground)
Beauty. Let me help you.
Beast. (Writhing and growling at her touch) Leave me alone.
She hits him sharply on the nose, as one would a growling dog.
Beauty. (Sharply) Be quiet.
Beast. (Turns away from her) You speak to me as if I were an animal.
Beauty. You are an animal. (She turns away)
Beast. (In uncontrollable rage) How dare you!
The faeries gasp as the Beast spins and raises his claw to strike her, and suddenly smoke bursts from it, and he roars and collapses to his knees.
Beast. Again I have tried to destroy Beauty.
Beauty. What are you saying?
The Beast relents and sets Beauty free.
Beast. I am not a man--I am a monster. Go, Beauty, home to your family! Take my hooded cape (he gives her his cape)-- it will keep you warm no matter how cold the night. (He shouts to a Faery) Bring the magic horse.
(The Faery bows and runs off)
Beauty. Beast?
Beast. (He waves her away, implying that he will be o.k.) Ride, Beauty. Ride swiftly and safely. (She crosses to leave) But, Beauty, if you do not return, I shall die of grief.
Beauty. Goodbye, Beast. (He does not answer) Beast, will you not answer?
(No, he doesn’t. She exits. The Beast hangs his head.)
Beast. Are you not leaving me to my death?
(As the lights dim, the Faeries that remain on stage run to the kneeling Beast to comfort him.)
Scene 4: Basilfort's House
In the meantime, Basilfort has dug into an old trunk containing the helmet and sword he fought with in days gone by as one of Terwillager's Fusilliers and decides he's going to stage a one-man raid on the Beast's castle to bring Beauty back. Repella grabs a crossbow and joins him, and they set off together to rescue Beauty.
Outside the castle, the Beast gives Beauty his magic ring and other treasures to take with her and when she asks about the ring tells her how and why the Faery Queen cursed him -- he had loved her daughter Rose, then denied and abandoned her to go to war, and as a result, since she had given up her faery immortality to be with him, and a faery turned human cannot live without love, Rose died. The ring is his soul's prison until the curse can be lifted. Beauty offers him her sympathy and he gives her his hooded cape for protection, and tells her she must return in a week or he will die. From a distance, Repella believes Beauty, wearing the cloak and with her back to the audience, to be the Beast and takes aim with her crossbow and fires. Just in time, the Beast steps between them and takes the arrow in his shoulder. He roars at his attackers, who take Beauty home as he collapses into the arms of the faeries, who he tells Beauty will look after him. He howls to the moon in pain as he fears he has lost his Beauty forever. (Nightfall)
At the merchant's house, Repella is delighted to be able to buy new dresses from Pierre with some of the Beast's treasure. Happy to be home, singing again with her father, Beauty forgets her deadline and realizes if she does not find the ring and return to the Beast immediately he may perish. At first it seems that Repella has given the ring away to Pierre, and Beauty follows him into the woods, where he mistakes her request for a ring for a marriage proposal. After escaping Pierre, thanks to Rina's magic, Beauty discovers that her father had kept the ring from her in hopes that she would not return to the Beast. Beauty tells him she will always love him and runs into the forest, crying for help from the faeries. The Faery Queen appears and offers to transport her to the Beast's castle in an instant, but only if she truly loves him. Beauty agrees and finds herself in the snow-covered garden, where the Beast lies, apparently dying.
Scene 5: The Beast's Garden
Beauty. Oh, what have I done? (She cries.)
Beast. Just as darkness always follows day, the time comes for every wild Beast to die. But no one should weep for them.
Beauty. I will stay with you now. I won’t go away again. (He closes his eyes, draws a deep breath, and his body goes limp in her arms, his face turning toward the audience) Beast! Beast! I love you!
Beast. (Just a whisper) Too late . . .
Beauty. No! No! You can’t be dead! I love you! I love you . . .
With these words, the Beast is no more, he has magically transformed into a the handsome Prince of Beauty's dream and stands, alive again. Despite his joy, Beauty does not recognize him as her Beast when only looking at his appearance. He asks her to close her eyes, and see him with her heart--and growls a familar growl which she happily recognizes. Beauty and the Prince embrace, and another spell from the Faery Queen brings Basilfort and Repella to the garden to witness the happy event. Repella (clad only in a towel as she had been taking a bath just then) complains that her sister has gotten all the good stuff out of the situation and she hasn't gotten anything. Rina brings her a chocolate pie and she's so eager to taste it she slips and it ends up in her face. The ensemble sings Deep Inside/Finale together as Repella cheerfully licks her fingers and Beauty and the Prince kiss.