Miles2Go2 said: "It seems like shows do out-of-town try-outs for several reasons:
1) To literally try the show out in front of a live audience then make needed tweaks (didn't Finding Neverland actually replace all of its music after its first try-out run with Jeremy Jordan? Not that it helped from what I hear).
2) To just give the performers a chance to get more practice in their roles in an environment that may be more forgiving than the typical Broadway preview audiences.
3) To create buzz for the show before it moves to Broadway.
Ideally, I suppose it's all of the above, but we'll see if that's true for Frozen. Did previous Disney out-of-town try-outs get significant revisions or tweaks prior to their Broadway transfers? I believe the onlytheatricalproductions of Disney properties (movies) I've seen are The Lion King (on tour) and Aladdin (on Broadway)."
Pretty much all of this. It's always a mix of those things. The only Disney musical that I can think of that underwent the most changes from pre broadway to broadway is Aladdin, and well...that didn't help any because it's still the very definition of "nothing-but-glitz-and-glamour, tourist trap" show. Honestly i's just shone plastic, has nowhere even close to the same level of heart it's film has. The only thing I really liked about it was that they added back in Proud of Your Boy. None of the other Disney properties went though that many changes. I'm still miffed they don't use To Be Free for Jasmine...And yes this is a silly thread (why am I even here commenting?) but you'd have to do some major comparing to every out of town tryout ever....and that's a lot. We CAN compare it to other Disney shows though, Tarzan got much worse if I recall correctly, but I don't think it had a out of town tryout.