When we did B&B a few years ago, I made our latex mask. Using dental hyginate, I made a live mask of the actors
face. Then, using plaster of paris, I made a positive.
I used play-dough to
build up the cheeks and nose as well as the chin.
I covered the positive play-dough head in a mixture of liquid latex and wrinkle
stipple.
Once it dried, I removed it, and painted and trimmed it.
I then put it on the actor and finished the paint and, using more liquid latex, I added
crepe hair to it. (having it on the actor so I could see what it should look like.)
I ended up using a combination of black and brown
crepe.
The mask was attached to a wig, and stiffened with a coating of foam/latex rubber (with repainting...sigh).
This way, he wore the mask and wig as once peice, and required no
spirit gum to attach it.
I really wish I would have took pictures....
The mask came down from the forhead (where it was attached to the wig) to the eyebrows.
There was a peice that covered his nose, and actually hooked in his nostril with a curved peice of foam rubber at the end (to ensure it stayed in place.)
It also went down from his ears to his chin.
If you've ever seen Mike Myers as the Cat in the Hat, watch the behind the scenes and look at the peice he wears. It was similar to that, but the nose was part of it, and it was easier to remove.
For the transition to the prince at the end, we lifted him up on wires, and spun him around in the air. As he was spinning, he turned his brown cloak inside out, removed the headpeice, tucked it in the hood of his cloak, and removed the
hand peices, placing them in a hidden pocket on the inside of his cloak, as well as the
foot peices.
He was lowered then, wearing this bright red cloak, and completely human looking.
He then said some of his lines with Belle, and when the servants entered in their human forms, the prince/beast simply handed Luimere his cloak, and Luimere ditched it offstage, so the beast/prince didn't have to worry about a beast peice falling out of his cloak.
It worked really well. Hope this helped.