Exclusive: Saying Au Revoir To Beauty and the Beast

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young prince lived in a shining castle

I think some of my favorite memories have to revolve around the little girls who would come to the show

dressed up in their bell dresses from the Disney store. They were adorable and they felt so beautiful

And I remember one day I came out in the big yellow dress in Act II with the music playing

do do do do do and Terry Mann is upstage getting ready as the beast and I make my entrance in this yellow dress and a little girl in about the fifth row maybe she was six she stood up on her seat and she said she looks just like me and the whole audience laughed Terry laughed I laughed and I thought to myself that's why we do this it was blast we went to the rehearsal October 1st 1993 arrived on

Broadway April 18th, 1994, and I stayed with the show for about a year and then went to

do the Los Angeles production, came back to the New York production

I really didn't want to leave. I was having so much fun. My opening night, you know, just having my family front row center and everybody who's

always been a part of my career, just being there. And it was such a moment, September 20th, I'll never forget it

And it was just one of those moments that will be with me forever for the rest of my career

I just think it's one of the stories that never gets old. You know, it caters to, you know, adults, to children

And, you know, it's just all those stories. It's heart-wrenching. And it gets you every single time

because I think everybody can really relate to, you know, all the characters in the show

It's just magic. It's magical. I mean, I remember I saw it when I got the part

And I was just like a little kid clapping. It just makes you feel like a little kid again

It just makes you so excited and believe in love and all this stuff

So it's good. I can't believe it's closing. I think my fondest memory of doing the show

was the first time the curtain went up and I was standing there with the book and you could hear this spattering of

mommy there's bell there's bell there's that you heard that from the audience and I

remember thinking it's cool being Debbie Gibson at all but it's way cool being Bell

these kids didn't know me from anything but being Bell in that moment and to them

Bell's like the ultimate celebrity princess it's everything and so it was just such a magical

experience through the show? I think it's sustained because it's an amazing story

And the one comment I hear all the time leaving the theater every night is people saying

I related to these characters and I was moved by their story because everyone has fallen in love

Everyone's felt like the outsider, everyone has felt like there's a moment of hopelessness in their lives

And that to me is good theater. To me, if you can be dazzled and you can see things that are exhilarated

You can think the special effects are great. You can think that the singing is great, but if you're not moved by the story

and if you don't leave that theater feeling attacks to those characters

then I don't think you've done a good job in telling your story, and I think that that's something we do really well

You know, I always remember thinking of Susan Egan doing it. I saw Susan Egan do it when she first started

and I wanted to do it right then, you know? I think that the actors in Beauty and the Beast

are the reason why it's played for 13 years. They bring their humanity to it, their passion to it

to it, their talent to it, and their ability to perform the show like it's the first time

every time all these years later is why audiences leave having such an uplifting experience

And I'm proud of them and proud to be associated. Look, there she goes, that girl is so big, junior

I wonder if she's living well. With a dreamy far up floor

And a nose stuck in a book. What a puzzle to the rest of her

Oh, isn't this amazing? It my favorite part because you see Here where she meets Prince Charming but she won discover that it him till Chapter 3

Right from the moment when I met or saw her, I said she's gorgeous and I fell

Here in town there's only she who is beautiful as me, So I'm making plans to woo and Mary Bell

And I was a lad I eat four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large

And now that I've grown I eat five dozen eggs So I'm roughly the size of a large

I can see that we can see that we'll be the perfect pair rather like my thighs

I can see that we will share all that love him twice

We shall be the perfect pair rather like my thighs. You are face to face with destiny

All roads lead to the best things in live are all's well that ends with me

Camgoo cheese suflay I am pudding of complaint We'll prepare my service flare a culinary cabaret

You're alone at your scare but your banquets are prepared No one's gloomy or complaining while the flat was entertaining

Needs out jumps I do tricks With my fellow candlesticks And it's all in perfect taste

That you can bet Come on and lift your glass You've won your own free pass

To be our guest If you're stressed It's fine dining we suggest

Be our guests We are guests, we are heads We are a We are guests, we are guests, we are guests

We are guests We are guests In your request In three years

We've had anybody here And we're obsessed With your real, with your ease

Yes indeed We ain't too please While the candle lights Still flowing

And us help you We'll keep going voice one by one till you shout

enough I'm done and we'll see you all to speak as you're supposed to get you

to drop your feet of the ground now let's see them be like guess

be like guess this is a guest Is this where I should learn to be

I never dreamed that a home could be dark and cold I was told every day in my childhood even when we grow old

home should be one of the heart is but for words which my heart was wrong

always To me What I give To return

To the light that I knew lately And you think Complaint Of that dull provincial town

Is this home are forever shut away from the world until who knows when

Oh, my life has been altered once, it can change again. Alan Menkin and Tim Rice wrote a special song for the play for me, just for me, especially for me

And it's a beautiful song. And it's really about what Bell's gone through the transformation in her life

But coincidentally, a lot of it's about my life, as we talked about with the changes I've gone through

and just my growth and my development and understanding that I make it happen

and sometimes you can't always worry about what people around you were thinking

There's been a change in me, a kind of moving on, though what I used to be

I still depend upon. For now I realize that good can come from that good can come from

bad that may not make me wise but oh it makes me glad and I never thought I'd leave behind my childhood dreams and I don't mind I'm

where and who I want me. No change of heart, a change in me

No pain could be deeper, no life could be cheaper

No point any more like a lover. No spirit could win me now how blessed within me

All I could have loved her and she set me free. Let the world be done with me

It's been a great experience because of the limited. material. It is the most well-written piece I've ever had a pleasure to perform

It is so well written you could put cardboard characters out there and it would work

I am not surprised at all that Beauty and the Beast has run as long as it has

I always knew it would be this timeless classic. You have to remember, it was nominated for an Academy Award when it was an animated feature

It was before there was a category for animated features Beauty and the Beast was up for best picture And I think a good story is a good story is a good story and Alan Makin and Howard Ashman and Linda Wolverton and then Tim Rice they constructed it so beautifully so perfectly that the story is told in the most beautiful way possible

The making of beauty of the beast is one of the most emotional experience in my life

We lost Howard six months before the show before the movie opened

Howard died not knowing that it was going to be successful. In my heart, I believe that he knows, and I believe that he's close by and a part of this today

But the process of lighting beauty in the beach of Howard was failing

visit was a test, a major test for my life as a person and as an artist

And I think of Howard's art is the heart of this show

Here's this is the honest to God truth. I don't know if you can call, but when Beauty and the Beast opened in the movie theaters

it was a huge hit. And I think it was Frank Rich of the New York Times said, that the best new musical of the year isn't even on Broadway

it's Beauty and the Beast. I went to see it, I lived in Los Angeles at the time, I went to see it at the Al Capitan Theater

and I sat there watching it, and I was watching Be Our Guest

Believe it or not, I'm sitting there thinking, now this is a good part for me

I was looking at a cartoon. And so what I'm thinking, this is a kind of part that I could really be good at

Well, lo and behold, about a year and a half later, I'm reading in the LA Times

they're making it into a Broadway musical. got a call from Jay Bender, who was the casting director, and said, Gary, this is going to be your Tony Award

We want you to play Lumiere and Beauty and the Beast. And it's what a thrill

It was just the biggest thrill of all time. When I was a kid, I was such a Disney fan

I just loved it, you know. And so to be a part of the company, they made me feel very comfortable and welcome

And I like that. When I saw the movie, I practically leapt out of my seat saying, I want to play that part

I thought it was going to come to Broadway because I'd never seen an animated show

that was so built like a Broadway show. And oddly enough, I was doing streetcar named Desire in Atlanta

I got a call from the casting director telling me, you know, we're doing this reading

Will you come down and do it? There's about five guys who can play this part in New York, and you're three of them

I just want to say congratulations to Beating the Beast for this amazing run and letting me be a part of that run

and part of history. It was such a beautiful time and such a beautiful show

and here I am in Mary Poppins and I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys

I love you. M-Muh. I am definitely sad to see Beauty and the Beast go, although I have to say, how can you complain

after 13 and a half years of running? And Bill Nable, you have been there from day one and I am impressed

But I guess if Beauty has to go, I am glad it is being replaced by another Disney show with The Little Mermaid

I'm excited to go see it. I now have a daughter who very soon will be of the age

that she can go to the theater and I'm thrilled that I get to take her to see the little mermaid

So there you go. All good things come to an end. But it doesn't mean they can't revive it

Hmm? Hmm? And maybe I could be Mrs. Potts. Huh? I've got the right age for it now

Tale as old as time. Song as old as rhyme

Beauty of love. beyond the beast

After the cupboard with you now, Chip, it's past your bedtime. Good night, you