Fairy-tale musical Disney’s Beauty and the Beast returns for the holidays

Jonathan Winsby and Michelle Bardach. Costume design by Barbara Clayden. Photo by David Cooper.

Arts Club holiday perennial Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is back, this time with a new Beauty. Following her starring role as Sophie in the Vancouver company’s summer production of Mamma Mia!, Michelle Bardoch will fill the period dresses in the fairy-tale musical.

The show opens this Saturday, Dec. 1, and runs until Jan. 6 2019. Find out more below.

The Arts Club has produced the show five times since 2005. Many of the cast, crew, and designers are returning for the company’s sixth production of the musical. Among the returnees is Jonathan Winsby as the Beast.

The adaptation of the Academy Award–winning animated film features all-out musical numbers, elaborate sets, and lavish costumes.

Reviewing last year’s production in the Vancouver Sun, Jerry Wasserman wrote, “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (I still find that title hard to write), the musical by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, is a gorgeous creation, funny and genuinely moving… a sparkling show.”

New Arts Club Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran explains the reasoning behind bringing back the show thus: “Watching the audiences of all ages delight in Beauty and the Beast last season—as well as seeing the pride our production team took over their beautiful work on this show—committed me to programming this beloved musical again.”