Disney’s Beauty and the Beast dazzles in Denver with gorgeous costumes and theatrical magic, yet its screen-heavy scenery falls flat.

Why is Disney — a company whose name is practically synonymous with magic and isn’t exactly strapped for cash — skimping on the scenic design in its touring production of Beauty and the Beast?

There’s no shortage of beauty in this production. The costumes are great. The performers are world-class. And the illusions deliver all of the Mouse’s signature razzle-dazzle. However, the scenic design by Stanley A. Meyer, working with projection and video designer Darrel Maloney, is beastly.

Rather than textured, three-dimensional environments, the production relies on enormous screens, augmented by staircases, chairs and occasional flown-in facades. When Belle speaks with Gaston and LeFou in the village, the animated buildings suddenly slide around them as Maurice rolls into view. Nobody has gone anywhere, yet the scenery behaves as though they have.

It’s goofy, and not in the fun Disney way.

Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Philippe in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. | Photo: Matthew Murphy

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And while the screens make the production look cheaper than it almost certainly is, the larger issue is that they flatten the otherwise energetic staging. That’s especially frustrating when the rest of the production keeps proving how theatrical this fairy tale can be.

Where the magic happens

Adapted from Disney’s 1991 animated film, the musical follows Belle, who takes her imprisoned father’s place in the castle of a cursed prince. The Broadway adaptation ran for 13 years after its 1994 debut. Matt West directs and choreographs Disney’s first company-produced North American tour of Beauty and the Beast in more than 25 years.

Ann Hould-Ward, who won a Tony for the original Broadway production, returns with gorgeous costumes. Belle’s yellow ballgown is stunning, the Beast’s blue suit is suitably dashing, and the enchanted furniture are all wonderfully inventive. Cogsworth has a clock built into his stocky body, Lumière’s hands light up, Mrs. Potts can boil tea and Madame is a walking wardrobe with a mirror. These whimsical, tactile creations make the digital backgrounds look all the more lifeless.

A moment from “Be Our Guest” in the touring production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. | Photo: Matthew Murphy

Grace Marie Rusnica is a winning Belle, with a gorgeous voice that soars during the second-act ballad “A Change in Me.” Fergie L. Philippe gives a wonderfully comic performance as the Beast, licking his wounds and slurping soup while repeatedly reminding himself to be a gentleman. His real transformation happens long before the spell breaks.

Stephen Mark Lukas and Julian Marcus De Guzman are hilarious as Gaston and LeFou. Their tavern number features flying arrows, a sweater knitted in seconds with Gaston’s face on it and a riotous mug-clinking dance. Plus, the children around me booed Lukas at the curtain call, which is about as glowing an endorsement as a Disney villain can receive.

Harry Francis as Lefou and Stephen Mark Lukas as Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. | Photo: Matthew Murphy

Danny Gardner’s Lumière leads an equally impressive “Be Our Guest,” complete with an extended tap sequence, a massive kick line and long confetti strips shot out at the audience that sent children scrambling to pick up the streamers as souvenirs. Jim Steinmeyer’s illusions are terrific, from an old woman instantly transforming into a towering enchantress to the Beast’s transformations and Chip’s apparently disembodied face inside a teacup. Where on earth is the rest of that kid?

That’s what makes the screens so maddening. In a musical about transformation, the actors, costumes and illusions make impossible changes feel real. The projections too often remind us we’re looking at pictures.

Kyra Belle Johnson and Fergie L. Philippe in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. | Photo: Matthew Murphy

Disney’s Aladdin and The Lion King, both currently running on Broadway, offer a revealing contrast, using elaborate movable scenery and intricate stagecraft to flesh out their worlds. Comparatively, Beauty and the Beast looks quaint. Composer Alan Menken hinted at D23 in August that the musical “may be back” on Broadway soon. If that’s the ambition, the scenic design needs to match the talent and invention elsewhere onstage.

There’s still an enchanting evening here, especially for families. But before another enchanted rose petal falls, Disney should give its scenery a transformation of its own.