Take an Academy Award winning score with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by the late great Howard Ashman, along with additional musical accompaniment from Menken with lyric writer Tim Rice, and the Broadway tour “Beauty and the Beast” is certainly a safe bet when it comes to soundtrack satisfaction. But even more impressive during its current run at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace Theatre (where it appears through April 4) are the elaborate sets that make the already memorable characters jump off the silver screen and right in the audience’s laps.
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Ender Thomas, Chloe and Yanni at Sears Centre in IL (Photos By Andy Argyrakis)

Some artists find the most success when giving their career a complete makeover, and in the case of Yanni, he’s literally shifted from a late night PBS punch line (Yawni anyone?) to a Simon Cowell-styled talent scout of sorts. Along with the makeover comes the cutting of his lengthy locks, the shaving of that signature mustache and signing a record deal with Disney, also the home to Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers and plenty of today’s teen poppers.

And these days, the new age stalwart turned piano popper is finding a somewhat unexpected audience outside of the graying generation thanks to a recent talent search that plucked four fresh-faced signers out of obscurity and gave them a national platform on the Yanni Voices CD (produced by Jennifer Lopez/Mariah Carey mastermind Ric Wake), followed by an arena tour. (more…)