Disney has a remarkable history of shows that have been produced on Broadway, including several beloved movie adaptations. The first Disney show produced on Broadway was Beauty and the Beast, which opened at the Palace Theatre on April 18th, 1994, and played a total of 5,461 performances. The most recent Disney show to hit the Great White Way was Frozen which opened at the St. James Theatre on March 22nd, 2018 and played a total of 825 performances prior to the pandemic shutdown. But did you know that long before Disney started producing shows on Broadway, they produced a live stage version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? Live on Stage at Radio City Music Hall? In today’s blog, I’d like to tell you about how that production came about, and it’s success left an impactful legacy.
Robert Jani (Yan-e) was first employed by the Walt Disney Company when he was 21 years old, working as the head of the Guest Relations Department at Disneyland. His many responsibilities included coordinating the staging of Disneyland’s Grand Opening in July of 1955. In 1967, he was promoted to Director of Entertainment and not long after, to Creative Director of Walt Disney Productions. Throughout his time at Disney, he was the brains behind the “Main Street Electrical Parade,” which continues to run at both Disneyland and Disney World. While at Disney, his unique skills earned him the nickname “P.T. Barnum for the Modern Age,” and in 1978, Jani left Disney to form his own company, Robert Jani Productions, in New York City.
Throughout the 1970s, regular theater-goers had chosen to either stay home and watch television or attend multiplex movie houses for entertainment, so in New York, Radio City Music Hall experiences a major recession. Business was so poor that the Rockefeller Center Board of Directors even chose to permanently close the doors of Radio City and fired the Rockettes. There was consideration of turning the hall into a shopping center, tennis courts or even a new location for the American Stock Exchange. There were some loyal Radio City patrons who were infuriated by this, they didn’t want to see it happen. Since Robert Jani had his own production company, he became in charge of all of Radio City’s live stage productions, determined to revitalize the historical New York landmark. At this point, the country was preoccupied with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and even a lewd oil crisis, but Bob wanted to make the country believe that no matter how much trouble there is in the world, there is always some good in it somewhere. He decided to do so by convincing Disney to let him adapt Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a stage production to be performed at Radio City.
After Disney agreed to green-light Snow White Live! (1979), Frank Wagner was hired to direct the show. Wagner was known for directing shows on Broadway such as “Ziegfeld Follies of 1957,” and “New of Faces of 1968,” though he also was best known for founding the International School of Dance at Carnegie Hall. The creative team knew that the most important casting choice for the show would be Snow White, and after a very strenuous search, in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, they found Mary Jo Salerno, who at the time was working as a singing cocktail waitress at Chicago’s The Gaslight Club. Salerno auditioned for the part in both Chicago and New York. She, herself, thought the idea that she would be cast was very far-fetched, but was ecstatic when she learned she got the part. The rest of the cast featured Richard Bowne as Prince Charming and Anne Francine as the Evil Queen. While the show included all of the original film’s beloved characters, it also included new characters created exclusively for the show, including Snow White’s father, The King (played by Thomas Ruisinger) and the Evil Queen’s right-hand-lady, Luna (played by Yolande Bavan). Charles Hall doubled the roles of the Magic Mirror’s voice and the Evil Queen’s “old hag” alter-ego.
Robert Jani was determined to see that the show was as faithful to the film as possible. Although stressful for the rest of the crew, they were granted unlimited access to the Walt Disney Archives in Burbank and made sure no detail was overlooked. In addition to using the original film’s music by Composer Frank Churchill and Lyricist Larry Morey, Jay Blackton and Joe Cook collaborated together on new music for the stage version. Rehearsals were stressful for the actors as well because they required a lot of physical moving around the stage and most of the actors weren’t regular exercisers. Despite these challenges, the show opened at Radio City on October 18th, 1979, and the performance was a smash. The audience applauded Snow White and the Dwarfs, hissed at the evil queen, and even sang along with the songs throughout the show. The kids in the audience even shouted out to Snow White, warning her not to eat the apple given to her by the witch at the very end. The show became a sell-out hit, and closed on November 18th, 1979 after a total of 38 performances. It was thanks to the success of this show that the Radio City Christmas Spectacular was finally able to come back on November 25th.
“Snow White,” however, embarked on a national tour, performing in Chicago and Washington D.C. The tour ended in New York City, with the Radio City Christmas Spectacular closing on January 6th, 1980, and due to popular demand, “Snow White,” returned. It reopened on January 11th, 1980 and played a total of 68 additional performances, closing on March 9th. When Walt Disney released his film version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in December of 1937, the film made over $400 million dollars and paved the way for to Disney to produce Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940) and all the other films that followed. Who would have thought that more than 40 years later, a stage production of Snow White would have saved Radio City Music Hall in New York City?
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