I Feel Like Disney Might Not Do Shows On Broadway Anymore

Hi,

I beginning to feel like Disney might not do shows on Broadway anymore because the critics and the Tony Voters hate them now. Yes Lion King win a Tony Award for Best Musical, but that’s the only Disney musical that won Best Musical and it hadn’t won a second one for three decades. I was so excited for the stage version of Hercules, but it’s going to debut at the West End instead of Broadway, because maybe Disney is scared of Broadway critics and Tony voters. I guess Disney shows should be much safer at the West End than Broadway. I guess Frozen is the last Disney musical that comes t9 Broadway, but I hope I’m wrong.

Update: Never mind!! I was overreacting and jumping to conclusions. I'm okay now.

Updated On: 8/22/24 at 12:07 AM

The reason The Lion King won the Best Musical Tony and continues to sell out a massive theater to this day - is largely because it’s an interpretation of the film. In the mid-90s, TLK was not the natural successor to BATB. Endless credit goes to Julie Taymor for her vision in translating the experience to the stage. While telling the same story, The Lion King musical feels wholly other experientially to the movie.

Howard Ashman and Alan Menken wrote Beauty and the Beast as an animated Broadway musical so seeing it on stage, while lovely, is not all that dissimilar to the movie.

The Little Mermaid and Tarzan tried to innovate a la The Lion King and failed miserably. Those stories are more engaging on film than on stage. There’s only so many moments of people swinging around a stage that can rival Tarzan essentially surfing on tree limbs.

Mary Poppins is different because Cameron Mackintosh owning the rights made for a story that diverged from the Disney film and the set design was truly something wonderful.

I think Newsies hit at a time where the kids who had grown up with the film were of independent theater going age - it’s also a good family show that doesn’t necessarily isolate midwestern boys. Something Frozen was noted for being so heavily targeted towards young girls.

Speaking of Frozen, Disney kind of went back to the Beauty and the Beast approach for it and Aladdin - but they didn’t really splurge for the opulence. What am I getting out of the production I can’t get at home with my Disney Plus subscription?

Aida is its own thing and I don’t really think of as a traditional Disney musical. I forget Hunchback was given trial runs in Seattle and Germany.

I’m no expert and am truly just spitballing here. I think Disney is in a phase where they’re trying to determine what properties or IP makes sense for a stage musical that would technologically make use of the medium in a unique way.

Updated On: 8/21/24 at 12:29 AM

There will be other Disney musicals on Broadway. Hercules might even be one of them if it does well on the West End.

Disney needs to keep making products. Critics and awards are not their concern. Just making anything that will sell & keep the cash flow is what is important. They have had a good summer with their films at the box office with big hits in Inside Out 2 & Deadpool vs Wolverine. Even the new Aliens film is theirs, as they own 20 Century now.

If they see something like the Stranger Things broadway show do well, they might come up with a Deadpool or Marvel or Aliens live spectacular. They also own Star Wars now, so maybe a Star Wars live experience. Whatever they think they can throw at a wall and will stick. Whatever it is, as long as it makes more than it costs, we'll see it churned out.

Updated On: 8/21/24 at 01:05 AM

I figured one reason Hercules is opening in the West End and not (yet) Broadway IS because Aladdin is no longer running in London but still is doing well on Broadway, and out of all the Disney properties, I think those two might be the most likely to split audiences if they ran in the same location. Besides Alan Menken, the original films share Ron Clements and John Muskar as directors (and co-screenwriters,) both lean more into action-comedy than the other Menken/Disney musicals, have a male protagonist, etc, and the stage versions of both have Casey Nicholaw as director/choreographer.

For Disney, money is the bottom line. The personal, passion-driven artistry and creativity that was Walt is long gone. Heck, even in the parks they regurgitate the same old ride systems when they're not doing the same thing Universal is doing. Or just throw in an overlay here or there.

Of course, Walt wanted to make money too. It afforded him a nice lifestyle, I'm sure. But he was always upfront about that money also being about taking his parks to the next level.

But people eat up the "new" Disney. So why stop?

Disney has access to an infinite amount of money. They can easily grab the latest movie and turn it into a Broadway musical, and if it doesn't fare as well as the the Lion Kings, and Aladdins, etc. so be it. They can absorb the cost.

I have never been overly impressed by their foray into Broadway shows only because they have the money to get the best talent, the best costumes, the best sets, the best everything. And if a particular show does't do as well as others, so be it. The rest have more than compensated. And continue to compensate. Move on to the next movie they have lined up.

And honestly, what I see on Broadway with Disney is a slightly more opulent version of their park shows.

I will give them credit though for cornering the market on family friendly shows. That was genius. Even though it really doesn't speak to their creativity or innovation. Taking a movie musical that already has its songs and plot built in has to cut back a lot on the efforts that go into creating a show.

There are only 41 Broadway theatres and Disney has had a show in two of them for decades. They do not change out shows unless it’s necessary (theme park shows like Beauty and the Beast at Hollywood Studios have also been running for decades) yes their are many properties ripe for the stage but do we really need multiple theatres filled with Disney shows? The only time Disney really develops new shows is for their cruise ships and licensing youth theatre titles for kids.

In regards to Hercules going to the West End, remember that it already had a tryout at Paper Mill Playhouse (where it got pretty mediocre reviews), so they reworked it for the Hamburg production with a new director, which is presumably the version that will be going to the West End (though of course they might try to tinker with it further). The West End is also usually cheaper to mount a show and it helps that they just closed Frozen there too so there wouldn't be an abundance of competition from other Disney properties. Also, from what I've seen, the London critics tend to appreciate spectacle-driven shows more than the NYC critics so it could also be a chance for them to build up some good reviews/word of mouth before they inevitably bring it to Broadway.

But I agree with everyone else that there's pretty much no way Disney would stop doing Broadway shows. As long as their shows continue to sell tickets, they'll continue to make them

Absolutely silly to suggest that DIsney won't do more Broadway shows.

However, after Frozen, they're very concerned about diluting their market. They don't intend to have more than two animated-to-stage adaptations on Broadway at the same time and Aladdin is still doing really well. If fortunes change for Aladdin, then they'll definitely look for something to replace it. If they feel they have an ironclad product that will be an even bigger moneymaker for a sustained amount of time, they might consider it. Nothing I've seen from them recently seems like it would fit the bill.

They are open to shows not adapted from their animated movies though. They would be comfortable bringing something like Greatest Showman or Hidden Figures to Broadway alongside two animated musicals because they have a different audience.

They had Lion King and Aladdin running when they brought in Frozen, so I feel like that’s just more of a rumor. That being said, I think it’s a travesty that Newsies is not still on Broadway. Bring it back!

Disney musicals are safe family friendly shows that families are willing to spend money on to see one musical during their visit.

No, Lion King won’t last forever and I think it will close once there is more competition with more popular family friendly shows taking market share from Lion King. When will that be? Who knows.

One underrated Disney film I would like to see adapted is Brother Bear. The story will need minor tweaking while keeping the love story of Kenai and Koda in tact. Make the moose brothers only appear when their comic relief is necessary. I’m thinking some scenes can also have ballet to tell the story.

Theatrefanboy1 said: "We really missed out on them not bringing hunchback to Broadway that was an incredible production. I hope Hercules makes its way to Broadway as well as Pocahontas. My hope as well is that they start investing in first rate revivals of beauty and the beast and AiDa. As well as a reworking of Tarzan"

It feels like a lifetime ago, and I was still a teen, but I did see the original 1999 James Lapine (book and direction) version of Hunchback in Berlin and THAT was an incredible production, although I'm not sure if the technology would be as impressive now (I still wish I knew how Lapine got involved in the first place--he wasn't exactly known for massive, complex productions.) I don't think the Scott Schwartz production was nearly as good, nor was the new book although overall I think it was smart to just get rid of the Gargoyles (even if they were better used in Berlin than in the film.) Schwartz' background in "story theatre" sometimes I feel gets in the way of his productions (though his Hunchback worked much better than his Prince of Egypt.)

I could have this wrong, but it seems like Michael Eisner was the big champion of Hunchback at Disney (he also wanted a TV movie version of the musical) and with him gone Disney is happy enough to just leave it as a licensed property (although not that long ago it had a significant Japanese production.)