Beauty and the Beast

There are so many variables when you do something like this: the script or casting or new songs. It’s a very sensitive and delicate thing to put together a successful musical.

I really credit Bill Condon with being an amazing captain of the ship. For the new songs, we knew we wanted to get more of a sense of time and place for 18th century France, and more texture to Belle and Maurice’s relationship, as well as for the Beast and how the Prince turned so mean. We also had outtake lyrics from Howard Ashman that we didn’t use for the animated because they were a bit edgy. But so funny and so brilliant. And so we were actually able to add many more to the version in the movie. We did the same thing with the Beauty and the Beast at the end of the film, where we had a lost verse of "Beauty and the Beast" which we were able to add.