Beauty and the Beast in Concert Review

MegaSoulhero I recently saw a Beauty and the Beast concert at the Hollywood Bowl. This was actually the first time I ever went to the Hollywood Bowl. It’s a really nice place. Now that I’ve seen the concert, I want to give my thoughts on it.

At this concert, a live orchestra plays music from the animated film while the whole movie is playing on the screens. And whenever a musical number happens, they have certain celebrities perform them. Not the voice actors from the movie though. Also, there were amazing projections that matched each scene of the movie. It was beautiful. The concert starts out with an amazing medley from the orchestra. They do a really great job throughout the show. Then the movie starts, the narration at the beginning happens, then we get to the first musical number. Which is Belle. Performing as Belle was Zooey Deschanel. Honestly, she did a really great job. I had no idea she could sing. She is MUCH better than Emma Watson. Although, they had to lower the pitch so it could fit her vocal range. Also during this music number, Taye Diggs appeared as Gaston. Yep. Idina Menzel’s ex-husband who was also in Rent. He was the perfect choice for Gaston. He’s charismatic, handsome, and definitely looks tough. After that, the movie continues and later goes on to the reprise of Belle. So Zooey Deschanel came back on stage and performed it beautifully. Although, she didn’t really look like she was getting invested. She was pretty much just standing there with very little movement. Then again, it’s not like this is a play. It’s basically a celebrity sing along. So as long as they sing, it’s okay.

The next musical number was Gaston. Taye Diggs comes back on stage, but guess who else shows up. Rebel Wilson! Yeah, she played LeFou. When I heard she was gonna play LeFou, I was worried. I didn’t think that was a good idea. But after actually seeing her perform, I can say that she was very enjoyable. She made me laugh. Even though she rarely ever makes me laugh. Diggs and Wilson are such a great duo. Almost feels just like the movie. Later on, we finally get to the best part of the concert. The Be Our Guest musical number. And they couldn’t have chosen a better choice for Lumiere than Sideshow Bob himself, Kelsey Grammer. After this performance, it made me wonder why he wasn’t cast in the live action film. He gave an outstanding performance. And of course, there’s also Jane Krakowski as Mrs. Potts. I’ll talk more about her later on. This entire number is amazing. Kelsey Grammer puts a lot of effort into his performance, the dancers are very talented, and there are some pretty great visuals. As I stated before, there are projections that happen during the show. There were actually people that created original animation for it. That’s dedication.

So that was the end of the first half. Now onto the second half. Next musical number was Something There. Sung by Zooey Deschanel and Anthony Evans from season 2 of the Voice. He played the Beast in this performance. Absolutely amazing singer. Since I didn’t know who he was before seeing this concert, I haven’t heard him sing. But now that I have, I am blown away. Immediately after this song, they decide to include the song Human Again. Which was cut from the original film. For the role of Wardrobe, they had Tony-award winning Hairspray actress Marissa Jaret Winokur perform the song. This was the weakest part of the concert for me. I did not like the way she sang this song. Wardrobe isn’t that annoying of a character. Marissa was straight up insufferable. I did not like this part of the concert. The projections were nice though. Continuing on, we finally get to the most memorable song in the movie. Beauty and the Beast. Sung by Jane Krakowski. I’m gonna be honest. I almost shed a tear. The orchestration was amazing and Jane has a beautiful voice. This was an absolute highlight. And now for another highlight. After the part where Belle runs off to save her father, Anthony Evans comes back out to sing Evermore from the live action movie. Look, I know they wanted Anthony to have a solo in this concert, but it you put in a song from the live action movie when the concert mostly focuses on the animated version, it’s inconsistent. But I can forgive them because Anthony Evans absolutely nailed this song. I got chills during this performance. He sang at a higher pitch than what was heard in the movie. It sounds a lot better, honestly. Even the new orchestration is great.

After that, the scene in which Gaston plans to kill the Beast happens and then Taye Diggs and Rebel Wilson come back out to perform the Mob Song. They actually made this very hilarious just from the movements they were doing during the song. Rebel is so funny. Also, they actually weren’t standing on stage during this song. They were standing on a smaller stage that was somewhere in the audience. That must’ve been a great surprise for people her were sitting in the section that was right in front of it. One of the best parts for me during this concert was hearing the music during the Beast transformation scene. It’s one of the greates pieces of music in movie history. I’m glad I got to hear it live. So then the orchestra plays the ending music while the end of the movie happens and that’s the end of the concert. Actually, that’s not all. After the concert, Alan Menken showed up and performed How Does a Moment Last Forever and Beauty and the Beast in the piano. This was the second time I got to see Alan Menken perform, but the first time I got to see him perform on such a big stage.

Overall, I really enjoyed this concert. This was such an amazing experience. I’m glad I got to see it in person. The singers were great, the projections were great, and the orchestrations were great. I like that they showed the entire movie. It was great watching it with 17,000 other people. My favorite part of the concert was definitely Kelsey Grammer singing Be Our Guest. Speaking of Kelsey Grammer, one of my next reviews is gonna be about something that he was involved in.

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