Beauty and the Beast (1991 film) servants' human forms. The Prince and Belle host a ball for the kingdom, where they dance happily. After the success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937, Walt Disney sought out other stories to adapt into feature films, with "Beauty and the Beast" being among the stories he considered. Attempts to develop the "Beauty and the Beast" story into a film were made in the 1930s and 1950s, but were ultimately given up because it "proved to be a challenge" for the story team. Peter M. Nichols states Disney may later have been discouraged by Jean Cocteau having
Beauty and the Beast (musical) accepting a new version of such an immensely popular work. "Beauty and the Beast" became Disney's first Broadway venture, although "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", a stage adaptation of Disney's animated film of the same name, had premiered in New York in 1979, produced by Radio City Music Hall Productions, Inc. Theatre Under the Stars' executive director Frank Young campaigned heavily to have the show open in Houston, Texas even getting Governor Ann Richards involved in order to secure the stage rights. Roth summarized "Beauty and the Beast" as a story about "seeing past the exterior of a person