Wei Wuxian, faced with the horrifying situation of two best friends who have never seen a Disney movie, concluded the only situation was to put on a performance of Beauty and the Beast himself.
It was remarkably easy to convince everyone else of this, because Wen Ning never objects to anything, Lan Wangji does anything Wei Wuxian wants, Jiang Cheng does anything Wei Wuxian wants but with a lot more protesting, and Nie Huaisang takes literally any excuse to wear a dress.
(Imagine if he had to convince Song Lan. Terrible. It's a good thing, Wei Wuxian thinks, that Song Lan is stuck back in Shanghai enclave not being a stick-in-the-mud.)
The preparation for Beauty and the Beast (Shanghai edition) was as follows:
-5% trying to collectively remember the entire plot of Beauty and the Beast.*
-5% translating all the songs into Mandarin so that people who don't know English can follow along.
-10% Nie Huaisang temporarily turning one of his curtains for Marian into a dress.
-20% convincing Lan Xichen this was a good idea.*
-50% Lan Wangji arranging every song in Beauty and the Beast for guqin and dizi, so that it will be perfect for Wei Wuxian.**
*Mrs. Potts wound up cut from this version because while everyone can remember that she existed no one can remember what she did.
**Wei Wuxian's plan to invite Julia "to encourage good relations between New York and Shanghai," however, was vetoed.
***Lan Wangji successfully convinced Jiang Cheng to practice the dizi for the songs where he's playing the dizi. Wei Wuxian, when asked to practice, said, "oh come on, Lan Zhan, I'll just sightread, it'll be fine."