Enjoy a special 20% discount on tickets to Beauty and the Beast as the performance enters its final week, closing on the 25th of January.
The first musical trip I funded with my own working adult money was Disney’s Aladdin in 2019. I even bought the gold-gilded program to commemorate the occasion, and spent an entire twenty minutes marveling at its pages of photographs before the show began, excited to experience what still images couldn’t capture.
The magic carpet didn’t work.
I still had a blast. But the magic carpet didn’t work.
This lore drop is necessary for you to understand my expectations coming into Beauty and the Beast, only my second Disney musical six years after Aladdin: I didn’t think it was going to be as comedic (there is no Genie in this story), nor was it going to be as captivating as a magic carpet ride (even though Magic Carpet qualifies as an enchanted anthropomorphic furniture).
Boy, was I wrong—on both fronts and more.
Sure, Beauty and the Beast is a classic story. But the show was more than extraordinary.
From the prologue with the Enchantress, they made it clear that when they said “Disney magic”, they meant literal magic: illusions used to elevate storytelling. These spectacular miss-it-and-it’s-gone moments are littered throughout the musical, keeping you at the edge of your seat. I still don’t understand how they made Chip come alive like… that.
Not me forgetting that the bangers Gaston and Be Our Guest are both from Beauty and the Beast (it has been a while since I was a child watching the 1991 animated movie).
Gaston presented an elaborate beer tankard-based theatrical sequence that must’ve taken months to master. I’ve never seen a merrier glazing session. Be Our Guest went all-out French cabaret with lights, feathers, human kaleidoscopes, and tap dancing that matched the earnestness in which the cast sang for us to please be their guest. As the kids might say, they cooked, served, and ate in that scene.
Be Our Guest might be the highlight of the night, though the contrasting simplicity of the iconic ballroom scene won my inner child’s heart.
The set design shone—often literally—in that it was both lavish and creative, seamlessly bridging the digital and the physical. Elaborate sequences were made not only possible but also beautiful through rigs, clever use of projection, and expert blocking: see the Beast’s transformation scene, for example.
I’d be remiss not to mention the cast, especially the side characters. Every single piece of furniture absolutely nailed (ha) the comedic aspect with their acting, providing much-needed entertainment onto an otherwise well-known story.
Remember when I thought this wasn’t going to be as funny because the Genie wasn’t here? Guess who plays Cogsworth in this theatrical run: Gareth Jacobs—my Genie from 2019!
Past the costume and make-up, which was very well done, it was extremely refreshing to see people of color leading the show. Beast (Brendan Xavier) had a lot more layers here, even played for laughs quite a bit. Belle (Shubshri Kandiah), on the other hand, has the Disney Princess act down pat: she played Jasmine and also Cinderella in the past.
With Beauty and the Beast, I learned that storybook plots can put on an exciting show, especially in the hands of the right host.
Beauty and the Beast is running at Sands Theatre, Marina Bay Sands from now until 25 January 2026. Tickets can be purchased here.
Review by Gabriella Adytanthio
Illustrator, art director, designer who writes sometimes.