That little gold sticker that's affixed to the front of "Beauty & the Beast" 's playbill pretty much says it all:
"5000th performance." Only five other shows in the entire history of Broadway have ever run longer than that (And those shows are the still-running "Phantom of the Opera" [Which just played its 7613th performance] and the now-closed "Cats" [7485 performances], "Les Miserables" [6680 performances], "A Chorus Line" [6137 performances] and the revival of "Oh! Calcutta" [5959 performances]).
In honor of this truly historic occasion, Disney Theatrical Productions invited the casts of "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" to come by the Lunt-Fontanne theatre this past Tuesday night. So that these soap stars could attend "B & B" 's 5000th performance as well as pay tribute to one of their own: AMC's Jacob Young, who is playing the role of Lumiere now through July 15th.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Young was among the first to arrive on the red carpet Tuesday night. Here, Jacob greets pop icon Donny Osmond.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Jacob's "All My Children" co-stars Susan Lucci and Walt Willey also turned out for Tuesday night's performance.
Photo by Jeff Lange
As did AMC stars (l to r) Alec Musser, Michael E. Knight and David Canary.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Representing "One Life to Live" were (l to r) Eddie Alderson, Erika Slezak and Kristen Alderson.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Even members of "Beauty & the Beast" 's original creative team like Linda Woolverton (Who first wrote the screenplay for the Oscar-winning animated film, then followed that assignment up with the book for the Tony-Award-winning Broadway musical) came by the Lunt-Fontanne to witness this historic event.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Just before the curtain rose that evening, Donny Osmond came on stage. Donny first thanked the audience for coming to the theater that night, then introduced many of the celebrities seated in the audience. After that … Well, Mr. Osmond worked in a none-too-subtle plug for his own upcoming appearance in the Broadway version of "Beauty and the Beast." Where Donny will be playing the role of Gaston.
This news was initially greeted with thunderous applause, but then was quickly folded by disappointed groans. When Osmond revealed that he wouldn't actually be joining the Broadway cast 'til September.
"I can't do the show tonight," Donny joked. "Before I play Gaston, I've really got to spend some more time in the gym."
And -- with that -- Mr. Osmond stepped off stage and the curtain rose. And then -- just it's been doing for the past 12 years -- this "tale as old as time" quickly began casting its spell over yet another Broadway audience.
Photo by Jeff Lange
Two and a half hours later, the curtain finally fell. And as the cast gathered on stage for their curtain calls.(l to r: Jamie Ross [Maurice], Christopher Duva [Cogsworth], Jacob Young [Lumiere], Steve Blanchard [Beast], Susan Lintzsinger [Belle], Grant Norman [Gaston] and Jeanne Lehman [Mrs. Potts]), the audience rose to its feet and applauded wildly. With all of that applause getting just a wee bit louder (Thanks -- in larger part -- to all of his co-workers from ABC Daytime as well as all the Jacob young fans who bought tickets to Tuesday nights' performance. Just so they could be there on Jacob's special night) when Young finally bounded on stage.
Photo by Jeff Lange
After that, the cast of the show as well as many of the celebrities who attended Tuesday night's performance all climbed into limos for the brief trip across Times Square. Where -- at NYC's Planet Hollywood -- these folks joined members of "Beauty & the Beast" 's creative team for a special after-hours party in honor of the show's 5000th performance.
As for the audience ... Those who lingered after the show were able to get the autographs of many of their favorite ABC soap stars. While still others were already talking about returning to "B & B" in September. To see if Donny Osmond is actually able to drop his "nice guy" persona and do a decent job as Gaston.
Sooo ... Given that many of the audience members were already making plans to return to "Beauty & the Beast" in the not-so-distant future ... Maybe Disney's first Broadway musical really will be able to hang in there long enough for "B & B" to eventually surpass "Oh! Calcutta" 's old performance record. After all, all that would take is another 27 months worth of performances.
But what do you folks think? Will Broadway's "Beauty & the Beast" actually be able to run another 2 & 1/3 years? So that this Disney Theatrical Production will then have additional bragging rights as their first musical goes on rack up 6000 performances?
Is that goal really realistic? Or is it far more likely that Disney Theatrical will soon put Broadway's "Beast" to sleep? So that the Lunt-Fontanne will then be available for DT's next big production, a stage msuical version of Disney's 1989 animated hit, "The Little Mermaid"?
Your thoughts?
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