What is with people and Disney?

While I agree with you, I just think that people feel this way because some of them actually don't like the shows and feel the shows are too commercialized and that something else that is more original should be running in place of them.

---

Beauty and the Beast is continuously drawing crowds to their show. It is an amazing spectacle of a show.

That's exactly why some people don't like it and not all would agree that it's well written. I enjoy the show, but I accept its flaws which not everyone can do.

The main point of going to the theater is to be entertained. To have fun.

and this is not always the case. sometimes I do go to the theatre to be entertained, but other times I go to be inspired or to be taken on a true emotional journey and some of the shows I would label as "entertaining" would not fit that category.

The first Broadway show that I'm taking my nephew to is going to be HAIRSPRAY. There are options for kids besides Disney. Not to mention the countless new and long running Off-Broadway productions that are geared toward families.

---

I am neither a Disney hater or advocate, but I must say that you answered your own question in the first paragraph. Disney is a spectacle and fun and poppy. On this board, people tend to prefer something with a little more substance and less commercial. And with all this commercialism comes expansion, and people don't want to see it taking over Broadway. But exactly what you said in your first paragraph is exactly the reason people don't like it.

---

Beauty and the Beast is continuously drawing crowds to their show.
For 18 years, so did CATS. That didn't make it a good show. It means it had a good marketing team. Disney is better at that than they are at musicals.

---

I agree that there are other reasons to see shows. I, as an actor also go for motivation and to see an emotional journey. But plot-wise, the stories are all driven by a character that has an emotional journey to walk.

Also, let's not get into Cats since that is the most disagreed about show ever. I'm not saying that Disney is full of dramatic masterpiece, but if they were'nt movies first then they would be highly applauded. The whole movies on broadway thing is odd because without them there would be a lot more actors out of work. If more new promising shows would pop up, less movie transfers would take the space.

Also the whole money thing...All producers are crazed about their show's finances because the poured their money into the project and want it back.

It's hard for any of us to speak for the masses, but the masses seem to favor the family classics brought to life. Safe-yes. Well marketed-yes, but word of moth sells 40% of tickets after the title alone and the marketing.

I for one love the Disney shows...they're magical and they draw your attention away from the chaotic world that we live in..and like most Broadway books will say, people don't see a show for the actors anymore, they see it for the spectacle and Disney certainly puts on a spectacle with its shows..

I think the reason Disney is so reviled is because, more than any other company producing on Broadway today, they have contributed to the "by the numbers", corporatized dumbing down of Broadway.

Their productions, while splashy and entertaining to a huge chunk of the market, have an ersatz, "Broadway-Like" feel that don't begin to equate the rush and adrenaline that a "real" Broadway show has. There is no doubt they produce popular entertainments which draw in the crowds like lemmings. But there is something inherently "Broadway" that is missing from each and everyone one of their productions, although they are smart enough to provide just enough so that no one who doesn't know the difference can tell.

IMHO, MARY POPPINS is the most successful of the bunch (which isn't saying much) because as a co-production with Cameron Mackintosh, they were working with a producer who (no matter what you think of some of his other productions) KNOWS how to produce a Broadway musical, not a close facsimile.

Start shooting, now.

---

What fresh "Hell" has DISNEY put Denver thru?
Please explain.

I feel like I have to reply to this message somehow, yet I'm not sure how. Of course, that's never stopped me before. Coherence may come as I write or you can just skip ahead :)

I go to the Disney shows when I expect to be entertained. As I stated in another post, when I've had a lousy day at work, school is crushing me, I'm stressed or depressed, I hop on the rush line and visit Tarzan. For me, it's pure entertainment, no thinking involved, we know the book is awful but I can get lost listening to Shuler and Merle, laugh along with Chester, and watch Josh sweat and spit on Jen (that probably didn't come out right... I love those guys). My current 'project' is nothing more complicated than trying to figure out some of the ensemble tracks. Their energy is contagious and I always leave feeling better. That's all I wanted.

It's funny, though, I don't get that from Lion King and Beauty and the Beast was amazing when I first saw it (the first week it opened!) but the ensemble has not kept up the energy and the show seems more and more tired and detached every time... it's time to put Ol Yeller down, maw.

No doubt, Disney is a machine. Other groups like the Nederlanders have had multiple shows running at once and, while we know they're a business, it didn't have to feel like one every moment. Disney tries to control the experience, from box office to exits, and you never forget you're part of the marketing machine.

I don't have a problem with marketing, I still remember watching the Starlight Express, Pippin, and Cats commercials when I was younger, and there are a lot of folks who never would have set foot in a theatre without them; we need that. Theatres don't stay open based on the ticket sales of we dedicated few purists and, much as I wish they'd leave the kids home so I can watch Tarzan in peace, the big marketing machine keeps the theatres open so we can see the shows. If half the tourists lured in by Disney stay to catch another show, if the kids get hooked on Lion King so mom takes them to Les Mis, we win and our art survives for another generation. All that said, I still don't want to see Disney's treatment of Elephant Man: the Musical or Assassins on Ice.

I don't hate any show simply because of the corporation that produced it. I also don't automatically love a show for that reason, either.

I grew up on Disney films and television shows, as many of us did. Disney entertainment, as a whole, is a part of my psyche, and represents some of the earliest (happiest and inspiring) memories I have on this planet.

The fact that they dove into the live theatre world was exciting when I first heard about it, but I was also skeptical. Would these shows be Xeroxes of their film counterparts? Would they be kiddie shows sold at adult prices? So far, the answer has been a mixed bag... from brilliant to mundane.

When they first got their feet wet, I was underwhelmed. "Beauty and the Beast" was just like a pumped-up theme park show, albeit a good one. In fact, that's exactly what it was, when they first decided to bring it to NY. Despite them "re-envisioning" the show, it wasn't outstanding. It didn't stink either. But I kept thinking the only thing missing was an ice rink under their feet. Still, it was reliable family entertainment, and it was a big, fat hit... and so they tried again.

Lion King, when it first opened (which was when I saw it), was magnificent. I've refused to go back. Long-running shows tend to turn into a factory fairly quickly, and you might as well be sitting in little boats, as you float by cute robotic dollies singing the same pre-programmed ditty in many languages. So, I've held onto that incredible performance of The Lion King in my memory, as I've done with a few other shows.

With Mary Poppins, I was sorely disappointed. This is "children's theatre" with a $25 million budget, and a $100+ ticket price. No thank you, ever again. No acting on stage anywhere. Just posturing and posing. And grinning incessantly. And two bratty, annoying children that I would have drowned in a gunnysack, given half a chance, but certainly didn't care one wit for, while watching this show.

I've missed the other Disney shows on Broadway, because they haven't interested me enough as "properties" to invest my time and (particularly) money. I will probably never see Tarzan. The movie was only mediocre with a few genuinely fine moments. The source material didn't merit a theatrical adaptation for me. I finally saw "Aida" in Los Angeles, and it was okay. The title character is a great role, but the show written around her is so-so. And unless The Little Mermaid gets "revolutionary, visionary" reviews and word-of-mouth when it hits NY, I'll be missing that one as well.

I take each one, individually. I don't lump them together with one giant opinion or critique... anymore than I lump ALL Broadway musicals together (as some "average folks" are prone do) with an encompassing opinion of them.

---

I say that having Disney on Broadway is a great thing. Anything that can bring the younger generation into the theatre is a plus in my book. What is wrong with some good old fashioned family entertainment? We need to make sure that we have theatre patrons in the future and I think that Disney shows provide a wonderful first time theatrical experience. Do I necessarily run out to see the next Disney show? No...but...there are plenty of families coming into our city that need that outlet.