Luke Evans will flex his vocal muscles as Gaston in Beauty & the Beast #book2movies

My son was a whisk in his high school's production of Beauty & the Beast. Luke Evans enjoys much more manly casting; Variety broke the news that Evans has been cast as Gaston in Disney's live action production of the truly-beloved musical. Emma Watson was cast last month as the titular Beauty, aka Belle, and while at one point Ryan Gosling was being talked about for the Beast (be still my heart), that part has gone to Dan Stevens, the handsome, huggable, much-missed Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey. Emma Thompson is rumored to play Mrs. Potts which would be too cool for school. The Perks of Being a Wallflower author and director Stephen Chbosky wrote the script.

Gaston is the insufferably egotistical narcissist and the incredibly handsome catch of the little French village where Belle makes her home. We know because he tells us so.

Mr. Evans is more than equipped to take on the mantle of Gaston and his muscles; he's tall (6'1") dark and handsome and has several musicals under his belt, including a London West End production of Rent, in which he played Roger. So he can sing.  The question is, can he expectorate?

Gaston/Beauty and the Beast

The original 1991 Disney animated musical movie version of Beauty and the Beast —an adaptation of the classic French fairy tale La Belle et la Bete penned by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont    —not only grossed a mega $375 million, it birthed the wildly popular Broadway musical and has probably been staged by more high school and community theatre production companies than Grease.

I know a lot of you can't wait for Disney's Cinderella—which opens next week—but for me it can't hold a candle to Beauty and the Beast. Besides my son's high school never staged Cinderella!

Oh and by the way, I'm triply excited about Luke Evans casting because he is currently shooting Message from the King with Chadwick Boseman and Alfred Molina; guess whose hubby is working on that one? 

Emma Watson in Noah

Dan Stevens in Downton Abbey

Emma Thompson as her magnificent self