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GALEN DARSUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2017 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR

ALLEN J. SCHABEN LOS Angeles Times

CAST MEMBERS of the live action "Beauty and the Beast" Josh Gad, middle, Luke Evans, right, and composer Alan Menken perform a song from the Disney musical.

SETTING THERIGHT TONEAlan Menken and two 'Beauty' actors chime in on recapturing its magicBY MEREDITH WOERNER >>> In the alarmingly beige conference room of a Beverly Hills hotel, the man who helpedlaunch six princesses, more than a dozen musical films, and a national songbook of singalongs sits down at a piano.And immediately "beige" is no longer accurate.With just a few immediately evocative chords from Oscar-, Grammy- and Tony-winning composer Alan Menken, an

equally familiar voice rises in glorious crescendo."Perfect adored parag00000n," sings Josh Gad with that unmistakable combination of bravado and vibrato. It's a

sound he honed as Elder Cunningham in the original Broadway production of "The Book of Mormon," made ubiqui-

tous with his portrayal of "Frozen's" beloved snowman Olaf and now brought to Disney's new live action film "Beauty

and the Beast."Gad, of course, is neither Beauty nor the Beast; he's singing LeFou, the bumbling buddy of the story's self-obsessed

villain Gaston, played by Luke Evans, who gamely answers the musical call and harmonizes with Gad's high note."We live in the clouds," Gad jokes about their range. The many fans already following the duo's [See 'Beauty,' E5]

TRUE/FALSE FILM FESTIVAL

In this era of fake news,how can truth surface?The documentary fest probes howthe form can remain an effectivetool at a time when the media'sveracity is being questioned

BY STEVEN ZEITCHIK

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The emcee of thelive game show hoped to crowdsource hisway to a revelation."Make some noise if you think the film is

true," the host, Brian Babylon of NationalPublic Radio, egged on audience members.They cheered loudly.

"And make some noise ifyou think it's bo-gus as ..." he said, to even more whooping.

The crowd had gathered at a college-town music venue late on a Saturday nightfor "Gimme Truth," an event dedicated tothe playful exploration of media veracity.They were at True/False, a film festival dedi-cated to the playful — and at times not so

playful — exploration of media veracity. Forboth points and pride, audience membersand a panel of documentarians were seek-ing to determine whether short films cre-ated for the occasion were nonfiction or invented — documentaries or fake news.

"Everything is plausible," Babylon saicafter the screening of one short. "But did Ireally happen?"

Documentary is a hybrid form. Lackingthe full-blown invention of scripted movie:but also the hard-knuckled reality of broadcast news, it occupies a more powerful inbetween. Like scripted, it has the power t(suspend assumptions and persuade us int(new beliefs. But it does so without asking u:to leave reality behind; a documentary actively wants to shape our world and increas(its comprehensibility.

True/False has long been preoccupiecwith questions of honesty and realityFounded by Columbia natives David Wilsorand Paul Sturtz in 2004, the four-day filnfestival has evolved into the country's premiere documenta- [See True/False, E4

A TOAST TO THE VARIEDLIVES OF JIM BROADBENT

ROBERT VIGLASKY CBS Films / Lionsgate

Beauty and the BeastLos Angeles TimesMeredith WoernerSun, Mar 12, 2017

Material supplied by Daily Buzz, LLC to you may be used for non-commercial and internal review, analysis and research purposes only. Any editing, reproduction, modification,publication, rebroadcasting, public display or public distribution is forbidden and may violate U.S. and international copyright laws. This material may include printed documentsand images, audio works, audio/visual works, content stored on electronic storage media such as CDs and DVDs, electronic communications, and electronic documents and othercontent attached to or accessible through such electronic communications. By accepting, accessing and using the material, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmlessDaily Buzz, LLC for third-party claims of intellectual property infringement based upon your violation of the foregoing restrictions.

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LATIMES. COM/CALENDAR Cos Angeles Mines SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2 017 E5

LAURIE SPARHAM Disney Enterprises Inc.

GASTON (LUKE EVANS) has a big moment in the village tavern in "Beauty and the Beast." Evans remembers seeing the animated film version when he was 12.

Three right men for the job['Beauty,' from El]singing Instagrams will not be sur-prised to know that the Evans andGad pairing has already been,praised as the film's standout per-formance.

But before they can get into thenext verse Evans stops; he's forgot-ten the chorus. "So what's theline?" he asks. " 'No one's quick asGaston, no one's thick as Gaston'?"

Menken, at the piano, shootsEvans a phony look of disbelief,and loudly reminds the room thathe'd handed out the lyrics to every-one earlier. The composer, ofcourse, not only wrote the score for"Beauty and the Beast" (with lyricsby the late Howard Ashman) , butalso "The Little Mermaid," "Al-addin," "Enchanted," "Little Shopof Horrors" and many others.

"I don't know the lyrics becauseI don't sing them," Evans pleads.Gad, as helpful as his on-screencharacter, rapidly recites the lyricsfrom his villainous tribute.

It's a chain reaction that bringsMenken back to the piano and Ev-ans into full Gaston mode. Chestout, head back, he blossoms into aman who most certainly would useantlers in all of his decorating. And,sheesh, were his shoulders this biga moment ago?

The magic is real; it feels like arowdy 17th century tavern in here, ifonly for a while. That has been theconcern all along, whether the liveaction film could recapture thethrill of the original film. From themoment Menken's swirling, deli-cate refrain danced with the fore-boding bass of the animated film'sprologue, the audience knewsomething special was coming.Twenty-five years later, that samefeeling of anticipation is back, con-jured, with the aid of one piano, bythree guys in a conference roomhaving a grand time talking aboutthe next generation of "Beauty andthe Beast."

Because if it's not baroque...

This is a musical brain trust,Luke Evans, Josh Gad and AlanMenken the Disney legend, theBroadway legend...

Evans: Oscar-winning ... Tony-winning.

Gad: You are, you're a legend.You're more than that. How manyawards do you have, can you evencount them at this point?

Menken: Awards in total?Gad: Yes. And they can include

high school awards. You've got tobe a Guinness record holder.

Menken: All I'll say is I do nothave the E from EGOT. Except Ihave an honorary E. And I got an Rfor Razzie. Worst song of the year!

Gad: Somehow all I've got isthe G. I won the Grammy andnothing else.

Menken: You didn't get theTony for "Mormon"?

Gad: We don't talk about it.Moving on. Moving on.

Menken: You damn wellshould've.

Gad: Oh, I love you, Menken.

Disney Entertainment Inc

THE HANDSOME GASTON admires his reflection while singing in 1991's animated "Beauty andthe Beast." "Villains always come in a lot of shapes and sizes," composer Alan Menken says.

have is sitting in a theater in SouthFlorida and the audience breakingout into applause at the end of"Gaston," at the end of "Be OurGuest" and, of course, at the end ofthe ballroom dance of "Beauty andthe Beast." And that left this indel-ible impression on me. Thosesongs are the soundscape to mychildhood, and now to my ownkids. So being able to bring one tolife is incredible.

Evans: I was 12 years old. Icame out [of the movie] hummingthe tunes, didn't know the lyrics.Waited for the album to come out,got my mum to buy it for me. Readthe little booklet, learned all thesongs and then the show came out,the Broadway show. It came toLondon, I saw it opening night. Soit's part of my life the whole waythrough. It is like a soundtrack toone's life, isn't it?

Is there a particular line that yousing that made you feel like a kidagain while you were singing?

Evans: Mine has to be, [ sings]"I'm especially good at expectorat-ing..."

Menken: Tooey!Menken and Evans: "Ten

points for Gaston!"Gad: I remember the first time

practicing, when I found out I gotthe role. The first time I rehearsedit by myself, I was in my office and Iwas singing it. I had a friend, RoryO'Malley, staying above me on thesecond floor. He comes downstairsand he goes, "That's such an inter-esting audition song to choose.What are you singing for?" And Igo, "Actually playing LeFou in thenew 'Beauty and the Beast."

It was so out of body and surre-al to be singing this song that Igrew up so reverential of and thesongs that you and Howard [Ash-man] wrote. So thank you,Menken. You deserve all 3,000awards that you've won. Am I inthe right ballpark?

Menken: Give or take.

who's got this emotion, who's gotthis intention. And you have tothink, is it going to be a song like"Hellfire" [from "The Hunchbackof Notre Darnel, which is notcomedic in the slightest, or is itgoing to be like "Gaston" or the"Dentist" song from "Little Shop[of Horrors"], which intend to behilarious. Villains always come in alot of shapes and sizes and just gotto serve you well.

Evans: That's right. Serve mewell.

Gad: The first villain song thatI remember seeing in a Disneymovie was actually Ursula's in"Little Mermaid." [ Sings] "I'mafraid in the past I've been a bad-die. Na na na na ... well, a witch."Which when you play it off thepiano sounds like something youwould hear at a temple on YomKippur. At that time, I feel likethere weren't a lot of villain songs.Was that a new sort of twist thatyou guys played?

Menken: There weren't a lot oftheatrically structured Disneyanimated movies or hadn't beenfor a generation. So in reachingout to Howard Ashman, and me,to come and do "Little Mermaid,"there was overt desire to havemusical theater transferred toDisney. Certainly there was a lot ofmusic-theater smarts in "Pino-cchio" or other Disney classics, butwe were a different generation. Ialways say I think "Little Mer-maid" is Howard's and my follow-up to "Little Shop of Horrors." Wekind of delved into "What is theDisney ethos?" Part of the Disneyethos is bringing in very specificmusical styles. So for "Mermaid"we brought the sea shanty toBrecht and Weill for that scene.That's really what "Poor Unfortu-nate Souls" is, very Brecht andWeill. German cabaret and ca-lypso.

Evans: Do you rememberwhich song you wrote first [for"Beauty and the Beast"] ?

Menken: I think it was "Belle"and Howard was terrified. Howarddid not want to send the song on toDisney. He said, "Who asked for a61/4-minute opening number? Arewe crazy?" He literally said, "Thisis going to get around, people are

going to laugh at us." I said, "Ithink it's really good, Howard. Ithink it's really good." And in thosedays you couldn't just send anMP3 and an hour later, "Oh, myGod, it's great!" You stuck it in themail and waited. And they loved it.I believe that was the first one.That and "Be Our Guest."

There's lots of new music in thelive action film. The Beast has anew song and Belle has a songand Gaston has a song. ButLeFou doesn't have a song.

Gad: Yeah, what's that about?I've been meaning to ask you thesame thing.

Mencken: Well...Gad: You were holding it for the

sequel.Menken: I'm writing a whole

musical for you, Josh. We're doinga project that is actually a JoshGad vehicle.

But what would a LeFou songsound like, what do you think hewould want?

Menken: You can't just servecharacters. What you're serving isthe story. Where would LeFou'ssong moment be?

Gad: I know what it would be.[ Sings] "Food, glorious food."

Menken: Frankly, much ofGaston is LeFou.

Evans: And is sung by LeFou.Gad: The reason that I did the

movie is because that song is such,it really is a duet. It's an amazingduet, but it's LeFou's hero worshipof this guy. He's like a historianand celebrates this guy's legacy,and that's what makes it so funny.And thank you for raising it anoctave for Luke and I, because nowwe have to sing it live all the time.

Evans: That is our own fault.The curse of the two tenors.

You revived a lot of old lyrics thatwere lost for this movie. Whatwas that like hearing those lyricsagain?

Menken: Great. That wasgreat. And also, hearing at the endof the movie, the long-lost versefrom "Beauty and the Beast" thatHoward wrote. Oh, man.

I gotta say, [director] Bill Con-don is really smart. Because it was

really Bill who reached in and said,"I want to do that." That was huge,Bill having that curiosity andwillingness to open it up. There is alittle treasure-trove of lost Ash-man that's wonderful.

When you're actually filming"Gaston" what were the direc-tor's notes? Did he say, "Don'tworry about going too big?"What's the balance between vil-lainy and comedy?

Evans: There was a lot of, therewas a lot of...

Gad: I think she's just sayingwe mugged it.

Evans: You mean we weretheatrical about our perform-ances? We had a lot of rehearsal.So we worked out the level and thesize of our performances from therehearsal room. Because it is alarger-than-life moment, in thefilm there's this huge group ofpeople being rallied by one tomake the ego of another feelgrand. And so there is a very sortofjolly atmosphere in that roomand everybody's had a beer or twoand music is playing. I think wehad a license to be a little largerthan we would have been outsideof the tavern because the tavernwas a place of frivolity and happi-ness.

Gad: I remember one of myfavorite songs growing up. Haveyou guys seen the original "Pete'sDragon"? When they're going tothe tavern and [Mickey Rooney issinging], "A dragon, a dragon, Iswear I saw a dragon." That sort offelt like that was the spirit of whatwe were doing. The song is soinfectious that you want people towatch it and feel like they want tobe in this tavern and jump onto thetable and sing Gaston's praisesalongside you.

Menken: Also, Howard's lyricsare hilarious. I actually foundrecordings of me working — be-cause I used to keep them oncassette — and I get to, "Every lastinch of me's covered with hair."And I just crackup, I just stop. "Iuse antlers in [all of my decorat-ing]." Imagine, looking at thatlyric for the first time. You had toknow Howard too, he was justbeating Gaston senseless. And itwas delicious.

It's a very happy villain song aswell; it's hard not to get caught upin it.

Menken: You know it may beone of the happiest villain songsever, it's true.

Evans: I was watching theaudience [at the recent premiere].everyone's really into that scene.There were people just movingalong. It just rouses everyone.

Menken: They love Gaston.They did applaud when you died.

Evans: They applauded when Idied.

Gad: I led the applause.Evans: You did. You whooped

along. I didn't even hit the groundand you were already clapping.

Gad: My daughter said,"Daddy, why are you laughing,horrible."

Evans: Right here [points tochest]. It was wonderful.

Josh and Luke, how did it feelwhen you found out you weregoing to perform Menken's mu-sic?

Gad: I was 10 years old when"Beauty and the Beast" came out.The distinct, vivid memory that I

What does it take to write a greatvillain song?

Menken: Stay true to characterand stay true to the story. Youdon't think "villain song," youthink it's a song for this character

meredith.woemero latimes.comTwitter: o'MdellW

Beauty and the BeastLos Angeles TimesMeredith WoernerSun, Mar 12, 2017

Material supplied by Daily Buzz, LLC to you may be used for non-commercial and internal review, analysis and research purposes only. Any editing, reproduction, modification,publication, rebroadcasting, public display or public distribution is forbidden and may violate U.S. and international copyright laws. This material may include printed documentsand images, audio works, audio/visual works, content stored on electronic storage media such as CDs and DVDs, electronic communications, and electronic documents and othercontent attached to or accessible through such electronic communications. By accepting, accessing and using the material, you agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmlessDaily Buzz, LLC for third-party claims of intellectual property infringement based upon your violation of the foregoing restrictions.

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