Beauty and the Beast: Donny Osmond to play Gaston in show's final performance

Donny Osmond is to play Gaston in the final performance of the Broadway production of Disney�s Beauty And The Beast on 29 Jul 2007. Donny Osmond played the role of Gaston in the Broadway musical from 19 Sep - 24 Dec 2006.

Beauty And The Beast officially opened on Broadway on 18 Apr 1994 and played at the Palace Theatre for the first five years of its run. The production transferred to the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 11 Nov 1999.

Disney�s Beauty And The Beast is the 6th longest-running Broadway show of all time, logging in more performances than shows like Miss Saigon, 42nd Street, Fiddler on the Roof, and Hello, Dolly! among others. The production is the longest-running production at both the Palace Theatre and the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

As previously announced, Disney�s Beauty And The Beast, the inaugural Broadway musical from Disney Theatrical Productions will take its final bow at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 29 Jul 2007. The Broadway production will have played 46 previews and 5,464 regular performances.

The next tenant at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre will be Walt Disney's newest musical production The Little Mermaid, which is scheduled to begin previews in November 2007.

Disney�s Beauty And The Beast, currently features Steve Blanchard (The Beast), Anneliese van der Pol (Belle), Stephen R. Buntrock (Gaston), Jonathan Freeman (Cogsworth), John Tartaglia (Lumiere), Jeanne Lehmann (Mrs. Potts), Jamie Ross (Maurice), Aldrin Gonzales (Lefou), Meredith Inglesby (Babette) and Mary Stout (Madame de la Grande Bouche). Trevor Braun and Marlon Sherman alternate the role of Chip.

Beauty And The Beast is the classic love story of Belle, a young woman in a small, provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a prince trapped in a spell placed on him by an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and to be loved, the spell will be broken and he will be transformed back to his former self. But time is running out, and if the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he will be doomed for all eternity.

Disney's Beauty And The Beast features Alan Menken's Academy Award-winning score, songs by the late Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (including the Academy Award-winning title song 'Be Our Guest'), plus songs written especially for the stage by Alan Menken and Tim Rice (including 'If I Can't Love Her' and 'A Change In Me'). Book is by Linda Woolverton, author of the original screenplay.

The musical is choreographed by Matt West and directed by Robert Jess Roth. Sets are by Stan Meyer, costumes by Ann Hould-Ward, and lighting by Natasha Katz.