Riedel's Fish Tales

I hear they're putting all their money into Pirate Queen 2: Dead Man's Jest

Lion King and Mary Poppins both have averaged %87.4 attendence in the last two months, and considering these arethe worst months in the season, perhaps you should back off on the "fading" and "limping" comments. Most producers and theatre owners would say that these shows still have life in them.

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My problem with Disney isn't that it exists. I'm a supporter of Disney, in theory, because of the whole argument for exposing children to theater and so forth. My problem with Disney is that where it used to produce things that were truly beautiful -- AIDA had problems, but the physical production was beautiful, Beauty was eye-popping theater at its best before the scale-down and The Lion King's design is genius, IMO -- but now it seems like they're just slapping things together to get them in there as fast as possible. Look at Tarzan. I refuse to believe that Disney of all companies didn't have the resources to create a production of Tarzan that was on par with some of its other things, but instead it's a mess. It's sloppy. Now we have The Little Mermaid coming in, and it's on some sort of turbo fast-track to Broadway. I can't imagine a production so physically complex will be all that intricately done in such a short period of time. Disney, to me, is losing a lot of the artistic integrity I think it did once have. It needs that back if it expects to maintain its status in the long run, because even the most naive of tourists will catch on to the fact that the quality is suffering.

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Updated On: 3/7/07 at 10:36 AM

I love that she got the idea for the Heelys from seeing kids in the airport. Were the kids fish children?

Even for mermaids? How are they going to get around?

That's an idea Rath! Remember those pogo balls in the early 90's? I smell cross-promotion!

Right, I know. I mean this particular (frightening to think of) version. Even a "few" years for something like this seems kind of quick, to me. I'm sorry, but I think it's going to look ridiculous. I'm also pissed that they're likely bastardizing my favorite film of all time, but 'tis another story.

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Michael Eisener was really the driving force behind making Disney a theatrical force on Broadway. He was the person who brought in Julie Taymor and gave her open reign, because he wanted Disney to have an unqualified artistic hit.

Disney hasn't been concerned with having an artistic hit on Broadway in a long time: though clearly, as this article states, they should be realizing that with the current cost of Broadway tickets, tourists are a lot more careful and word of mouth is even more important than a Disney brand.

I agree with luv. I also find it iritating that

A. Tourists think Disney show are, by default, the best thing on Broadway.
B. It encourages theatre-ettiquitte-less parents to bring kids who are too young for theatre.
C. Anything with DISNEY branded all over it automatically sells, not matter what the actual quality of the show is. (Hurrah if that is truely changing)
D. They have an aura of "We're the best thing to happen to Broadway since Oklahoma!"
E. They refuse to bring "Der Glockner" over because they're afraid of alienating their family base.

I've only seen Mary Poppins, but I found that show to be a very pretty mess.

It just seems that they're more concerned with the buisness of making spectacal, and not "the art of making art".

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Updated On: 3/7/07 at 12:24 PM

<< Heelys should be banned from Airports.

And shopping malls !! I HATE those things !!

As excited as I am for this production and those attached to the roles of Ursula, Triton, and Scuttle... I know it could go either way. Little Mermaid IS and always will be my favorite Disney movie of all time and if this musical is the most beautiful Disney production since The Lion King, great! If its not, well, i'll just remain clinging to the movie. (IMO, Tarzan wasn't a great movie, nor an incredibly popular one from what i remember, and was an extremely odd choice to turn into a Broadway show.)

If you ask the average joe of this generation to name the first three Disney movies that come to their mind, they would be Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid more times than not. The first two were, in their heyday (hayday? Oh well.), considered stunning pieces of theatre. I'm hoping and am leading myself to believe that Disney will follow-up these classics with the next great spectacle.

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