Aida

[Sarangel]

As a personal observation, I went to see the touring version of Disney's Aida. Wow. I was very impressed with this musical. The set was very minimalist, but it gave the audience enough of a sense of place to allow the suspension of disbelief. There were some special effects, but all as part of the story rather than 'look we can do special effects.'

The music is wonderful, though I will admit to being partial to Elton John & Tim Rice to begin with, so I may not be the most impartial source. I still have some of the tunes wandering through my head.

The story is simple, sweet, poignent, and (this is Disney after all) has a happy ending.

I'm happy to answer any questions, but I thought I'd point out this little bright spot in the Disney empire.

Sarangel

 

[FergieTCat]

I saw it on Broadway and I completely agree with you.

Donna

 

[Kaelyn]

What is the story? We have a promo at TDS for it, and I have been curious. Also, there is one spot on our promo where, if you watch closely enough, you can see her starting to take his shirt off. Of course, I have no idea who these people are. Does she really do that? That intrigued me, of course!

 

[Sarangel]

She does, but then it fades to black. Plot Summery below - WARNING: Spoilers!!!































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Aida is a Nubian Princess who is captured by an Egyptian Captian (Ramades). He gives her to his betrothed, who is the Egyptian princess. Ramades' father is planning on killing the pharaoh & putting Ramades on the throne. Somewhere along the line, Aida & Ramades fall in love. Then her father, the King of Nubia, is captured. Aida & the other Nubian slaves plan a jailbreak for Ramades' wedding. This means that Aida must give up her love in order to save her father. The jailbreak goes mostly as planned, but Ramades's father finds out that Aida is leaving. He catches her at the docks & she is saved by Ramades. Unfortunately, both of them are captured by the palace guards & sentanced to death for treason.

The Disney twist is that the story begins in an Egyptian Art exhibit with everyone in modern costume & at the very end after Ramades has promised to find Aida 'no matter how many lifetimes it takes,' they meet in the Art exhibit.

Best,

Sarangel

 

[DisDuck]

I also saw it on Broadway and loved it. My daughter and wife loved it. I thought the story line with modern day beginning and modern day end tied together nicely. It brought 'magic' to the love story, ie. Love is Eternal.

Now as a side note. On the debate board Another Voice stated that Aida is only still present on Broadway because Disney has nothing to replace it with. The impression was that the show was actually lame, etc.

Anyone care to search out that thread and respond be my guest.

 

[disneycub]

I find it interesting that AV would say that. According to many online sites, Aida is the third hardest ticket to find on Broadway, behind The Producers and The Lion King.

I wasn't terribly enthused about seeing Aida when it came to Denver, but after I saw the show I was scrounging to find tickets to another performance. I wasn't successful.

 

[FergieTCat]

According to playbill.com, AIDA's theater was filled to a 97% capacity last week. It's box office sales rank 4th, behind "The Producers", "The Lion King", and "Riverdance." FYI, "Beauty and the Beast" ranks 6th ("42nd Street" is fifth).

So, I don't think Disney is hurting on Broadway. In fact, if you add box office receipts together for all three of their shows ("AIDA", LK, BatB), they grossed $2,544,284 just last week. That means they are grossing over $130 million annually on Broadway.

Wow --

Donna

 

[YoHo]

Well, you know AV is a west Coast kind of guy. Maybe he just doesn't "get" broadway.


Can Anyone who's seen the Opera compare and contrast? If possible someone who likes both Opera and Musicals?

 

[lindamg]

My jaw dropped when I read the description of the story, and I was ready to ask if anyone else felt the same way! Then I ran across YoHo's post. I have not seen Disney's Aida yet, so I'll hold off on making too many comments until we see if there is someone out there who has seen both versions. My 5th grade students study Verdi's opera in class, so I am very familiar with that version. I have heard the music from the Disney version, but that post was the most I've heard about the plot.

Radames's father???? Isn't even a character in the opera! It appears that Disney has tried to simplify the story which makes sense, it is a very complicated story. Of course the original is a tragedy. Radames is condemned to death for treason, is buried alive and Aida sneaks into his tomb before it is sealed and they die together.

I did say I wouldn't say much, so I'll be quiet now. If anyone wants more details, I'd be glad to pontificate some more, but I'll leave that to your discretion.

PS - differences aside, I can't wait to see the Disney version!

 

[YoHo]

So in other words its no better or worse then what they did to The little Mermaid who should die loney and rejected.

 

[lindamg]

You got it!

Try explaining Hans Christian Anderson to 2nd graders, who only know the "They lived happily ever after" version. I have to admit - I love bursting their bubble. It's one class where they really listen to me!

 

[Another Voice]

The plane I just stepped off was 100% full, but somehow I don’t think that everyone on it paid full coach fare. As I wrote in my original post, the rumors say that tickets are going to the mass marketers and to the out-of-town visitors. I don’t think many people believe that ‘Riverdance’ – which is outperforming ‘Aida’ – is packing them in with folks from Park Avenue at full price either. Disney spent a lot of money on their show and a lot of money on the theater and The Company’s marketing machine guarantees it WILL be filled one way or the other. Half price tickets are better than empty seats.

I never said that ‘Aida’ was a bad show, just that it never turned into the hit Disney was expecting. No big Tony bounce, no decades on the road, no hype. And the fact that the hip crowd is shelling out thousands a ticket to go watch Timon and Inspector Gadget down the road is particularly disheartening. They really want a HUGE hit in their new theater to make the accountants happy. ‘Aida’ just isn’t that show, there will be another one.

 

[FergieTCat]

If Disney is going to get rid of one, why not "Beauty and the Beast"? It's grossing less than "AIDA".

I guess now that the original cast is gone, AIDA doesn't stand a chance. I saw it for the sake of Adam Pascal.

I'm not sure what you mean by AIDA not winning any Tonys. I thought it won for "Best Score" and Heather Headley won for Best Actress (or maybe Best Featured Actress).

Donna

 

[YoHo]

According to Broadwayonline.com Aida won the following awards in 2000


Best performance by a leading actress Heather Headley
Best Scenic Design Bob Crowley
Best Lighting Design Natasha Katz


Nominated best Costume Design Bob Crowley

 

[JeffJewell]

I'm not sure what you mean by AIDA not winning any Tonys

Another Voice made the point that there was no big Tony "bounce," meaning there was no significant increase in full-price ticket sales following the awards.

"No Tonys," was used later in the thread, I guess either mistakenly or as shorthand for the "Tony bounce" AV was referring to.

Jeff

 

[FergieTCat]

Oh, OK.

Donna

 

[DisDuck]

scoop you are confusing me with some other Duck. Before using clipart became a science I had as my signature Donald in tails and tophat. Most appropriate I thought.

As to this debate. If most of Aida's tickets are 1/2 prices (twofers) then how could they gross 3rd in the last week. Seats selling for half price don't add up to that kind of gross, or do they? Also, there is a road company I believe as some poster saw it without going to Broadway or did I miss understand (maybe). I think Aida will stay as long as seats are filling up as they seem to be. When attendence dies then the show will close.

I enjoyed it and would see it again.

 

[NFalzon]

Of course, analyzing data for a Broadway Musical CANNOT be done within a bubble. While a movie is produced for a specific amount, a theatrical production has a set of weekly expenses that a production must work against as the left-over profit pays back on the initial capitalization. THEREFORE, it is futile to determine what kind of a fiscal success AIDA is without knowing its weekly "nut". THAT BEING SAID, while some shows with low expenses can squeak on for a while despite a low weekly income, when you have a show with a weekly income as high as Aida's on Broadway--well, there's no need to mince words in calling it a fiscal success.

Is it bringing in New York locals? The answer--in truth--is a resounding yes.

It is a fantasyland to compare Aida to Riverdance for a number of reasons:
1) Riverdance has announced and publicized LAST WEEKS--and it is now closed. Such an announcement always "bumps" attendance.
2) The Gershwin Theater where Riverdance recently closed had approx. 250 extra seats, and is a two-level theater. THEREFORE, the price that can be charged can be higher because there is NO SUCH THING as a balcony seat--only Orchestra and Mezz.

Does that above point sound familiar? That is the reason they moved B&tBeast out of the Palace and into the Lunt-Fontanne--also a two-level theater. It is alot easier to sell full-price tickets in a Mezzanine to families with kids then to a more eclectic audience--especially in the period of time before Aida opened where it seemed to be a destined-failure.

Truth is, it wasn't, and nor is it one artistically. I like to call it my "guilty pleasure". In many ways, this is NOT a great show, but the book-ends (not a Disney touch--but rather a touch from Tony Winners Robert Falls and David Henry Hwang), are SO effective, as well as the tomb sequence that one cannot help but forget any previous indescretions--and the ending is all that matters because that's what you send them out remembering.

But back to the topic at hand: $$$$

Aida is selling 94% of its theater--the show which beat Aida for Best musical gets 79%--Contact. (Aida wasn't even nominated...) (All this being said, Contact is vastly superior.)

What of the other shows? The ones that WERE nominated for best musical?
The Wild Party? Finished
The Dead? Dead
Swing? Swung

But how to answer the charge that Aida is not performing as Disney had hoped?

To be honest, their hopes were WAY LOW!

They renamed the producing organization of Aida from Disney Theatrical Productions to Hyperion Theatrical productions.
They did the theatre shuffle to allow for bottom-end ticket prices upstairs.
They were up against precedent: the Atlanta Aida was a disaster and King David (an oratorio incorrectly staged at the New Amsterdam for a week pre-Lion King) set the stage to tell Disney that non-cartoon based productions were not gonna fly.

But Aida flew.

And how about the final proof?

Average ticket price.

Aida is fourth behind The Producers (@ $100 for an orchestra ticket), The Lion King, and The Full Monty.

And that takes into account those $20 and $30 tix in the balcony--and their average ticket price (the best determination of whether a show is discounting) is still high than that of the 2001 Best Musical Revival winner, 42nd Street.

Aida is going to be in that space for a while still to come.
Nick

 

[DisDuck]

Thanks for all the numbers Nick. Yes, The Tomb scene is beautifully done and awesome. The beginning and end tie-ins I thought worked great.

Isn't Contact the show where most of the singing is lip-synched? If so how does that make it superior?

 

[FergieTCat]

DisDuck --

I was going to ask Nick the same thing, but thought it would totally change the subject of this thread.

I saw "Contact" and think it's wonderful, but how did it win "Best Musical" if the music is prerecorded? There is no "singing", but there is dancing to music.

But AIDA did win Best Score.

Donna