What it was like
Something happens in the first ten minutes of Beauty and the Beast that no amount of knowing the story prepares you for. The curtain rises, the orchestra swells from somewhere you cannot see, and a room full of grown adults who came because their children asked suddenly forget they are grown adults.
Disney is bringing Beauty and the Beast back to San Diego for the first time in over 25 years, and this is not the movie you remember projected onto a stage. This is a full-scale Broadway touring production with sets that transform in front of you, costumes that make you forget there are people inside them, and an orchestra playing the Oscar-winning score live — "Be Our Guest," "Something There," "Beauty and the Beast" — every note earned in real time.
The production runs July 7-12, 2026 at the San Diego Civic Theatre. Eight performances over six days. Matinee and evening shows available.
What makes this production different from the dozens of Beauty and the Beast stagings over the years is that Disney waited. They waited until they had spectacular new sets, new costumes, new choreography — and they waited until a generation of children who grew up on the animated film now have children of their own. The parents in the audience are not revisiting something. They are watching their children discover it for the first time.
Tickets start at 2 through Ticketmaster. The Civic Theatre seats 2,967 — this is not a small show in a small room. This is Broadway landing in San Diego for one week.