Movie Musings: Disney and More

Disney on Broadway Part II!

This blog continues our tribute to Disney shows launched on Broadway. Starting with (“Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Lion King,”) Disney has become a “force of nature,” drawing huge crowds with their Broadway shows, largely re-working their film masterpieces for the stage. Please feel free to comment on anything you find interesting  

• “Mary Poppins,” opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on November 16th, 2006. It received seven Tony Nominations, including Best Musical, and won the award for Best Scenic Design, playing a total of 2,619 performances. Gavin Lee originated the role of Bert the Chimney Sweep in “Mary Poppins,” on Broadway, in the first National Tour, and also in London’s Original West End Production which premiered two years prior at the Bristol Hippodrome. In addition to featuring the original film’s Academy-Award-Winning Score by Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, the show also featured new music written by George Stiles and Anthony Drew.
• In 2007, Disney produced an original stage adaptation tour of the hit movie-musical, High School Musical. It was Disney’s first stage adaptation of a made-for-television movie. The tour started in Chicago, Illinois on August 1st, 2007 and ended in Salt Lake City, Utah on August 3rd, 2008. After closing in Utah, the tour went on to Canada and then the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and various other countries. In addition to all the classic songs from the original 2006 film being included in the show, the show also featured new music from a various list of composers.
• Disney’s Broadway Adaptation of The Little Mermaid, opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on January 10th, 2008. Starring Sierra Boggess as Ariel, Norm Lewis as King Triton, Eddie Korbich as Scuttle, Titus Burgess as Sebastian, and Brian D’Addario as Flounder, it was a smash success. (Incidentally, I am thrilled to have personally met each of them after seeing a performance in New York.) The show closed on August 30th, 2009 after a total of 685 performances and received Tony Nominations for Best Lighting Design of a Musical and Best Original Score Written for the Theatre for Alan Menken who also won the Best Original Score Oscar for the film version.
• In 2011, Disney collaborated with Whoopi Goldberg and Stage Entertainment to produce Sister Act: The Musical based on the 1992 Touchstone Pictures film of the same name (which starred Goldberg). The show opened at the Broadway Theatre on April 20th, 2010 and closed on August 26th, 2012 after a total of 561 performances. It was nominated for five Tonys, including Best Musical and featured the music of Alan Menken and the direction of Jerry Zaks, who had previously collaborated together in the 2003 Original Broadway Production of Little Shop of Horrors. “Sister Act,” also starred Fred Applegate as the Monsignor—he had previously played Lumiere in the first National Tour of “Beauty and the Beast.” 
• In 2012, Disney produced the play Peter and the Starcatcher, a prequel to the story of Peter Pan. The plot serves as a backstory for the characters of Peter Pan, Mrs. Darling, Tinker Bell, and Captain Hook. Written by Rick Elice, the play was nominated for nine Tonys. It won five, one of which was for Christian Borle who won in the category of Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play, for his performance as Black Stache, who is the character who goes on to become Captain Hook. (Prior to this play, Borle replaced Gavin Lee in the role of Bert in “Mary Poppins.)
• The same year as “Peter and the Starcatcher,” Disney also produced Newsies on Broadway. Opening at the Nederlander Theatre on March 29th, 2012 and closing on August 24th, 2014 after 1,004 performances, the show was nominated for eight Tonys, including Best Musical, and won two: Best Original Score and Best Choreography. Harvey Fierstein was the librettist for the show, and he received a Tony Nomination for his efforts. In addition to being a talented actor and librettist, Fierstein is also known at Disney for being the voice of Yao in Mulan (1998). Jeremy Jordan was also nominated for a Tony for his performance of Jack “Cowboy” Kelly, a role originated by Christian Bale in the 1992 film of the same name.
• In 2014, Disney produced Aladdin on Broadway. The show opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on March 20th of that year and is still currently playing today. The show starred Adam Jacobs as Aladdin, Courtney Reed as Jasmine, and James Monroe Igelhart as the Genie. Jonathan Freeman, who ironically voiced Jafar in the original 1992 film, reprised his role as Jafar for the Broadway version (and still does). The show was nominated for five Tonys, including Best Musical, and won one for James Monroe Igelhart, which makes him the first actor ever to win a Tony for a performance in a Disney show on Broadway. I also had the blessing of getting to meet Mr. Igelhart and receive his autograph. He even agreed to pose for a selfie with me, along with Adam Jacobs and several other members of the cast. Currently, Adam Jacobs’s sister, Arielle Jacobs is playing the role of Jasmine on Broadway. (Arielle originated the role of Gabriella Montez in the Disney’s tour of “High School Musical.”)
• Most recently, on March 22nd, 2018, Disney produced Frozen on Broadway. The show opened at the St. James Theatre and continues its run, receiving three Tony Nominations, including Best Musical. The live show features a slightly different plot from the film (i.e. the song “Let it Go,” takes place after the songs “Reindeers Are Better Than People,” and “In Summer,” and The Duke of Weselton is credited as just “Weselton” in the show, and he is younger than he appears in the film). The show features music by Robert and Kristin Anderson-Lopez and the librettist is Jennifer Lee who co-directed the original 2013 film with Chris Buck. While the stage version didn’t win, Lee, Buck, and the Lopezes all won Oscars for their contributions to the film (the Lopezes for Best Original Song “Let it Go,” and Lee and Buck for Animated Feature Film, along with Peter Del Vecho as Producer). Each of the above have reunited for Disney’s upcoming sequel to Frozen, Frozen II which will be released on November 22nd, 2019.   

Disney has had a great track record on Broadway for a quarter of a century, and with the development of shows such as Father of the Bride, Alice in Wonderland, and Bambi, more great shows should be on their way soon.