Audra McDonald and Josh Gad join the cast of Disney’s live action version of Beauty and the Beast

Audra McDonald
Tony Award-winning actress Audra McDonald, who also starred in television’s Private Practice, is in final negotiations to join the cast of Disney’s live action version of Beauty and the Beast.

McDonald will join a roll call that includes Emma Watson as Belle, Dan Stevens as the Beast/Prince, Luke Evans as the vain villain Gaston, and Josh Gad as Le Fou, Gaston’s buffoonish and loyal sidekick. The live action movie, directed by Bill Condon, is aligning itself closely with the 1991 animated classic.
McDonald is a stage star that has won acclaim for her voice chops and dramatic chops, reflected in her recent Tony wins: best performance by an actress in a musical for Porgy and Bess in 2012 and best performance by an actress in a play for Lady Day in Emerson’s Bar and Grill in 2014. She also has Tonys for her work in Raisin in the Sun, Ragtime, Carousel and others. (She has six, winning three of them by the age of 28.)
In Beauty, McDonald will be playing Garderobe, the French word for wardrobe.
In Disney’s fairy tale, the Prince is placed under a curse which sees his servants turned into various objects in the castle. The lady-in-waiting turned into Garderobe. She, along with Mrs Potts, a kettle, assist Belle in her initial loneliness and is part of the "Be Our Guest" showstopper.
The character also sings a solo as part of Human Again, a song which was deleted from the 1991 movie but later added to the 2002 special edition DVD.
Production begins in May at Shepperton Studios in London.
McDonald, repped by WME, will be seen in HBO's adaptation of Lady Day and returns to Broadway with Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed.
source:The Hollywood Reporter
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Josh Gad

Olaf has officially joined Disney’s live-action version of Beauty and the Beast. broke the news that Josh Gad will be playing Luke Evans’ faithful, bird-brained sidekick LeFou in the live-action adaptation. After news broke that the actor would be playing LeFou, Gad tweeted a picture of him standing next to his cartoon counterpart.

Gad is the first American to join the film as British actress Emma Watson (the Harry Potter series) has been cast as Belle, Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as the Beast and Luke Evans (Dracula Untold) as Gaston. Gad is no stranger to singing as he played Elder Arnold Cunningham in The Book of Mormon and Olaf in Frozen. So he should be able to perform “Gaston” with no trouble at all.

source:nerdreactor