I Think Disney Theatrical Just Create Their Own Original Musicals?

[TsWade2]

Hi,

I’m a big fan of Disney and I love it that Disney adapt their movies into Broadway musicals. The only problem is, the critics and the Tony award voters hated Disney. Sure they gave Disney some Tony Awards like The Lion King for best musical in 1998. But they haven’t receive a Tony Award for best musical since that. So, I’ve been thinking, do you think maybe Disney Theatrical just create their own original musicals that’s not based on movies? I mean, don’t get me wrong! I would love to see Hercules become a Broadway musical and I’m very excited for The Princess Bride the musical, but I’m thinking if Disney On Broadway wants the critics and the Tony voters to like Disney again, I think they should consider create their own original musical as in new stories or maybe find something to based on that Disney studios that didn’t bother to touch to make a movie out of it. Maybe they should make bio musical about Walt Disney or Annette Funicello, but not like that terrible Princess Diana musical. I don’t know. I just want the critics and the Tony voters to like Disney again even if they either may or may not win a Tony Award for best musical. What do you guys think?

 

[Karin1984]

They have created Aida. Won a few Tonys as well and was sort of original.

I think the problem for Disney is that musical theater is a very costly and risky business. There is a reason Disney is rehashing their animation hits into live action remakes. This brings in money. Also in their new animated movies we do not see a lot of creativity in storytelling. It all looks amazing, but it also has a lot of creative poverty.

 

[DodgerGirl]

When Disney decided to branch out into making Broadway musicals they knew that it would be a big step for Disney to do beyond focusing on their animated movies and since everyone who visits New York has to see a Broadway play at least once Disney knew that this would be a new hobby for them to focus on. And so when they debuted Beauty And The Beast as their very first ever Broadway play it became a smash hit and made Susan Egan a huge star for Disney and Disney knew that Broadway plays were indeed successful. When they repeated it with The Lion King it also became a smash hit and made a star out of Heather Headley who also played the title role in Aida when she finished playing Nala in The Lion King and Disney knew the secret formula to making Broadway plays was the same thing they used in movies to get celebrities and make them stars. But I think what made Disney Theatrical go downhill was they started making Broadway shows that promised to be huge hits but failed. Take for example when The Little Mermaid came out on Broadway it was destined to be a hit but due to little promotion it closed and the same thing with Mary Poppins Tarzan and Frozen because people thought Disney Broadway shows were gonna have the same quality as the theme park shows. It's no secret that The Lion King holds the record for being Disney's longest running Broadway show because it's a huge success. My aunt went to see The Lion King with her friends and she really enjoyed it and she thought it was amazing too. But you know what would be a smart thing for Disney to do? Team up with Marvel to create a Broadway show about the life of Stan Lee or make a Captain America Broadway show as well

 

[TsWade2]

When Disney decided to branch out into making Broadway musicals they knew that it would be a big step for Disney to do beyond focusing on their animated movies and since everyone who visits New York has to see a Broadway play at least once Disney knew that this would be a new hobby for them to focus on. And so when they debuted Beauty And The Beast as their very first ever Broadway play it became a smash hit and made Susan Egan a huge star for Disney and Disney knew that Broadway plays were indeed successful. When they repeated it with The Lion King it also became a smash hit and made a star out of Heather Headley who also played the title role in Aida when she finished playing Nala in The Lion King and Disney knew the secret formula to making Broadway plays was the same thing they used in movies to get celebrities and make them stars. But I think what made Disney Theatrical go downhill was they started making Broadway shows that promised to be huge hits but failed. Take for example when The Little Mermaid came out on Broadway it was destined to be a hit but due to little promotion it closed and the same thing with Mary Poppins Tarzan and Frozen because people thought Disney Broadway shows were gonna have the same quality as the theme park shows. It's no secret that The Lion King holds the record for being Disney's longest running Broadway show because it's a huge success. My aunt went to see The Lion King with her friends and she really enjoyed it and she thought it was amazing too. But you know what would be a smart thing for Disney to do? Team up with Marvel to create a Broadway show about the life of Stan Lee or make a Captain America Broadway show as well

Gee, I don't know if I want a Marvel musical, no offense.

 

[Skippyboo]

Gee, I don't know if I want a Marvel musical, no offense.

They had that fake avengers musical in Hawkeye

 

[Karin1984]

Spiderman the musical was one of the most interesting and most expensive flops in history. No one will try it again for decades.

Besides all the backstage drama of Spiderman the musical, the problem with superheroes is, you need the magic of film, what you can do in this medium doesn't work on stage. Similar to the problem of The Little Mermaid, no matter how hard you try, you cannot recreate a good feeling of being under water and swimming on stage.

You can try with rollerskates or wires, but it never comes close to what you can do in a movie. These are stories where the medium used to tell the story matters.

i love this channel

 

[supernova]

I saw Tarzan on Broadway. Just... oof.

 

[Suz333]

We just saw Frozen this evening, and we’re somewhat disappointed.
We never saw Beauty and the Beast over the many times it came to Atlanta, because we thought, “well, we’ve seen the movie, and the live show at DHS, so why see this?”
A few years ago, we signed up for a season of Broadway in Atlanta, and that first season included Lion King. WOW. It was amazing and we immediately started kicking ourselves for missing out on BATB. Then the next season had Aladdin, and it was fantastic, too. When they announced that we would get Frozen, we were thrilled. We had to wait much longer to see it due to the pandemic, but tonight was finally the night.

Umm, what was that? Some of the sets were neat, but not as much stood out as the other two productions we saw. It struck a sour note for us almost immediately. Anna was somewhat crass, both as a child and as an adult, and it felt like they went for cheap laughs at the expense of staying true to her character.

[ SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER: don’t read below if you don’t want to to hear about a scene unique to the play.

I am still trying to figure out the purpose of the two numbers with the people from the sauna. (One had them spilling out of the sauna in barely there towels, and the next had them in a chorus line in body suits to simulate nudity dancing around with branches in a weird Swedish massage meets fan dance routine.) It didn’t contribute to the story or character development at all. It didn’t seem like it belonged in a family show: it wasn’t a fun inside joke for adults. It would make sense in a cast wrap party, but not on stage. On the way home I commented that if we wanted to see a number about “ Ti*s and a**” we would watch “A Chorus Line”.


[END OF SPOILER **END OF SPOILER]

Sometimes Disney just doesn’t nail it, so they shouldn’t get a prize every time.

I should add, though, that some of the new songs were great, and the cast was stellar! I don’t think we’ll want to see the show again, but it might be worth downloading the Broadway show album.

 

[Karin1984]

We just saw Frozen this evening, and we’re somewhat disappointed.
We never saw Beauty and the Beast over the many times it came to Atlanta, because we thought, “well, we’ve seen the movie, and the live show at DHS, so why see this?”
A few years ago, we signed up for a season of Broadway in Atlanta, and that first season included Lion King. WOW. It was amazing and we immediately started kicking ourselves for missing out on BATB. Then the next season had Aladdin, and it was fantastic, too. When they announced that we would get Frozen, we were thrilled. We had to wait much longer to see it due to the pandemic, but tonight was finally the night.

Umm, what was that? Some of the sets were neat, but not as much stood out as the other two productions we saw. It struck a sour note for us almost immediately. Anna was somewhat crass, both as a child and as an adult, and it felt like they went for cheap laughs at the expense of staying true to her character.

[ SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER: don’t read below if you don’t want to to hear about a scene unique to the play.

I am still trying to figure out the purpose of the two numbers with the people from the sauna. (One had them spilling out of the sauna in barely there towels, and the next had them in a chorus line in body suits to simulate nudity dancing around with branches in a weird Swedish massage meets fan dance routine.) It didn’t contribute to the story or character development at all. It didn’t seem like it belonged in a family show: it wasn’t a fun inside joke for adults. It would make sense in a cast wrap party, but not on stage. On the way home I commented that if we wanted to see a number about “ Ti*s and a**” we would watch “A Chorus Line”.


[END OF SPOILER **END OF SPOILER]

Sometimes Disney just doesn’t nail it, so they shouldn’t get a prize every time.

I should add, though, that some of the new songs were great, and the cast was stellar! I don’t think we’ll want to see the show again, but it might be worth downloading the Broadway show album.

I saw Frozen a few weeks ago for the first time as well, in London. And I had the same. The first act was pretty decent. But the second act, Hygge is fun, but it really stalls the show. Same for Fixer Upper, which I already cannot stand it in the movie. That's 2 big useless numbers in a 45 minute 2nd act. Plus I have my doubts if this is the best way to portray the trolls as a native tribe. Can we get away with this in the 2020s?
I have the same with the fat jokes in Aladdin. There is this one fat friend in Aladdin's friend group, and his main use in the show is to get in some fat jokes.

I think the current, reworked version of BATB is fine. As long as you do not know the original. If you know the original you will be disappointed.

 

[DL1WDW2]

Disney created a Broadway Performance to celebrate 100 years with Disneys On the Record . The failure was unfortunate …Parents brought their children dressed as characters expecting “Disney” and rejected it because it was a celebration of the creative song writing process . It eventually toured during the summer and the week it was in Kansas City, Missouri , at local Starlight Outdoor Theatre at Swope Park , I was able to watch it 3 nights and then it was announced end of tour immediately .
I still have 2 CDs ( in case I wear one out ) to listen to the music on road-trips!

They used Walt Disneys voice I think …(maybe in Minnie’s YouHoo)
The story is told by song and the verses are short enough to learn the words .
Also this introduced Ashley Brown ( aka Mary Poppins ) to the Disney family of performers …you could see the rest of the cast sometimes listening to her perform from behind the curtains …her voice was incredible …

 

[DodgerGirl]

Another Broadway musical that Disney did that looked promising but also failed was Newsies and we know Newsies was a great Disney musical film that made an impact in theaters in 1992 but when I saw Newsies The Musical appear on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Newsies looked cool but I cannot see how a hit musical movie can make a promising Broadway play. But what I think the main problem that Disney Theatrical has is that many people aren't going to theaters that much anymore to see plays and ever since the pandemic Broadway was the hardest hit and it's not only theater plays but shows like ice shows that lost their novelty to families and the same thing happened to the circus because if you take a family with kids to a theater play or a ice show or a circus kids will only watch the first half and then they focus on listening to music on their MP3 players. But what can improve Disney Theatrical is they should have more impressive Broadway plays like I would love to see Encanto as a Broadway play or Pete's Dragon and a The Sword In The Stone Broadway play and it would win Disney a ton of Tonys if those plays ever existed

 

[TsWade2]

Another Broadway musical that Disney did that looked promising but also failed was Newsies and we know Newsies was a great Disney musical film that made an impact in theaters in 1992 but when I saw Newsies The Musical appear on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Newsies looked cool but I cannot see how a hit musical movie can make a promising Broadway play. But what I think the main problem that Disney Theatrical has is that many people aren't going to theaters that much anymore to see plays and ever since the pandemic Broadway was the hardest hit and it's not only theater plays but shows like ice shows that lost their novelty to families and the same thing happened to the circus because if you take a family with kids to a theater play or a ice show or a circus kids will only watch the first half and then they focus on listening to music on their MP3 players. But what can improve Disney Theatrical is they should have more impressive Broadway plays like I would love to see Encanto as a Broadway play or Pete's Dragon and a The Sword In The Stone Broadway play and it would win Disney a ton of Tonys if those plays ever existed

I suppose Encanto will be fine, I'm not so sure about Pete's Dragon and The Sword In The Stone turned into Broadway musicals. But the problem is, the critics and the tony voters (despite of giving The Lion King A Tony for Best Musical) hated Disney. So, I think maybe if Disney wants to make the critics and the Tony Voters like Disney, maybe they should put movies into Broadway Musical behind and maybe just create their own original broadway musicals like they did for Aida. Or maybe that's just me.
P.S. I think the stage adaption of Newsies is excellent.