An old favourite tale is spinning into form at a stadium in the midst of the city. As the love story of a stubborn beast and a charismatic lady unfolds on a large stage with elaborate sets, the audience will be spellbound by the reality of a children’s fairytale brought to life by director Vikrant Pawar and his cast.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Broadway musical, first staged in the city in October 2015, is back, with a cast of over a 100 actors, and costumes that speak a tale of their own. While some in the city have already been privy to the performance, there’s little light been shed upon the characters’ emotions, the backstage chaos, and the coordination required to pull off a play that’s so large it took an entire year to plan and eventually execute.
Mammoth show
Pawar says, “The pre-production period lasted three months, and just like in a film, we had detailed sketches of each of the characters, to make sure that everybody was on the same page. After receiving over 8,000 entries and auditioning over 1,000 people, the mammoth-sized production was closer to coming together. Half the battle is won when you find the right cast.”
Edwin Joseph, who plays Beast, almost didn’t make it to the audition on account of it being his 21st birthday. And when he was first informed of his selection, he was travelling in a Delhi metro with low network connectivity. “I just completed college in Delhi,” he says, “and eight days from then, I was suddenly in Bombay, in a new city, with a show! It’s just that sort of thing that makes you believe that you were in the right place, at the right time.”
Joseph’s connects with Beast because he’s a stubborn man-child too, one who isn’t always pleased when things don’t pan out the way he imagines. The Beast’s constant battle with his emotions, his efforts to suppress his animalistic instincts: these were the most interesting characteristics that Joseph had to bring out. “Since the Beast is a hybrid bear-bull-lion-creature, I had to not only bring forth an animated character to life, but figure out how to be an animal; because those are the traits he’s constantly wrestling with. Making that journey not just through the dialogue, but through physical transformation, was most challenging.”
The training process involved exercises that helped the cast become comfortable in their characters, understand the silences, and fill in for one another if the need arose.
Pawar believes in explaining scenes through metaphors that enable the actors to readthe subtext. During one rehearsal, he made Meher Mistry (who plays Belle) and Joseph use just their fingertips to communicate with one another, barring the use of any other actions or expressions. Mistry recalls another rehearsal where she was made to close her eyes and walk on a pathway while the rest of the cast used their voices to guide her to the finish line. “I remember thinking I was doing quite well, and increased the pace I was walking at, when Vikrant [Pawar] coaxed my co-actors to prop a giant foam mattress in front of me so that I bounced off! It’s one of the moments that the entire cast will never forget.”
A creative process
Well-known theatre personality Bugs Bhargava, who plays the enchanted castle clock, Cogsworth, describes the exploration of his character as a truly creative process.He believes improvisations during rehearsals are key to helping actors truly embody these animations. “Even though it’s a gigantic production, it’s so necessary to get the intimate moments and relationships right. During a scene between Cogsworth and the Beast, Vikrant wanted to see how far we could stretch the comedy, so he asked to improvise. Since Cogsworth was nervous to tell the Beast that Belle refused to join him at dinner, I found myself suddenly saying ‘Sire! Sire! Not to fret, I’ll have dinner with you!’ and after a hearty laugh Vikrant actually left it in.”
One of the biggest challenges for the cast was emu;ating their animated counterparts. “There was a lot of physical training involved to increase our stamina,” Mistry says, “because the stage itself is so large that to move from one end to another we required a whole lot of energy. This entire process has provided me when a lot of discipline; I’ve gained as an actor, singer, and performer.”
Lure of the audience
For the entire cast it was the enchantment of the audience that helped them keep the atmosphere of fantasy alive.
Mistry talks about how they were often greeted with glimpses of the audience’s expressions when the spotlight panned over their faces, which encouraged the performers to heighten their energy. “Those faces never lie.”
For Joseph, gauging the audience’s emotions was one of the most exciting parts of the journey. The silences that echoed through the stadium during an uncomfortable seven-second pause, or the faces of ecstasy during an over-the-top song and dance scene, are what made the experience of being a part of this production all the more magical.
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is at NSCI stadium, Worli, May 6-15. Tickets: bookmyshow.com/mumbai
The writer is a freelance journalist
One of the biggest challenges for the cast was to articulate like their animated counterparts
