Thirty Years of Belle

 Howard Ashman knew to begin with a big declarative number ("Little Shop"), followed by an "I Want" song ("Skid Row").....

In "Beauty and the Beast," Ashman famously combines two songs in one. We get the scene-setting ("That bread! It's stale! Those fish! They smell!") ......mixed in with the "I Want" ("For once.....it might be grand.....to have someone understand....")

Ashman's final scene-setter is a triumph--"Arabian Nights"--though it has changed a bit over the years. It has changed because, in the early nineties, people were sometimes un-PC. The team involved with "Dear Evan Hansen" has been brought in to clean up some of the allusions.

That said, "Arabian Nights" is as playful as vintage Ashman:

Come on down! 

Stop on by!

Grab a carpet and fly....

To another....

Arabian night.....

How could anyone resist?