BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Coming to Shanghai Disney

Beauty and the Beast, the award-winning Broadway stage musical will fly into China` at Shanghai Disney Resort next year.

This will be the second Disney stage production to play the resort - The Lion King will have its last and 500th performance October 8th.

Based on the 1991 Academy-Award winning animated feature film, Disney's Beauty and the Beast premiered on Broadway in 1994, where it was nominated for nine prestigious Tony Awards and ran for 13 years. It still ranks as one of the longest-running and highest-grossing Broadway shows of all time. Since its debut, the titles visibility and success has expanded globally with subsequent productions produced around the world. Since licensing of the title began in 2004, there have been productions in 22 countries, seen by more than 35 million people, translated into 8 differentlanguages with over 28 thousand performances - equivalent to a run of 67 years, generating over $1.7B in revenue.

In the US, Disney's Beauty and the Beast has been licensed to over 6,000 individual theatres including professional, community and school productions. For the past five years, it has been the most performed musical in high schools in the United States. The title's strength has allowed it to enter international markets with limited traditions of producing Broadway musicaltheatre. It was the first Disney Theatrical Productions title in countries across Scandinavia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Russia, among others. In addition to professional productions, Beauty and the Beast is Disney's most requested title internationally for regional, community and amateur productions.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast is the classic story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped in a spell placed by an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed to his former self. But time is running out. If the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity.

The musical boasts music by Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Tangled) and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin), with additional songs with music by Menken and lyrics by Tim Rice (The Lion King, Jesus Christ Superstar). The book is written by Linda Woolverton (screenwriter of The Lion King, Alice In Wonderland and the upcoming Maleficent).­

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