Fame or Famine

Disney’s Conquest of Broadway

by Gray on February 21st, 2008

It’s getting scary.

I was fine - excited, even - when the Lion King came out. Even though it took until last month for me to actually see it, the fact that it was directed and designed by Julie Taymor was more than enough to make me forgive Disney for taking a cartoon and using up valuable stage space - space that could have been used by the next Neil Simon or Stephen Sondheim.

Then came Beauty and the Beast. Haven’t seen it, but I hear it’s impressive. The costume of the candlestick alone was pretty cool, and I raised four daughters who loved to play “Gaston”, so the musical had a soft spot for me.

Next, a practically perfect in every way Mary Poppins debuted in Great Britain but swiftly came over the waves to land in New York City. Now we were going into my childhood favorites (I had a secret urge to grow up and be Bert, playing his one-man-band in a park somewhere).

Then along comes the Little Mermaid, which from its first reviews (“Will Mermaid Sink of Swim?”, “Mouse of Blues” and “Overproduction weighs down lively ‘Mermaid’”) seemed destined to (ahem) tank. But it’s good enough to attract the attention of David Beckham and kin, spotted going to see it just a few days ago, and with the monetary might of Disney behind it, could probably last long enough to spawn a touring company or two.

But then things start to get insidious. Have you heard of “High School Musical“? How could you not? I’ve never seen it (my kids have grown out of that demographic) but posters and soundtracks and clothing lines abound everywhere you look (not just in America) these days. Disney came up with an amazingly clever gimmick to ensure a long run on the great white way, because having the best-selling album in 2007 and the most-watched movie in Disney history wasn’t enough: take the script and songs from the hit movie (and sequel) and let high schools put it on as a musical! It is estimated that over 2000 local high schools have put on this show, and the other numbers around the phenomenon are a textbook lesson in Good Marketing.

I’m not really complaining - with all the cuts in arts funding, having an easy-to-relate to, fun and well-written musical just handed to high schools across the country was actually quite a cool thing for a megacorporation to do. But, if you’re keeping count, that’s five major - and I mean major - Broadway productions. And while these are good, fun musicals…I can’t help but feel that they’re cheating, just a little, in having such a large corporation back these musicals. How many RENTs are we missing to make room for the next Pixar/Disney collaboration?

Finding Nemo, featuring original songs by Avenue Q co-composer Robert Lopez and his wife Kristen Anders-Lopez - is an example of what I mean. It’s a great show; demand became so great that they had to go from 4 shows daily to 5 (and oh, the poor cast). But while it had a preview on Broadway, it plays at Walt Disney World. Which is great; it gives another venue for stagehands, costumers, performers. I’d be happy if they produced all of their movies as musicals, and created a whole new Broadway inside of their theme parks.

Does this mean that if I got free tickets to see Mary Poppins I’d turn them down? Not a chance. Come on, don’t be silly! I’d be there in a heartbeat. But in an era of megacorporate mergers, I’d really rather see the floorboards trod by those who are taking a risk, not regurgitating surefire hits, no matter how pleasant they seem.

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POSTED IN: Broadway, Broadway Hits, Broadway News, Musicals, Off-Broadway, Performing Arts Reviews and Critiques, Theater, screen to stage