what is the worse disney musical?

[Simón Bolívar]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 7:47pm

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 7:50pm

MARY POPPINS RETURNS.

We really didn’t need Lin-Manuel Miranda’s out-of-place “rapping.”   

[BalconyClub]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 7:55pm

Hello, Pluto!

[icecastle]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 7:59pm

Tarzan. *shudders*

Frozen is a close second

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:09pm

Tarzan

[tomwsjr]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:09pm

Tarzan

[Impossible2]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:15pm

All of them...

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:21pm

Probably Tarzan, but Frozen is such a disaster too that they almost tie. Mary Poppins was terrible, according to a friend.

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:28pm

Of the ones on Broadway right now... Frozen for sure. Just horrifically bad in some parts. Aladdin and The Lion King are super boring and dull (with the exception of the thrilling opening number in the latter), but Frozen is by far the biggest letdown.

[EdEval]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:42pm

AIDA?

[AADA81]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 8:44pm

Any of them, and this is not a glib reply.  Even 'The Lion King' descends from its impressive opening to pedestrian stretches that are boring and simplistic.  These musicals are not complex and are designed for younger folks with less demanding aesthetics.  I think it's fine to produce shows that introduce theater to younger audiences, but the Disney ethos is about marketing target audiences and making money off of them, and not about theatrically artistic achievement. 

Updated On: 6/17/18 at 08:44 PM

[Simón Bolívar]

Posted: 6/17/18 at 9:07pm

Loved TLK and MP. But did not like aladdin . Feel frozen will be worse?

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 1:34am

BrodyFosse123 said: "MARY POPPINS RETURNS.

We really didn’tneed Lin-Manuel Miranda’s out-of-place “rapping.”"

Disliking something before it even comes out does save a lot of time, I guess.

[Scarlet Leigh]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 2:54am

No contest. The Little Mermaid. I put it leaps and bounds over Tarzan and Frozen because Tarzan had the potential to be good from the songs and the book. It was poorly designed in how minimal they tried to make it BUT it has some redemption in a few really interesting technical elements were big wow moments in an overall middle of the road but ugly show. And Frozen just is too safe and does nothing to elevate the original material. It's as textbook as they come.

MERMAID on the other hand was bad on more than one level. It wasn't just poorly designed, it was the poster child for how to OVER design a musical even by Disney standards. The book was a disaster with changes to the story that not only are insulting to the original movie and it's fans but left the show anti-climatic and the theatre goer mind boggled over how dumb it was. "You know what this show needs MORE then an intense race against time and a battle that feels like it has actual stakes? Three words. Princess. Singing. Contest." Add on top a few very "off" casting choices and you have just a giant MESS with little to no redeemable qualities.

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 02:54 AM

[Solipsist234]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 3:28am

Scarlet Leigh said: "No contest. The Little Mermaid. I put it leaps and bounds over Tarzan and Frozen because Tarzan had the potential to be good from the songs and the book. It was poorly designed in how minimal they tried to make it BUT it has some redemption in afew really interesting technical elements were big wow moments in an overall middle of the road but ugly show. And Frozen just is too safe and does nothing to elevate the original material. It's as textbook as they come.

MERMAID on the other hand was bad on more than one level. It wasn't just poorly designed, it was the poster child for how to OVER design a musical even by Disney standards. The book was a disaster with changes to the story that not only are insulting to the original movieand it's fans but left the show anti-climatic and the theatre goer mind boggled over how dumb it was. "You know what this show needs MORE then an intense race against time and a battle that feels like it has actual stakes? Three words. Princess. Singing. Contest." Add on topa few very "off" casting choices and you have just a giant MESS with little to no redeemable qualities."

This. Like, ALL of this!!! The Little Mermaid is incredibly pedestrian and banal in its presentation; new songs that aren't super memorable (Scuttle having TWO new songs was a crime), and to top it all off, a horribly miscast Sherie Rene Scott as Ursula was just the cherry on top. Also, who the heck thought that hiring Francesca Zambello, a notable director of OPERA, was a good idea?

No wonder the shoes were the freaking best part of that show, because the rest of the set and costumes were just downright ugly! 

And don't get me started on that stupid "singing princess contest" nonsense; just awful!

(I'm sure most that most of you have gathered that I really don't like The Little Mermaid. I don't even think I ever liked the original movie; give me a good adaptation of the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale and THEN I'll be happy!)

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 03:28 AM

[Solipsist234]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 3:29am

Also, since no one has brought them up, I'm assuming Beauty and the Beast, Hunchback, and Newsies are the "least bad" Disney musicals?

[Lot666]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 9:22am

AADA81 said: "These musicals are not complex and are designed for younger folks with less demanding aesthetics."



 

[johnmichael]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 10:03am

Sim?n Bol?var said: ""

before you start encouraging another feeding frenzy of hate on here, how about looking to yourself, and sorting out the grammar in your question?

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 10:33am

THE LITTLE MERMAID. No contest. 

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 10:44am

The one sock puppets keep asking about.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 10:52am

I'm seeing Frozen next Tuesday, so until then, Hunchback definitely. I haven't seen Aida, Mermaid or Tarzan. I loved B&tB, Aladdin & Lion King and liked Newsies. I thought Mary Poppins was okay. 

Hunchback was so damn disappointing with the "let's tell you a story" direction and the book that tells, but doesn't show. If the direction was great, i'd be forgiving. But, it was just so so bad. And lowering the keys of Bells of Notre Dame and ruining Someday made it worse. And it's a shame because the cast was incredible and this movie deserves to have a Broadway show.

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 10:52 AM

[haterobics]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 12:10pm

I don't understand this thread. You didn't give us any to pick from, so how can we rank them?

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 1:03pm

On paper, The Little Mermaid should have worked. They hired Tony-award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright to pen the book who was just coming off of Grey Gardens (one of my favorite shows). They hired Francesca Zambello which showed Disney was interested in doing something a bit more daring with an artistic point-of-view rather than just taking the movie and recreating it scene-by-scene. They allowed some off-the-wall costume and set designs to be made for the show that looked wildly different from the film. And they hired sassy Sherie Rene Scott to play Ursula and so many people at the time thought she'd be a Tony winner for it.

That mess that came out of it was pretty shocking honestly. I think maybe they got carried away and there wasn't anybody with good judgment to edit and maybe re-direct their energies so that the end result would have been a much more aesthetically pleasing show with a much better book. One of my biggest surprises was how bad Sherie Rene Scott was as Ursula. When a bootleg audio of her "Poor Unfortunate Souls" was released on BWW, I was so excited to hear her rendition and all I heard was screaming and no character or personality in her voice. 

It's a shame this didn't work out because I truly believe that this made Disney go VERY safe and very lazy in their follow-up musicals leading up to Frozen being the way that it is.

BTW, I'm also disappointed that Mary Poppins wasn't a better stage musical. It's actually my favorite Disney film and I always thought it would make a great stage musical. For those of you who actually saw it, what was wrong with it exactly?

Updated On: 6/18/18 at 01:03 PM

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 1:49pm

ScottyDoesn'tKnow2 said: "BTW, I'm also disappointed that Mary Poppins wasn't a better stage musical. It's actually my favorite Disney film and I always thought it would make a great stage musical. For those of you who actually saw it, what was wrong with it exactly?"

For one thing, the additions they had were super damn weird. I vividly remember a scene where Mary made Jane and Michael's toys come to life to give them revenge and it was damn terrifying. At intermission, my classmates and I were like WTF over it. And then, they have this evil nanny and Mary put her in this bird cage. I get that they're trying to make it like the books and PL Trevor, but gosh lighten up!

[South Fl Marc]

Posted: 6/18/18 at 1:57pm

"Why can't the english teach their children how to speak?"

The word is WORST not WORSE.