Feature  

The Beauty Is

Beauty and the Beast celebrates its 13th Anniversary in a big way! Plus: Laura Benanti, Tammy Grimes, Ethan Hawke, Earle Hyman, Ron Livingston, Jason Patric, and Jo Anne Worley are among the stars caught by our cameras.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Disney's Beauty and the Beast celebrated its 13th and final anniversary on Broadway in a big way by gathering the show's creative team (including composer Alan Menken and director Robert Jess Roth) and more than 100 past and present cast members on the stage of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre for a group photo.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Among those present were former Belles Sarah Uriarte Berry, Andrea McArdle, and Debbie Gibson.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Afterwards, everyone partied at Sardi's. Here's Broadway favorite John Tartaglia, who's currently playing the role of Lumière, with Ashley Brown, another former Belle and now the star of Disney's Mary Poppins.

(© Michael Portantiere)

Original B&B stars Beth Fowler, Gary Beach, and Burke Moses (top right) were joined by the current Beast, Steve Blanchard.

(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)

Last night, cabaret chanteuse Karen Akers opened her new show, Simply Styne, at the Algonquin Hotel's fabled Oak Room. On hand for the event was Tommy Tune, who directed Akers in the Broadway productions of Nine and Grand Hotel...

(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)

...and Tony Award winner Tammy Grimes, whose own cabaret appearances at The Metropolitan Room have been among April's most talked-about events.

(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)

Last night also marked the first performance for the three new stars of the smash Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone: Janine LaManna, John Glover, and the inimitable Jo Anne Worley.

(© Joseph Marzullo/Retna)

Earlier in the evening, the Off-Broadway theater company Take Wing and Soar (TWAS) saluted the legendary actor Earle Hyman (right), pictured here with Timothy D. Stickney, star of TWAS' current production of Hamlet and known to viewers of One Life to Live as bad guy R.J. Gannon.

(© Michael Portantiere)

On Tuesday morning, the press got the opportunity to meet the stars of MCC's upcoming production of Neil LaBute's In a Dark, Dark House: TV favorite Ron Livingston, Louisa Krause, and film and theater veteran Jason Patric (last seen on the New York stage in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof).

(© Michael Portantiere)

On Monday night, lots of celebs came to New World Stages for Seth's Broadway 101, a benefit performance for The Actors' Fund. Seth Rudetsky's special guests included Wedding Singer star Laura Benanti, who is now planning her own wedding to this handsome fellow, stage and TV actor Steven Pasquale!

(© Michael Portantiere)

Among the other notables on hand were Charles Busch, who will reprise the title role in his play The Lady in Question at Bay Street Theatre this summer, and Roger Rees, who will perform his solo Shakespearean piece What You Will at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, of which he is artistic director...

(© Michael Portantiere)

...Raúl Esparza, star of the new Broadway production of Company, with Pamela Myers, who played Marta in the original production and who thrilled the New World Stages crowd with her big song, "Another Hundred People"...

(© Michael Portantiere)

...and two more of the benefit's fabulous performers, Norm Lewis (soon to star in The Little Mermaid) and the lovely Natascia Diaz.

(© Benjamin Endsley Klein)

On Sunday night, cast members of The Coast of Utopia let their hair down at an open mic night at Gallery Bar. Is it any surprise Martha Plimpton wowed the crowd, given that she's the daughter of Shelley Plimpton and Keith Carradine?

(© Benjamin Endsley Klein)

We leave you with this shot of Plimpton's multi-talented co-star Ethan Hawke, who brought down the house with the country tune "Move it On Over."

 

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