Disney's Beauty And The Beast musical to illuminate Crown Theatre Perth with Rohan Browne as Lumiere
No one could have foreseen musical theatre performer Rohan Browne's moment on a lamppost as Don Lockwood in the Australian production of Singin' In The Rain as a precursor to his current illuminating role in Beauty And The Beast.
Yet Browne's current undertaking as the world's most famous talking candelabra Lumiere is not his first brush with the Disney musical, based on the company's groundbreaking 1991 animated film.
With a background in ballet, Browne was a teenager studying at Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School when seeing the original Australian Beauty And The Beast production multiple times in 1995 — starring Rachel Beck, Michael Cormick, Hugh Jackman and Bert Newton — made him more determined than ever to pursue a career in musical theatre.
'If you've seen the cartoon, the original iteration of Lumiere was the fun, funny light in the castle who also gets to do a big number,' 45-year-old Browne says from his home in Melbourne.
'Aside from the title number, Be Our Guest is the big kind of showstopper, so there's a lot of pressure to really reach those heights, and I've put my own spin on it, as any actor does. They want to come at it with fresh eyes.'
Browne's performance of Be Our Guest includes an extended dance break from the original stage production, taking it to a pulse-racing 11-minute extravaganza.
'It's Disney. They don't do things by halves, do they?' he laughs.
'It's pretty amazing to lead that number. It's a challenge. I don't ever rest on my laurels. I never get used to it. There's always something to work on or improve or find other little moments in it, even though we've been doing it for coming up to two years.
'That number aside, there's also the sentimental moments that we have of really trying to get the Beast to understand that this is our last chance before the curse really takes hold of us, this is his last opportunity… I really kind of see Lumiere as kind of the Beast or the Prince's fun uncle — the one who he kind of looks to because Cogsworth is too fuddy-duddy and strict.'
Beauty And The Beast was the first Disney film adapted as a Broadway musical in 1994, this tale as old as time featuring the animation's original music by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman, with additional lyrics by Tim Rice.
'When director and choreographer Matt West talks about him going to Disney and being like 'This is the perfect thing to start Disney Theatrical', it really is,' Browne says.
'It's got this beautiful heroine; a strong, powerful woman who stands in her power and stands in her truth, which was the antithesis of anything else that they'd really kind of done.'
While the production still has all that old-school live musical magic, Browne believes the updated technology used throughout this reimagined Australian version, which premiered at Sydney's Capitol Theatre in June 2023, is rather spectacular.
'It's nostalgic for the older generation who have seen it before, but for new theatre-goers, or people who haven't seen the show before, they're going to be wowed,' Browne says.
'You hear a lot of gasping when certain elements happen, like when the Prince transforms into the Beast in the prologue and when he transforms from the Beast back to the Prince. How Chip comes on stage, how all of the trickery happens in Gaston and how Be Our Guest just keeps going and going. All of these incredible theatrical elements are thrown out there.'
Without wanting to wax lyrical, Browne says he is loving his time on the Beauty And The Beast stage, not only as part of the musical's legacy but also for what it has meant to his family, particularly his four-year-old Duke.
'He still hasn't managed to be able to sit through the whole show because he gets scared of the Beast,' Browne says of his son with wife and fellow musical theatre performer Christie Whelan Browne.
'But he'll watch the Be Our Guest performance we did for Sunrise 15 times a day. I think he knows it better than I do.'
Beauty And The Beast is at Crown Theatre Perth from July 24. Tickets at ticketmaster.com.au.
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