Will Pocahontas ever become a broadway musical?- Page 3

[musicalkid]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 9:53pm

a few thoughts on the matter:

- I think Pocahontas could make a great musical. more mature and developed than any previous disney show (save glockner, which i wish they would produce already on Bway)

-I don't shun Disney for being Disney.
it just feels a bit (to me) that they are thi big giant that come to broadway because there lots of money going on and they could make some of it their own. they're doing great shows (mostly) but not taking chances.

- i wish they were like Livent (without the dirty money issues), who produced the best revivals, and the best new musicals of the 1990's, taking lots of risks. think parade, ragtime, kiss of the spider woman, show boat, Joseph ATATDC (well.. never mind joseph)

-God! if only in some miraculous time-warp Judy Kuhn COULD play pocahontas when it comes up!


these were my thoughts.
now trash them :)

Posted: 12/27/06 at 9:54pm

Yes, and then split from Broadway, referring to her two hits as "a lovely detour."

A bit of a tangent here, but does it really matter what she referred to her time on Broadway as? Her voice and work speak for themselves, but even besides that, it's not as if Headley mentioned that she despised Broadway and everyone connected to it or something truly shocking. Realistically, Broadway is low on the fame totem pole (despite what Broadway lovers may want to believe), and I'd imagine most performers on Broadway would prefer to make their income exclusively as a recording artist if it were possible.

[SporkGoddess]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 11:25pm

Didn't know that about Aida... thank GOD they didn't succeed, though the musical is meh too when compared to the opera (NOTHING will ever beat its ending or "Celeste Aida.")

Hercules bothers me more than Pocahontas because it villainizes Hades, my favorite Greek god. And it kills me to see Hera as a loving mother to Heracles.

Anyway... Pocahontas has some of the worst lyrics to grace a Disney movie. "They're different from us, which means they must be evil" I mean, come on, do we really need the message jackhammered into our skulls? Then again, it IS Schwartz.

[Lizzya9]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 11:48pm

I know it was over the credits but I'm saying IN the film like it was supposed to be...

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/27/06 at 11:56pm

Also: DISNEY has put tons of money into fixing up every theatre they have put a show in, name me one other producer who has done that?
And if you remember Hedley's TONY acceptence speech, she said she would do anything for DISNEY (OK, she didn't, but...)
There has to be room for a Producing Company like this that has the money to put on the shows they do.
THE LION KING was an artistic risk and suceeded TARZAN, also, with different results.
They are giving new designers and directors (to Broadway, at least) a chance with THE LITTLE MERMAID, and they also have money in other shows on Broadway that they don't even advertise.

[D2]

Posted: 12/28/06 at 8:31am

Siamese Dream: Of course she has the right to pursue her dream anyway she chooses. But to me the comment seems more than a little condescending and baldly opportunistic. Not gracious, although trying to sound that way. Especially when she was embraced so heartily by fans and critics. That's all.

[James885]

Posted: 12/28/06 at 8:34am

Pocahontas was never one of my favorite Disney movies, so I'm not too crazy about a stage version of the movie. "Colors of The Wind" is really the only song that I like. I'd rather see a stage version of Aladdin or Hercules.

As for Disney Theatreical Productions, I don't have a problem with them being on Broadway. My first Broadway show was Beauty and The Beast so if it wasn't for that, I might not have gotten interested in theatre. Shows like B&TB and The Lion King have given hundreds of kids their first theatre experience, so I don't see how can that be a bad thing. As long as what they're producing is good, inventful theatre and not crap designed soley for the purpose of making money (I haven't seen Tarzan so I can't comment on it), I don't have a problem with them.

Updated On: 12/28/06 at 08:34 AM

[[e-mail]]

Posted: 12/28/06 at 12:23pm

To clarify, here's my take on Pochahantas's score:
I hate almost all of the "Native American and Englishmen" songs. The only exception to that is the "Mine" song which is passable, and was probably written in about 30 seconds...

Just around the riverbend is interesting, has a unique texture, but doesn't end, but rather just stops. Thought it was incomplete.

the "Savages" tune is interesting, especially when the voices pile on top of each other, Judy Kuhn's countermelody on the 2nd track of Savages adds a particularily stunning effect (It's relative major counterpart served as one of the Native American tunes, and just didn't work IMO)

And "Colors of the Wind" is one of Menken's most soaring, sweeping, gorgeous tunes that I absolutely love, the message in the lyrics is commendable, but Schwartz really campifies the Native American beliefs with them at times IMO.

King David uses similar orchestral effects with even more soaring melodies and catchy tunes to make what is in my opinion Menken's best score ruined, primarily by Tim Rice. (At times I feel that I'm listening to music with words underneath it for that one)

Call me fussy, I suppose...

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 12/28/06 at 12:43pm

Once again...*cough* ahem:


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Fosse76]

Posted: 12/28/06 at 1:42pm

"Besides, few seemed bothered by "inaccuracies" in other Disney works - Little Mermaid's ending is, oh, just slightly different from the original story. When someone asked me how "accurate" Hercules was, I said "There's this guy. He's the son of Zeus. And he's really strong. Other than that, not accurate" and I love Disney's Hercules. "

Those are fals analogies, since neither is real (although much can be said about Greek Myths).

That said, it's very unlikely that when Little Mermaid iopens there will be five Disney shows on Broadway. Tarzan is hemmoraging, and I doubt it will last much loger before Disney pulls the plug.

[Sylar2]

Posted: 12/28/06 at 4:57pm

I think I read somewhere that Hunchback is coming up after Little Mermaid..... One day, Disney will own all of Broadway.

Please GOD stop them.

[[e-mail]]

Posted: 12/28/06 at 7:18pm

QUOTE:
I think I read somewhere that Hunchback is coming up after Little Mermaid..... One day, Disney will own all of Broadway.


Here's the way I look at it, as long as they close Tarzan and Lion King, they are more than welcome to open up Hunchback. Add a few tunes and it could be a truly equisite piece of theatre... That and make Frollo a priest and return a little closer to the Victor Hugo. You'd have a piece of Hugo far superior to Les Miserables if done correctly.

And as for your other comment, 10 years ago Andrew Lloyd Webber was getting pretty close to owning all of Broadway, and that is probably worse if you ask me.

[ExpressThis]

Posted: 5/7/07 at 7:37am

nah, there are too many good ideas that haven't come out yet, we need to stop making disney into musicals on broadway i think.

[AllHallowsPlayers]

Posted: 3/5/18 at 9:04am

Hi, it's been well over a decade since you asked and I don't actually have an answer but I've been wondering the same thing lately.  Alan Menken and Howard Ashman revived the Disney musical with the Little Mermaid in 1989 and kicked off a second Golden Age of Disney animation!   In the glory years that followed, Menken did 5 more musicals with Elton John's The Lion King popping up right in the middle.

Since then The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the Lion King have all gone on to Broadway fame with The Hunchback of Notre Dame nearly making it with a beautiful stage adaptation which is now now becoming a popular staple of community theaters everywhere!   And let's not forget Newsies, Menken's live action musical from the same era!   So the next film from that successful era that HASN'T been made into a stage hit is Pocahontas, followed by Hercules.   Yes, Disney would have to tread a bit carefully with Pocahontas for reasons of cultural sensitivity but the idea seems a good deal less far-fetched today than it did when you first posted the question.  

As with Newsies, a pretty major flop when it was released in the wake of Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas now has a generation of young adults who grew up on it and don't have the same negative feelings about it that many adults had when it came out.   Like the other Menken successes, Pocahontas has a beautiful score with some lovely songs and could really be made into quite a beautiful stage love story.   But they really would have to tread carefully!

[lotiloti]

Posted: 3/5/18 at 9:16am

 Disney will ultimately destroy Broadway, for the non tourist theatregoer.