Come behind the curtain with a touring Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast

Staging a Broadway musical in the heart of America is no small feat. The labor-intensive endeavor is like moving into an apartment every week for months on end, says production supervisor Jason Trubitt.

This fall, a company of seasoned professionals are packing up their New York productions and bringing Broadway shows to cities across the country, including Kansas City. One crowd favorite headed our way is the musical adaption of Disney’s 1991 animated film Beauty and the Beast. This will be its first North American tour in 25 years. Presented by PNC Broadway In Kansas City, the show will stop in KC for about a week, entertaining audiences with eight shows at Kansas City Music Hall before continuing on to Nashville. 

The crew travels across the country in nine 53-foot trucks, each holding pieces of the set specially crafted for national touring. Over the span of 13 hours, more than 17 tons of lighting, scenery and video materials are unloaded in each city. They even pack flooring to sit on top of the venues’ stages in order to automate movements within the scenery.

For Trubitt, a typical schedule includes arriving at a new venue and unloading for five hours. The following morning, the process continues for around eight hours before the production opens that evening. Taking down the set, he says, only takes five to six hours on a Sunday following the final show, leaving the nine big-rig trucks to drive overnight before repeating the process in a new city. 

The touring cast and crew is made up of 75 New York-based professionals. In order to maintain efficiency and the standards of a Broadway show, the company also hires 99 locals to help around the production. They learn the ropes quickly within the 13-hour setup before the show begins. The company tours with two wardrobe technicians, but getting Belle changed into her rhinestone-studded yellow ballgown requires at least four people, Trubitt says.

Alongside the physical feat of moving a Broadway production from city to city, Trubitt says that producing a Disney show comes with “certain expectations.” 

“We take great pride in protecting the material and presenting it in a way that would really elevate it as much as we possibly can,” Trubitt says. “We always want our audiences to enjoy the show as much as they can, because the source material is so close to them. So many people are familiar with the animated feature of Beauty and the Beast. It is a product that everybody already knows. This is quite different from when you present a new Broadway musical.”

Beyond these high expectations and a labor-intensive setup, Trubitt says there’s something really special about a national tour. 

“It’s a magical show, and we are delivering a Broadway-caliber production out to these places across America,” Trubitt says.  “So they’re seeing a show very similar to what exactly the sort of scope and size and scale and talent level that they would see if they were in New York, which is a wonderful thing.”

GO: October 28–November 2. Times vary. Kansas City Music Hall.

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