Broadway veteran Michael Halling as The Beast shares a tender moment with Patti Murin as Belle in the touring production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

Murray Riss

It has skimped a little on the sets and costumes, but otherwise the Beauty and the Beast that’s at the Providence Performing Arts Center this week is a winning production with some terrific voices, good chemistry between the leads, and a fine pit orchestra.

It has been three years since the Disney production of this show came through town. This time around it is being produced by PPAC and a handful of independent theaters from around the nation. And that is not necessarily a bad thing, save for some of the special effects, like the final scene where the unsightly beast turns back into a dashing prince.

There the wires used to suspend our hero over the stage are painfully obvious. And there are only a few twinkling lights surrounding him, not the blinding laser of the Disney show.

The costumes are not as lavish, either. The dreadlocked beast has a painted-on nose that looks like a kid’s Halloween getup. Mrs. Potts, the enchanted teapot, is a little clunky.

Otherwise, it’s a solid show that’s perfect for kiddies and the arrested adolescents in us all.

Beauty and the Beast, about an insensitive prince turned into an ogre until he can learn to love, is pretty much a carbon copy of the animated Disney film. Rather than rework the cartoon as it did with The Lion King, making it into its own stand-alone piece of theater, Disney has essentially given us a 3-D version of the original, right down to the over-the-top caricatures and its black-and-white moral take. There are self-infatuated Gaston of the bulging biceps and towering hair, goofy Lefou, the masochistic sidekick who loves to be abused, and Belle, who reeks with sweetness.

And then there’s the Beast, the one character who goes through something of a transformation, who actually grows and who somehow escapes becoming a total cliché.

But it is really only during the show’s second half that we get to see that change take place. Before that, we have to wade through lots of fluff, lots of bad jokes and cheery, generic tunes. But as Belle and the Beast come to know one another, there is actually something of a dramatic dynamic that emerges. And in this production, the two characters click.

The hard-working cast seemed awfully young, but in many cases has managed to accrue some impressive credentials. Tony Lawson, who plays Gaston, the narcissistic hunter who hopes to marry Belle, was in the Broadway production of Les Miserables. Here he plays his self-centeredness to the hilt, mugging at every turn.

“Is it ‘Yes,’ or ‘Oh yes,’ ” says Gaston when he proposes to Belle.

“But I don’t deserve you,” says Belle.

“Who does?” replies Gaston.

Michael Halling, who was in the national tour of Les Miz, gives us a Beast that bounces from bluster to a sort of kind-heartedness we can’t help but root for. And he has a killer baritone, heard in a soaring rendition of “If I Can’t Love Her,” which closes out the first half of the show.

Patti Murin, who looks all of 16, is an appealing, innocent Belle. She has a sweet, true soprano, but one that can take off when needed. Her big number, “Home,” was wonderful.

In lesser roles, James Young makes a witty, charming Lumiere, the human candelabra, who belches flames every time he has the hots for a woman, and Markelle Gay, an 11-year-old Atlantan, is an adorable Chip, the broken teacup.

Bernardine S. Mitchell, the Mrs. Potts, did a nice job delivering the catchy theme song, “Beauty and the Beast,” and Nancy Johnson, donning a Marie Antoinette wig, was a hoot as the opera singer turned dresser, Madame de la Grande Bouche, or Mrs. Big Mouth.

Ray DeMattis gives us a kindly but eccentric Maurice, Belle’s father, and Michael Fitzpatrick was oh so proper as Cogsworth the supercilious clock.

Beauty and the Beast runs through Sunday at the Providence Performing Arts Center, 220 Weybosset St. Shows are tonight at 7:30 p.m.; tomorrow at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $38-$65, with Kids’ Night performances tonight and Sunday night, when those aged 18 and under are admitted free if accompanied by an adult who purchases a full-priced ticket. Call (401) 421-2787 or go to www.ppacri.org.