Ranking Disney on Broadway: Celebrating and Analyzing 25 Years on the Great White Way
It is hard to believe that it has been 25 years since Disney produced its first musical on Broadway, changing the trajectory of family musicals (and Times Square) forever. Today, I take a look at the nine musicals Disney Theatricals have brought to the Great White Way, offering my opinions on what worked, what didn’t, and rank the titles in order of my least favorite to my most favorite. All opinions are my own and please note that, though I look at these nine with a critical eye, I find something wonderful in everything Disney has to offer. This list includes only musicals that have made it to Broadway (no Freaky Friday, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, or The Jungle Book) and no concerts (sorry King David). Stay with me as I work my way to my choice for #1.
The Little Mermaid
Easily the clunkiest and most misbegotten of the Disney animated films adapted for the Broadway stage, The Little Mermaid, short of a few fine performances, felt clunky, ugly, and bloated. The production was overwhelmed by a set design that looked chintzy, despite there being a lot of it. The solution to swimming onstage didn’t really work either, with actors gliding along on wheeled footwear called “Heelys” that never gave the illusion of either swimming or of the watery depths of the fathoms below. The songs from the animated film score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman were joined by 10 new songs by Menken and Glenn Slater. These additions mostly worked, and a few were even exceptional in their deepening of the story. The most egregious mistake was turning Ursula the Sea Witch into more of a typical villain and taking away her drag queen inspired tendencies that made her an iconic character in the first place. Sierra Boggess was the show’s standout performance, bringing an enchanting loveliness and superb voice to the title character. The show ran a respectable 685 performances, but that was hardly a hit by Disney standards.
Tarzan
Ah, Tarzan. It tried in such earnest to be something uniquely out of the box, but it just never congealed into a workable Broadway musical. That is not to say that there weren’t some inventive and breathtaking moments in this stage adaptation of the Disney animated film, itself taking its inspiration from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel. From putting the audience in the aerial perspective of two people walking down the beach after a shipwreck, to a jungle web of vines for swinging and climbing, the physical production was clever. The real problem with Tarzan was that the film was not really a musical, but instead featured singer-songwriter Phil Collins performing most songs as commentary on the action. When these songs moved to the stage, they did little to reveal character development or offer emotional depth to the piece. New songs written expressly for the production failed to ignite. Tarzan ran for 486 performances.
Frozen
Frozen is a tricky show to discuss, mostly because it straddles the line between serviceable and magical. The stage production is certainly being enjoyed by audiences, and its messages about familial love and female empowerment are timely and resonate. Composing team Kristin Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez have augmented the animated film score with a handful of additional songs that are in keeping with beloved tunes like “Let It Go” and “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” There is plenty of stage magic to lend it spectacle, but outside that, Frozen never aspires to be more than the film in terms of great theatre. It is a perfectly fine stage adaptation, and that is enough to make it entertaining, and it certainly is bringing a generation of kids into the theatre. I just wish that it soared more. Frozen opened on Broadway in 2018 and remains running at the St. James Theatre.
Newsies
Reimagining a box office bomb that gained a cult following over the years was a daring choice for Disney (via the Paper Mill Playhouse who assumed the risk first). Newsies, however, always had the ingredients for a good stage musical, particularly its Alan Menken/Jack Feldman score which is both buoyant and catchy. Playwright Harvey Fierstein took the film’s basic premise, trimmed and focused, and reworked it from a turgid unevenness into a coherent story that built toward something. The changes worked and Newsies on Broadway was a joyous, energetic affair. My only quibble was a certain sameness about the chorus numbers which really were just a reason to have athletic newsboys dance to the point of exhaustion. Fun to watch, but it can only sustain itself for so long. Newsies ran 1,004 performances and won Tony Awards for Christopher Gatelli’s choreography and for Best Score.
Beauty and the Beast
It was the first musical Disney brought to Broadway, and though it wasn’t quite heralded by the critics the way the animated film from which it was adapted was, Beauty and the Beast was both a great experiment for the company, as well as an honest to goodness delight in many ways. Since lyricist Howard Ashman has passed away, Tim Rice was brought on to team with Alan Menken to flesh out a complete musical theatre score for the piece (though a discarded Menken/Ashman song from the film was also utilized). Of the new songs, “If I Can’t Love Her” written for the Beast and “Home” written for Belle were exceptional. The story was fleshed out and the anthropomorphic housewares characters were explained as humans slowly transforming into their respective functions, their fates tethered to the Beast’s, their time running out as each petal of an enchanted rose dies. Much of the show worked, even if some of the performers seemed to get lost in Ann Hould-Ward’s delightful (if cumbersome) costumes. Beauty and the Beast ran 5,461 performances.
Aladdin
There is so much joy to be found in the Broadway production of Aladdin, and it doesn’t rely entirely on spectacle (though there are ample examples to keep your eyes popping). Aladdin is an example of Disney allowing judicious changes to the property when it transitioned from screen to stage, in this case turning cartoon animal characters into human being sidekicks. What could have been clunky, breathes with fresh inspiration. The new songs by Alan Menken and Chad Beguelin add depth to the show, and excellent numbers excised from the film have found their way back into the story (“Proud of Your Boy” is a great character song for the title character). Plenty of the wise-cracking humor that made the film so memorable has also carried over to the stage incarnation, with even more laughter to be had. At its heart, though, Aladdin is about learning to believe in one’s self, finding worth in who you are, no matter what others might think. Aladdin, which opened in 2014, is still running on Broadway today.
Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins is an anomaly amongst the Disney projects that made it to Broadway, predominantly because it was co-produced with Cameron Mackintosh (who held the stage rights to the P.L. Travers books). It also forced Disney to rethink some of the animated sequences of film, to re-envision how certain iconic Sherman Brothers musical numbers would play differently on the stage. New numbers were concocted by the team of George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. Though my heart will always lie with the 1964 film, Mary Poppins onstage was a darker experience, its own beast that conjured memories of the film, but that was far more in line with Travers’s creation. Onstage, the children in the famous nanny’s care were far more precious and often found in situations that felt more dangerous than the film. Three things particularly stood out in the stage production: Matthew Bourne’s and Stephen Mear’s gravity-defying choreography, Bob Crowley’s endless parade of jaw-dropping sets (that included an entire London townhouse that raised and lowered to reveal multiple levels), and the practically perfect performances of Ashley Brown and Gavin Lee. Mary Poppins is also the one Disney musical to premiere in London before crossing the pond to open on Broadway. Mary Poppins ran 2,619 performances.
The Lion King
I know, I know… many of you will tell me that The Lion King belongs in the number one place on this list. The first ten-minutes of the show is the single ten most-breathtaking moments to be found on Broadway in terms of creativity, artistry, theatricality, and craft. Julie Taymor’s design and staging of “The Circle of Life” sequence are sheer genius. That being said, once it is over, the best of the bag of myriad tricks has been used up. The Lion King never tops itself. Arial ballets and wildebeest stampedes, as fantastic as they are, just cannot rise above what is achieved during that opening, that something special that makes us believe in magic. The kiddos won’t care, because the stage musical settles into the familiarity of the film and relies on the popularity of the fantastic Elton John/Tim Rice score (with some new songs by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, and Hans Zimmer peppered throughout). Twenty-two years and going strong, not to mention a Best Musical Tony Award, The Lion King remains a truly mesmerizing spectacle and the perfect piece with which to indoctrinate your children into the world of musical theatre.
Aida
The reason I place Aida in the #1 spot on this list is that Disney actually showed the courage to produce a musical that wasn’t pried from the properties of their well-lined vaults. What is more, the result was an emotionally charged and compelling new musical, inspired by the title character of opera fame. Elton John and Tim Rice paired up to deliver an electrified score that told the fabled tale of star-crossed lovers in Ancient Egypt, even finding places for humor amidst such a serious story (“My Strongest Suit” is delicious fun). Both Bob Crowley’s scenic and costume designs were awe-inspiring and Natasha Katz’s lighting gave the show a rock concert flavor while simultaneously being atmospheric and often as visually intense as the story was emotionally so. Heather Headley gave a Tony Award-winning performance as Aida and she was ably supported by Adam Pascal and Sherie René Scott. Aida ran for 1,852 performances, won four Tony Awards, but was inexplicably not nominated for Best Musical in a season where it had every right to be. (This was, after all, the year that Contact won Best Musical).
It is because of Aida I continue to have faith that Disney will come around to producing more original musicals. It has, however, been 19 years and too long since they’ve used their unlimited resources to do so. Please, Disney Theatricals, sprinkle some pixie dust in the right places.
