While the animated Disney film Beauty and the Beast was enchanting, the 1993 stage version felt like a theme park attraction. Despite its enormous popularity, the spell it cast eluded me, so I was surprised to find the new touring production – a makeover of the original – well-crafted and touching, abetted by strong leads, charming support, fun choreography, and stellar production design.

Disney’s decision to do a makeover was a shrewd one. Theater technology has changed significantly in three decades, and incorporating such elements as a giant LED screen that fills the rear of the stage helps give this perennial favorite a much-needed visual lift.

Developed from the 1991 Oscar-nominated (Best Picture) animated feature, this stage version expanded the score and the story. Alan Menken wrote new songs with Tim Rice, who stepped in after the composer’s partner Howard Ashman passed; and Linda Woolverton adapted her screenplay for the stage, expanding on the character of the Beast (more threatening) and Belle (more contemporary). Disney lavished millions on its fairy tale look, but the critics were hostile when it first opened. Audiences ignored them and it ran in New York for 13 years, amassing 5,461 performances.

Further tweaks were made for this production, which originated in the UK five years ago, then was tightened in Australia before coming to the States. Some songs were cut, and Woolverton made Belle more assertive, having her wear glasses to make her appear more bookish. But much of the credit for this new streamlined Beauty should go to director/choreographer Matt West, who expands the dance elements – the splendid “Be My Guest” feels twice as long but never wears out its showstopping welcome. Here it is abetted by that LED screen, which projects Busby Berkeley-inspired overhead views of the dancers in geometric shapes and frames the number with boldly colored prosceniums that at its conclusion appear to go on into infinity. He also builds it to a tap-dancing climax right out of “42nd Street,” which I don’t recall in the original.

One notable addition is the inclusion of Belle’s second act number “A Change In Me,” which was added during the Broadway run for Toni Braxton. It gave the tour’s Belle, the most appealing Kyra Belle Johnson, a moment to soar vocally and emotionally. One of the better aspects of the musical is that Belle is no Disney princess, but an intelligent, headstrong young woman who sees a world beyond the small village where she lives – where she’s pursued by the comically obnoxious Gaston (Stephen Mark Lukas). He has comic chemistry with his cartoonish sidekick Lefou (Harry Francis), though their relationship has been de-gayed some from the 2017 live-action film version of the musical.

The plot doesn’t kick in until Belle’s father (Kevin Ligon), an eccentric inventor, is captured by the Beast and left to die in a castle dungeon, and she offers herself to take his place. The brutish Beast (a commanding, sure-voiced Fergie L. Philippe) is under a spell that can’t be broken until he can both love and be loved. What gives Woolverton’s book its humanity is how the castle’s staff are also under the spell and are slowly becoming inanimate objects, wonderfully personified in Ann Hould-Ward’s costumes (redesigned to give the characters a more human look) and in the performances of Danny Gardner (Lumiere), Cameron Monroe Thomas (Babette), Javier Ignacio (Cogsworth), Holly Anne Butler (Madame), and Kathy Voytko (Mrs. Potts). When Belle arrives, they conspire to bring her and the Beast together in what can be considered a fairy-tale case of Stockholm Syndrome, if there ever was one. Still, it is hard not to succumb to the show’s romantic glow when Johnson appears in a stunning, crystalized ball gown and dances with the Beast as Voytko sings the lovely title song.

Original set designer Stanley A. Meyer returned, but gives the show a new look. Gone are the Escher-inspired stairs used for the Beast’s castle; instead, there is a warmer, Art Nouveau-inspired look with two large candelabras framing scenes and the extensive use of video projections for the castle’s many locales. He was assisted in the design elements by Natasha Katz’s shadowy lighting and Darrel Maloney’s videos and projections. Gone are the dancing wolves, replaced by dramatic animated ones. What hasn’t changed is illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer’s transformation of the Beast to the Prince in the final moments. This, along with the illusion of Mrs. Potts’ son Chip, whose head appears as a teacup on a rolling cart without the body beneath, leaves you wondering: how did they do that?

Beauty and the Beast continues through May 2 at the Citizens Opera House, 539 Washington Street Boston, MA. For ticket information, visit Broadway in Boston at this link. For more on the tour, follow this link.

Watch this trailer for the production: