Actually, it’s not a “tale as old as time.” Like most fairy tales, Beauty and the Beast is likely only a few hundred years old. And as the earliest recorded versions of the story feature middle-class characters, it may be one of the youngest fairy tales . . . but variations on the story have been found in nearly every language and culture on Earth, so there’s a kind of universality to it.

In 1991, the Walt Disney corporation co-opted the fairy tale for future generations in an animated film. On the other end of the same decade, Disney adapted its animated film to the stage in a musical featuring the same Alan Menken and Howard Ashman songs found in the animated film (with a few extra bits thrown-in by Tim Rice.)

Two different productions of the Disney musical make it to local stages this coming year.

Next month, Stagekids Productions in cooperation with North Shore Academy of the Arts & Schauer Community School of the Arts presents Beauty and the Beat, Jr.—a 90-minute version of the hit musical. The cast consists of children from Washington, Waukesha and Dodge Counties.

The show runs January 14^th – 15^th at the Schauer Center on 147 North Rural Street in Downtown Hartford.

Tickets to see Disney’s Beauty & the Beast, Jr. are $15 for adults, $12 for students (13 and up), $9 for children (12 and under), and $6 for lap seats (3 and under).  Tickets can be purchased at the Schauer Center Box Office Monday through Friday from 11:30 am to 5:30 pm and Saturday from 11:30 am to 2:00 pm at 147 N. Rural Street in Hartford, charge by phone at 262-670-0560.

The touring Broadway production of the musical makes it to the Milwaukee Theatre next spring as NETworks presents Disney’s Beauty and the Beast April 15^th-17^th.  For reservations, call 1-800-745-3000.