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For Ashman Fans

Trivia for Howard Ashman zealots:

*"Beauty and the Beast" will be the first Disney version of a Broadway musical to get a revival. Yes, folks, we are now all that old. The first Broadway version of "BatB" was not critically beloved. Ashman was dead; the creative team padded the work with dull, shapeless songs in which characters simply stated the obvious. Nevertheless, Terrence Mann--Broadway's original Javert--earned a Tony nomination for his portrayal of the Beast.

*If you ask me: Howard Ashman's great discovery, when drafting BatB, was this: "Dishes," pronounced with a cartoonish French accent, rhymes with "delicious."

*Jack Viertel writes, in "The Secret Life of the American Musical," that a show ought to have a big, tone-setting number, followed by an "I Want" song. The tone-setting number is crucial: For a long while, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" did *not* start with "Comedy Tonight," and the whole evening was a disaster. But: insert: "Nothing with kings! Nothing with frowns! Bring on the liars, robbers, and clowns!" And suddenly everyone knows what to anticipate, and everyone has a great time.

Ashman wrote some of the major canonical tone-setter opening numbers. Look at this track record: "Little Shop of Horrors," "Belle (Bonjour)," "Arabian Nights." That's killer. Ashman also wrote a truly unstoppable "I Want" number--"Part of Your World," from "Little Mermaid." Oddly enough, Ashman sometimes chose to blend an "I Want" with a tone-setter: I believe that's what you get with the end of "Belle" ("I want adventure in the great wide somewhere") and with the end of "Skid Row" ("Someone show me there's still a way out of here.....")

*Susan Egan was Broadway's first Belle, and she is also well-known as the sassy Megara in "Hercules" (a rare, if not the only, time when the Disney love interest turns out to be a trickster, three cheers for "Hercules," etc.)

*The title song from "BatB" won the Oscar--famously--but it's important to note that the award almost went to "Bonjour," and almost went to "Be Our Guest." It's also worth noting the use of French vocabulary: "bonjour," "mademoiselle," "belle," "beef ragout," "maison de lunes," "en flambe," "baguette." A small, graceful way for Ashman to introduce children to a wider world. A great wide somewhere. Attention must be paid!

*P.S. Egan and Gary Beach scored Tony nominations....in addition to Terrence Mann....
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