EVENT PREVIEW
“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast”
Feb. 2-7. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, Feb. 2-4; 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 5; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7. $33.50-$125. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 1-855-285-8499, www.FoxTheatre.org/Beauty.
Sam Hartley, who plays the hairy lead in "Disney's Beauty and the Beast" (opening Tuesday night at the Fox Theatre), won't give away too many secrets about his nightly transformation into a handsome prince.
It happens at the climactic end of the action-packed second act, after the villagers storm the castle and the Beast dukes it out with the macho Gaston. (Don’t worry, this is Disney drama — it’s a family-friendly show.)
Somehow, through the love of Belle (and with the help of ingenious costume design), the hirsute, horned monster turns into a man. Does it take two stage-hands to pull off those eyebrows? “It’s Disney Magic!” is all Hartley will say, although he does guarantee, “you will be astounded.”
The show is among the many highly anticipated offerings at the Fox this year.
A 27-year-old alumnus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Hartley was recruited last year for the long-running show, which opened on Broadway in 1994 and uses the same songs and storyline from the 1991 animated Disney feature. (The musical has additional songs by Alan Menken and Tim Rice, including one showpiece for the Beast, “If I Can’t Love Her.”)
MORE: Must-see children’s productions to take stage across Atlanta
While driving between shows in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Huntsville, Ala., Hartley took a few moments to talk about the character arc that makes his role so enjoyable, and the challenges of singing through fangs.
Q: How do you sing with those tusks sticking out of your face?
A: I do remember looking at them for the first time, before everything was constructed on my face, a little nervous as to how all that will work. But they are designed in a such a brilliant way that everything moves with my face.
Q: Also, how do you stay cool in those fur long johns?
A: I have been known to sneak in a couple of ice packs now and then, to cool down. The show is situated in such a way that I'm lucky to have breaks. That's when I'll be hugging my fan backstage.
Q: Do you wear the same costume every day? It’s not a wash-and-wear outfit, is it?
A: It's basically just the one. It gets cleaned often.
Q: In this show, you are essentially in a Disney theme park. Did you ever think you would be part of the Magic Kingdom?
A: To be completely honest, no. The show itself was off my radar for a very long time.
Q: It’s nice that they added a song for the Beast to sing.
A: In the movie, you don't hear from the beast vocally. So it's lucky that I get to sing such a beautiful song at the end of Act 1. We like to joke that the musical is like the Movie 2.0. There are six new songs that are not in the movie.
Q: In college, you changed from a tenor to a baritone. How did that happen?
A: You know why? In contemporary musical theater, all the great roles — to my pre-college brain — were tenors. And in rock 'n' roll, it's all about who can sing higher and louder than the next person. I came to school with that in mind, that I would be the next pop sensation, but I literally don't have the range. In one of the first conversations I had with my voice teacher (Alisa Belflower), one of the most cherished mentors in my life, I found out I can't do that. What I CAN do is live in this baritone world. It is the biggest blessing in disguise.
Q: Tell about the Beast’s character arc.
A: We get to peer in his heart. He's learning to love. Does he even know that it's love? He's trying to figure out all these feelings that are going on.
Q: You get to be pretty angry each night. Is that a plus?
A: It's incredibly therapeutic. Everybody has a little beast inside of them. I get to let all of that go, every night, and then even more satisfying, I get to fall in love and become this sort of new advanced version of myself.
