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Donny Osmond to Join Broadway's Beauty and the Beast
By Andrew Gans
17 May 2006
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Donny Osmond
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| photo by Aubrey Reuben | Former pop idol Donny Osmond will join the Broadway company of Beauty and the Beast in September.
Osmond will assume the role of Gaston beginning September 19 and will play a nine-week engagement in the long-running Disney musical. Beauty will be the first time Osmond has appeared on Broadway since his 1982 Main Stem debut in Little Johnny Jones.
"I opened and closed [Little Johnny Jones] in one night," Osmond said in a statement, "and I remember thinking, 'One of these days, I'm going to do it right.' Now almost 25 years later I have the chance — I couldn't do it any more right than
joining such an iconic show as Beauty. I can't wait to get started!"
Disney Theatricals producer Thomas Schumacher added, "I have known Donny for almost a decade and had a great time working with him. He's a brilliant performer
and a great guy. We are all thrilled he's joining our production."
In addition to his pop success with the Osmond Family — including the hit TV series "The Donny & Marie Show" — Donny Osmond also starred in the national tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He was the singing voice of Captain Shang in Disney's "Mulan," and he also recently hosted the game show "Pyramid."
Beauty and the Beast, which plays the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, currently stars Steve Blanchard as the Beast, Ashley Brown as Belle, Grant Norman as Gaston, Jacob Young as Lumiere, Jeanne Lehman as Mrs. Potts, Christopher Duva as Cogsworth, Jamie Ross as Maurice, Meredith Inglesby as Babette, Gina Ferrall as
Madame de la Grande Bouche and Aldrin Gonzalez as Lefou. Trevor Braun
and Alexander Scheitinger alternate in the role of the young Chip.
The musical, according to press notes, is "the classic love story of Belle, a young woman in a small, provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a prince trapped in a spell placed on him by an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and to be loved, the spell will be broken and he will be transformed back to his former self. But time is running out, and if the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he will be doomed for all eternity."
Featuring a score by Alan Menken, Tim Rice and the late Howard Ashman, Beauty and the Beast boasts a book by the author of the original screenplay, Linda Woolverton; the musical was directed by Robert Jess Roth.
Tickets may be purchased at the theatre's box office (205 W. 46th Street) or by calling (212) 307-4747. For more information, visit Walt Disney Theatricals on-line at www.disneyonbroadway.com.
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