Beauty and the Beast

Glossary and Notes

Notes

Variations of the story have been around for perhaps 4000 years. But the most important versions are:

• 1740: The standard version (La Belle et la Bête) by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve 
• 1756: an abridged version by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, probably the most often told version.
• 1889: Andrew Lang included a version in his The Blue Fairy Book, the first of his 12 Color fairy tale collections.

Film versions include:

• 1946: La Belle et la Bête, directed by Jean Cocteau
• 1987: Beauty and the Beast, a musical version directed by Eugene Marner
• 1991: The Disney animated version, on which the Broadway musical is based.

Television:

• 1987: The televison series starring Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman, who lives in the tunnels beneath New York.

Stage:

• 1994: An opera version by Philip Glass, which follows Cocteau’s film scene by scene.
• 1994: The Disney Broadway musical.

Glossary

• belle—French for beautiful, or beauty (feminine: the masculine is beau, or bel before a vowel)
• bonjour—literally, Good day; it is a general greeting equivalent to hi, or hello.
• baguette—French for “stick”; in this case, for a long narrow loaf of (French) bread
• provincial—Originally meant, “of the provinces”; by extension it has come to mean “rustic; uncouth”.
• beanstalk and an ogre—An allusion to the English story, “Jack the Giant Killer”
• Gaston—The name is of Germanic origin, and means “guest” or “stranger”. It was the names of some noblemen in southern France in the Middle Ages. Perhaps the most famous person to have the name is Gaston Leroux, author of The Phantom of the Opera.
• Le Fou (also Le Fol)—Can be translated either “the fool” or “the madman”; King Charles VI of France (1368-1422) was called “Le Fou” because he was insane. In 1392, on an expedition against the Duke of Brittany, Charles, in his delirium, attacked his own men in the forest of Le Mans. In 1393 at the “Ball of the Savages” he and five noblemen dressed as savages in straw costumes, which caught fire, killing four of the noblemen, and almost killing the king as well. (The one that survived jumped into a vat of wine.) He was placed under the regency of his uncles, who vied for power. In 1415 his army was crushed by an English army under their king, Henry V. Charles was forced to sign the treaty of Troyes, which made Henry his heir and successor, disinheriting his own son, the Dauphin Charles. But Henry died just a few weeks before Charles, and the Dauphin was crowned king at Rheims, and, with the help of Jeanne d’Arc, drove the English out of France by 1453, effectively ending the Hundred Years War.
• mais oui—literally, “but yes”; figuratively, “of course!”
• madame—literally, “my lady”; equivalent to “Mrs” in English
• mademoiselle—literally, “my little lady”; equivalent to “Miss” in English
• nonchalant—causually calm and relaxed; indifferent, unconcered, detached; “cool”, blasé
• primeval—literally, “of the first age”; that is, primitive.
• bugs and spiders—often, bugs is used to include spiders. But entomologists consider only insects to be bugs.
• crème de la crème—literally, “cream of the cream”; that is, the very best.
• candelabra—Actually, the plural of candelabrum, but often used in the singular; meaning branched candlestick or chandelier.
• Lumière—French for “light”;  it is also the family name of the Lumière brothers Auguste Marie Louis Nicholas (1862–1954) and Louis Jean (1864–1948), French inventors and movie pioneers. In 1895, they patented their “Cinématographe,” which combined a movie camera and projector. They also invented the improved “autochrome” process of color photography. (Click here for some interesting facts about Lumière.) Paris is often called the “City of Light,” or, in French, La Ville Lumière, as it was one of the first cities to install street lights, and also for its role as the center of the Enlightenment, the explosion of philosophic and scientific activity in the 18th century.
• Maître d’—Short for Maître d’hôtel, meaning “headwaiter” or “majordomo.”
• Majordomo—Chief servant in a large house.
• Oooh la la—properly, oh là là—the French actually do say this—the equivalent in English of “oh my goodness” or “wow” (the French have adopted the last word as waouh!)—an extended French version is ouh là là, which is the way most English speakers pronounce it. See an extended article on Why the French really say Oh là là (and how to use it correctly).
• silly—cognate with German selig, meaning “blessed, fortunate”; now the English word means “foolish.” According to Wiktionary, the semantic evolution is “lucky” → “innocent” → “naïve” → “foolish”.
• rendez-vous—Literally, “meet you”; means a date, appointment, or, as young people seem to be saying these days, “a meet-up.”
• Madame de la Grande Bouche—My Lady of the Big Mouth (Grand should be Grande; bouche is feminine in French)
• Royal Opera—The origin of the word opera in the sense we use it today occurred in Italy in 1639; the first such work was performed in 1598, making Madame’s boast anachronistic, since the story took place “a long time ago,” presumably in the Middle Ages.
• Oui, mon Capitan—In correct French, this is Oui, mon Capitaine!
• chérie—French for “cherished, beloved” (note the accent)
• you cut me to the wick—a pun; but note that wick is a variant of “quick,” mainly in Yorkshire dialect, meaning “alive.” In this sense it was used in the 1991 Broadway musical The Secret Garden.
• Enchantée, mademoiselle—delighted, miss! (Note that it should be Enchanté, masculine, because Lumière is referring to himself!)
• pish tosh—nonsense (a particularly English expression)
• soup du jour—soup of the day (The French spelling is soupe du jour.)
• hors d’œuvre—appetizer, or light, savory first course (Literally, “apart from the work”, that is, apart from the meal.)
• ragoût—A stew of meat and vegetables; or any stew, soup, or sauce; literal meaning, something like “reappetize”, from French goût, meaning “taste.” (In English, formerly ragou or ragoo; Italian ragù; Italian or Spanish ragú)
• soufflé—literal meaning, “puffed”; a dish made with beaten egg whites (for lift) with other ingredients; pommes soufflées is a dish of potato slices fried twice so that they puff up into little balls.
• en flambe—should be enflammé, meaning “inflamed”, or simply flambé, meaning “burnt”: a technique of serving a hot dish topped with alcohol, such as brandy, and the vapors ignited.
• cabaret—(from Wiktionary) Live entertainment held in a restaurant or nightclub; the genre of music associated with this form of entertainment, especially in early 20th century Europe, or a nightclub or restaurant where such entertainment is held.
• croûton—a small, often seasoned, piece of dry, baked, or fried bread (from French croûte, meaning “crust,” + on, a diminutive suffix; so “little crust”)
• s’il vous plait—literally, “if it please you”, or “if you please”; please
• un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven (The names of the sides of dice are sometimes called: ace, deuce, trey, cater, cinque, sice; all derived from an earlier form of French. “Ace” is from Latin as, meaning a unit. It was also the name of a small Roman coin. A denarius was originally worth 10 of them; later 16.)
• cherubs flocking in delight amidst the nymphs and centaurs—Sounds like a Baroque ceiling, 17th or 18th century—another anachronism!
• the West Wing—in the White House, where the President’s office is located.
• Books on every subject, by every author whoever set pen to paper.—King Ptolemy II Philadelphus (reigned BC 285-246) of Egypt established the library of Alexandria to contain every scroll ever written, so whenever a ship would dock in the harbor, they would confiscate every scroll on the ship, make copies, and return the copy to the ship and keep the original in the library. According to tradition, he sponsored the translation of the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) from Hebrew to Greek. (That version is known as the Septuagint, abbreviated LXX.) Estimates of the contents of the library vary from 40,000 to 400,000 scrolls. The library began to decline in the next century, and was finally demolished in AD 391; but by that time, there were probably no books or scrolls still there!)
• brass tacks—from Cockney rhyming slang, meaning “facts” (not a perfect rhyme)
• Monsieur d’Arque—Arque is a verb form of arquer, meaning to make an arc; but, since he is proprietor of the lunatic asylum, it could just mean “Mr Dark.”
• Maison des Lunes—literally, “house of the moons,” but it probably is intended to mean “house of the loonies.” (It used to be believed that the moon caused insanity: “loony” comes from the Latin word for moon: luna.)

Musical numbers

Act I

• Overture*#¶ — Orchestra
• Prologue — Narrator
• Belle — Belle, Gaston, Silly Girls, Ensemble
• No Matter What*#¶ — Maurice, Belle
• No Matter What [Reprise]/Wolf Chase*# — Maurice
• Me*# — Gaston, Belle
• Belle (Reprise) — Belle
• Home* — Belle
• Home (Tag) — Mrs Potts
• Gaston† — LeFou, Gaston, Silly Girls, Ensemble
• Gaston (Reprise)† — Gaston, LeFou
• How Long Must This Go On?*# — Beast
• Be Our Guest† — Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Ensemble
• If I Can’t Love Her*# — Beast

Act II

• Entr’acte/Wolf Chase* — Orchestra
• Something There — Belle, Beast, Lumiere, Mrs Potts, Cogsworth
• Human Again*‡ — Lumiere, Mrs. Potts, Chip, Madame de la Grande Bouche, Babette, Cogsworth, Ensemble
• Maison Des Lunes*#¶ — Gaston, LeFou, Monsieur D’ Arque
• Beauty and the Beast — Mrs. Potts
• If I Can’t Love Her (Reprise)* — Beast
• A Change in Me*§# — Belle
• The Mob Song — Gaston, Ensemble
• The Battle*¶ — The Company
• Home (Reprise)* — Belle
• Transformation* — Beast, Belle, Ensemble
• Beauty and the Beast (Reprise) — The Company

* New song/Expanded score

† Expanded vocal or instrumental content, using either cut lyrics by Ashman or dance arrangements by Glen Kelly, or both.

‡ “Human Again” was written by Menken and Ashman for the movie, but was cut, due to the complications it made on the film’s timeline. It was repurposed for the Broadway play, and on account of the musical’s great success, an entirely new animated sequence based on the Broadway version was set to this song and inserted into 2002’s Special Edition DVD release.

§ “A Change in Me” was written into the show in 1998 for the debut of Toni Braxton and was retained thereafter.

¶ Cut from the show for the 2021–23 UK Tour/MTI revision (Maison Des Lunes) and optional (No Matter What).

# not in the Junior Broadway show, but some Junior versions have retained the song.