If you ask a young child to describe the heroine from “Beauty and the Beast,” they might reference the slim, fair-skinned Disney princess in the memorable blue-and-white dress from the animated movie or the petite Emma Watson from its live-action remake.
In the production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” currently running at the Olney Theatre Center in Maryland, however, Belle is played by Jade Jones, a self-described queer, plus-sized Black woman.
The production’s Tony Award-nominated director, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, said Jones’s presence has made an impact on the audience from the very beginning. After the cast sang about the most beautiful girl in town during the opening number, Jones stepped on stage. “Little Black girls in the audience screamed out, ‘Is that Belle?’” Dodge recounted. “And it’s not just a Black Belle who fits into the size 2 replica dress, but a plus-size Belle. So [all] little girls can dream big about them being princesses, too.”
“I never imagined I would play a Disney princess in my entire life,” Jones said. “I mean, there were never any Disney princesses who looked like me…. It’s just a dream to do a show like this that I never thought I would be cast in. I’m living my musical theater dreams.”
