Everyone knows that Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is a worldwide phenomenon. Over 35 million people have seen it, and it was nominated for 13 Tonys. This classic show is about seeing past the exterior of a person and into his or her heart.

Beauty and the Beast is the story of Belle, a small-town girl, and the Beast, who is really a prince under an enchantress’ spell. If the Beast can learn to love unconditionally and earn the love of another, the curse over his household will end.

But if the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity. With every passing moment, the magical objects (which are former servants) and their master lose more and more of their humanity.

This U.S. tour (presented by NETworks) is fortunate enough to have the original Broadway creative team, notably the original director, Rob Roth. The all-new “visually re-imagined” version is an illuminated manuscript come to life, said Stan Meyer, scenic designer. The look of the show is “very, very romantic,” said Meyer--not a Valentine’s Day romantic, but a darkly mysterious romantic.

The entertainment begins even before the overture, in the form of many pint-sized, aspiring Belles parading into the theater in their princess costumes. The scenery is covered with luxurious, eye-popping storybook shapes and colors. A gorgeous forest scrim is used cleverly during a driving scene and the Beast hunt. The second act storm was magnificently rendered.

The fun extremes extend to the look of the characters, including giant-sized eyebrows on Belle’s father, horns on the Beast and the copious drawers of Madame de la Grande Bouche. Each one is an impeccable caricature, and the players’ enjoyment is contagious.

However, as Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” showed us once and for all, fairy tales aren’t always pretty. The feel of the first act—including a wolf attack, the sinister look of the Beast’s castle and his first-act persona might be a bit intense for younger children.

A uniformly proficient cast of 30 has been assembled for the tour, featuring Liz Shivener, who absolutely embodies Belle. Justin Glaser’s Beast lends subtlety and enchanting humor to the second act. Nathaniel Hackmann says of his Gaston: “He’s the character who you love to hate.” Gaston’s idea of wooing Belle is to sing about himself:

“All roads lead to—
The best things in life are—
All’s well that ends well—
With me.”

While the show outwardly plays as a frenetically paced cartoon, whose slapstick hijinks are very broad, it has depth. It uses its songs to delve surprisingly deeply into its characters’ inner lives. After the Beast imprisons her, Belle sings, “Home should be where the heart is.”

The Beast’s anguish at being cursed emerges in “If I Can’t Love Her,” and in the lyric “I just made one wrong decision…Can no one show me how to win the world’s forgiveness?” Belle and the Beast both evolve, changing in response to each other. The reading and formal dinner scenes were especially sweet.

The Oscar-winning score is strong, opening with the predictably pleasing “Belle,” the grin-inducing first act climax “Be Our Guest” (singing dinnerware and a can-can for good measure), on through the heart achingly beautiful melody of a “tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme.”

The book and lyrics are funny and evocative: “Beneath all that matted fur, he’s not so bad” and “When we touched, she didn’t shudder at my paw.” Even the painful puns are fun, as when the enchanted Lumiere says: “You cut me to the wick.”

The music of Beauty and the Beast was written by Alan Menken, and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. Linda Woolverton wrote the book.

Children treasure their memories of a large-scale live show. Every musical seen as a child adds to a lifetime love of theater. And ‘Beast’ is a great beginning. One little girl asked her dad if they could see the play every day!

This type of fantasy confection goes down easily in these troubled times. Sure, it’s silly (in a good way). Sure it’s pure Disney hokum. But it’s all heart.

Beauty and the Beast has a limited run at the Golden Gate Theatre, from August 17-29, as a part of the 2009-2010 Citibank Best of Broadway series. Ticket prices range from $30 to $99. For more information, visit www.shnsf.com.

SHN’s Best of Broadway series provides Bay Area audiences with pre-Broadway world premieres, original Broadway cast productions, award-winners and current hits fresh from Broadway.