After enthralling the audience in Mumbai, the "Beauty and the Beast" musical, based on the Oscar-winning film of the same name, is all set to be staged here.
The production on the Indian version will be on the same scale as the mega-productions seen on New York's Broadway and on London's West End.
Completely developed with the Indian talent, the Disney musical will see 100 of the best musical theatre performers from across the country. The show will open at Thyagraj Sports Complex from December 19 to 27.
"From last few years Disney has been thinking of venturing into live entertainment in India. We locked upon 'Beauty and the Beast' a year and a half ago. The most important thing we decided was to work with the local cast and crew. We are proud that it is not a travelling show, but we have actually produced it here," Siddharth Roy Kapur, MD of Walt Disney India, told PTI.
Siddharth said the biggest challenge that they faced in planning the show was finding a suitable venue to stage the show in all its glory.
"In India we don't have many places to showcase the production on a Broadway musical scale. That's why we decided to go with only two cities (Delhi and Mumbai). We fixed the venue even before the production started as the sets had to be designed keeping in mind the venue."
Directed by Vikrant Pawar the show features theatre artist Meher Mistry as Belle and Delhi boy Edwin Joseph as the Beast.
Popular music composer and Indie-pop artist Lesle Lewis has created the original music track for the production.
The "Colonial Cousin" musician says original composer Alan Menken like his work on the Indian version.
"Doing something as big and vast was a tough task. But, its like a dream come true. Creating something for Disney is in itself a huge responsibility. I had to work keeping in mind the real feel of Disney and I think I have managed to do it," Lewis said.
The composer, who started working on the project in March, went all the way to Prague to record the music with a live orchestra.
The live presentation will see the venue getting transformed into elaborate sets like Belle's house, Tavern, Beast's castle and balcony. Terence Lewis has done the choreography for the show.
