Disney Broadway Production

Final Paper

DISNEY THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS From Film to Broadway Production

Disney Theatrical Productions Limited, which is also referred to as Disney on Broadway, is the stage, play and musical production company of the Disney Theatrical Group. This is actually a self-contained division of The Walt Disney Company. The company was founded in 1993, as Walt Disney Theatrical. This fairly new Walt Disney division has gained a reputation within the industry for creating professional and popular, both critically and financially booming performances, starting with Beauty and the Beast in 1994, then The Lion King in 1997, Mary Poppins
in 2006, and most recently with Newsies in 2012. The company is a division of Disney Theatrical Group, which is led by Thomas Schumacher. To compare the two versions, film versus Broadway production, one would need to consider the opportunities and constraints offered by the two very different media forms, the different ways each genre presents the story and how successfully their respective audiences are engaged. Watching a film is a very different experience, than watching a Broadway performance. A film’s animation effects cannot be equally compared to theatrical devices used in a stage production. Yet, the visibility of ropes, pulleys and wires can add to the engagement of an audience with the prospective play. Animated movies are drawings, while Broadway performances utilize backdrops to add atmosphere to a story. There is great difference between watching a movie about animal characters and seeing a Broadway show where humans play the animals. Animals appear realistic on film, in contrast to how theatrical choreographers and designers represent the characters on stage. A combination of movement, costume and voice on stage is what actually conveys the character’s persona, very different from an animated movie. A screen narrative requires a very different audience response than does the theatrical experience. Stage production, obviously requires a great deal more of an active level of engagement from an audience that does film. Music in film complements the action, whereas in musical theater productions, it gives insight into the characters. This is what moves the story forward. The differences between film and a live theatrical experience are clearly very different experiences. Therefore, there are evidently differences from the original Disney films to the productions of live Broadway Productions created by The Walt Disney Theatrical Group. The Beauty and the Beast Broadway show began previews in New York on March 9, 1994 and officially opened at the Palace Theatre on April 18, 1994.
The musical was the first Broadway adaptation produced by Disney, and was based on the 1991 animated film by Linda Woolverton with music and lyrics by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice. The Broadway show differed from the original film in several interesting and impressive ways, adored by audiences. Several new songs were written for the Broadway musical, including “Home”, which was a ballad sung by Belle, which quickly became the well known hit song of the musical. The change of songs and addition of the new ballad gave a different look and feel to the Broadway version of the popular film. The characters who were animations on film, were now portrayed by humans, which added a new dimension to the live performance. The performers had the responsibility of bringing these inanimate objects to life on stage through movement, costume and choreography. Beauty and the Beast had a continuous run, until the final performance took place on July 29, 2007 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. This beloved Disney musical had 5,461 performances, and the show is currently the eighth-longest run in Broadway history. Beauty and the Beast has been performed internationally first in Melbourne, Australia and has also been performed in London, Toronto, Kyoto, Seoul, Stuttgart, Sydney, Mexico City, Guayaquil, Johannesburg, Madrid, Moscow,
Milan, Sao Paulo and has also toured around the USA as well as the United Kingdom. The Lion King show debuted on July 8, 1997, in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Orpheum Theatre. It was clearly a success before even premiering on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theater on October 15, 1997. On June 13, 2006, the Broadway production moved to the Minskoff Theatre to make way for another Disney Broadway musical, which was the musical version of Mary Poppins. Disney 's film The Lion King was released in 1993 and the stage production was produced about 3 years later. The production was set in the animal kingdom of the African plains, and it tells the story of a lion cub 's growth to maturity. To compare the two versions, one would need to consider the opportunities and constraints offered by the two very different media forms, the different ways each genre presents the story and how successfully their respective audiences are engaged. The differences from film to Broadway production are probably the most evident in Lion King, as humans portray the animals. Actors in costumes merge their bodies with animal physicality and this is used to remind the audience of the play’s message about human responsibility for the planet on which we live. Also, if we look closely at how the blend of Tim Rice and Elton John’s African and pop music sounds gives the audience insight into the characters and helps to move the story, whereas in the film the music seems to complement the action. The differences from the movie to the Broadway production are clear and evident, as they may both deal with central issues of responsibility, growing to maturity and the circle of life, yet are communicated to the audience in very different manners. It helps one to realize why producers and creators must adapt and make changes from an original film, to help adapt it more appropriately to a Broadway stage. Mary Poppin’s is now Broadway 's seventh longest-running show in history. The show uses a range of theatrical techniques, and is not an ordinary conventional musical by any means. It is most likely one of the most popular productions Disney Theatrical has ever created. It has consistently been one of the highest grossing musicals on Broadway every week, and is constantly performing to sold out audiences. The production won the Tony Award for Best Musical at the 1998 Tony Awards, which is a statement to its great success and popularity. Its popularity has led to several additional opening performances around the world, which include London, Toronto, Hamburg, Scheveningen, Sydney, Melbourne, Shanghai, Montreal, Tokyo, Paris, Nagoya, Russia, Seoul, Johannesburg, Las Vegas, Taipei, Phoenix, Arizona Madrid and São Paulo. Mary Poppins, a whimsical Disney classic, too needed adaptation from film to stage. The Broadway version of Mary Poppins gives an energetic and modern spin to the original movie. The beginning of Mary Poppins fills one with the feeling we all got as a child when we watched the movie, but as the play unfolded so do the changes. An additional story line is added, parts of the movie were creatively rearranged and altered. George Banks and Winifred Banks background story emphasized and revolved around a women’s place in the house. There was now a background story to the parents, not as evident in the film. Not only are the parents story altered, but also a new nanny is added. One of George Bank’s childhood nannies comes back to haunt the children, as she had haunted George bank’s memory. Instead of small toys coming alive in Jane and Michael’s room, the audience is bombarded with life size toys, and fog. Very different than seen in film, which is a creation and feeling that can only be created with a live stage performance. The show The Hunchback of Notre Dame was based on the animated film. It premiered in Berlin, Germany in 1999. This was adapted into a darker, more gothic musical production, and was re-written and directed by James Lapine and produced by Stella Entertainment, in Berlin, Germany, and was considered to be a great boost for tourists in Germany, the musical Der Glöckner von Notre Dame. This was a very successful production in Germany and played from 1999 to 2002, before closing. A cast recording was also recorded in German. Quasimodo may still get the opportunity to ring his bells on Broadway as Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is eyeing to run on Broadway after all, according to The New York Post. Peter Parnell, the author will write a new book for the musical, which premiered in Berlin in 1999. The musical will also feature additional new songs from Oscar and Tony winner Alan Menken who previously scored the 1996 animated film and Wicked composer Stephen Schwartz. As we can see, each Disney film created into a Broadway show, had additional songs and or scenes intentionally added by the producers. This is clearly not accidental, but purposeful to meet the needs of a well created and choreographed musical theater production.

The Broadway Show Tarzan was based on the movie of the same name and the novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and debuted on Broadway on May 10, 2006.
The show debuted at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The difference between the film and Broadway Show was the addition of new songs as well. Tarzan was heavily publicized with Phil Collins and the lead actors promoting the new musical on several media shows including The Today Show, Good Morning America, and Live with Regis and Kelly. Yet, after playing at the Richard Rodgers Theatre for over a year the show quickly closed on July 8, 2007. On April 15, 2007 the musical made its debut in Europe in the Netherlands following The Lion King in Scheveningen. A Broadway musical had never previously arrived in the Netherlands so soon after its Broadway premiere and Phil Collins was a special guest at the 2006 Johnny Kraaijkamp Musical Awards. There he announced the news that Tarzan was coming to the Netherlands. Due to the size of the Circustheater, the show was expanded beyond the original Broadway production, which was a big change from the original production, as well as the film. Tarzan is another example of how adaption to stage can create constructive and appropriate changes, as the show transforms from film to
stage.

The Little Mermaid the musical began Broadway previews on November 3, 2007 and opened on January 10, 2008 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre. The world premiere took place at The Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Center of the Performing Arts in Denver, Colorado and the show featured all songs in the movie and had additionally nine new songs written by Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater. Another big change to the Broadway Production from the original film, was the adaptation of characters. According to Playbill, the role of the villain had to be radically reconceptualized for the stage. Playbill states that the larger than life villainess, Ursula, went from “a braying, Sherman tank matron into a curvaceous, cunning siren. " It has been changed, but it had to be for the theatre because what you can do on paper as an artist is simply sometimes something that cannot be done in live theatre. The book for the new musical is by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Doug Wright, with direction by Francesca Zambello, choreography by Stephen Mear, scenic design by George Tsypin, costume design by Tatiana Noginova and lighting design by Natasha Katz. Unfortunately, the musical on Broadway seemed to open to mixed reviews. The original Little Mermaid Broadway cast featured Sierra Boggess as Ariel, Norm Lewis as King Triton, Sherie Rene Scott as Ursula, Eddie Korbich as Scuttle, Sean Palmer as Prince Eric, Brian D 'Addario and Major Curda as Flounder, and Tituss Burgess as Sebastian. Yet with the addition of new songs, as well as a well know cast, the musical closed on August 30, 2009 after 685 performances and 50 preview shows. The most interesting and evident difference beside the additions of songs and scenes, would be that in order to achieve the effect of underwater movement on stage in the Broadway version of The Little Mermaid, the actors wore Heely’s, which is a type of wheeled footwear. In order to portray the fantasy underwater kingdom, according to the director, the set is "very translucent, takes light beautifully and architectural and sculptural to suggest an underwater world without actually being in real water. Before the age of 50, composer Alan Menken born in 1949 in New Rochelle, New York, had won eight Academy awards and four Grammys. His well known scores for the Walt Disney animated films of the 1990s, as well as his success on the Broadway stage have many giving him the tremendous credit for the return of both genres. Disney seems also very convinced, as they asked Mr. Menken to prepare the scores for all of their animated films, as well as some of the live action features, over a ten year period. In November 2010, Alan Menken confirmed that a musical theatre Broadway show adaptation of the show Aladdin, based on the film animation, was in the works with a book written by Chad Beguelin. The show premiered at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle from July 7 to July 31, 2011. Another production played at the Muny Theatre in St. Louis from July 5 – 13, 2012. The show will open on Broadway sometime in 2014, and will replace the Mary Poppins show currently playing at the New Amsterdam Theater. In January 2013, it was announced that the musical would have a preview performance at the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto lasting from November 13, 2013 to January 12, 2014. Casey Nicholaw is expected to direct and choreograph, with Chad Beguelin writing the book, as well as additional lyrics., which were not in the original film. Bob Crowley is set to be the scene designer, and costume design is going to be by Gregg Barnes. Mr. Alan Menken discussed in a detailed interview on Playbill.com his feelings and reasons for making changes from the original animation film to the Broadway production. In the interview by Adam Hetrick, Mr. Menken states that at the same time he and Howard Ashman were writing "The Little Mermaid," they were also writing "Aladdin." They had a whole score that involved Aladdin 's mom, and his sidekicks, Babkak, Omar and Kassim, and it had a lot of plot elements that are not in the movie. Mr. Menken mentions that while the movie was great, "If we are going to do this theatrical adaptation, for me, the perk would be to try to bring in the songs that Howard and I wrote for the movie that never made it in.” This gave Mr. Menken the opportunity to include a number "Proud of Your Boy," where Aladdin was originally to sing in the movie to his mother directly, but now it is directed to his mother in heaven. There 's a number "Babkak, Omar, Aladdin and Kassim," which is kind of the friends ' Vaudeville number that they do in the streets of Agrabah, as well as a song called "High Adventure," where they perform a rescue at the end of Act Two. It 's one of those numbers Alan Menken was dying to see on stage. There is also "Call Me Princess" for Princess Jasmine. Therefore, the new songs which have been added to Aladdin, are not new at all, but were actually original songs from the film that were cut. The Broadway Show, The Newsies was based on the 1992 film, and also features a book by Harvey Fierstein and music by Alan Menken and Jack Feldman. A reading of the musical was held in New York on December 10, 2010 and the musical premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey, in September 2011 with Jeff Calhoun as director. Due to the positive and very enthusiastic reviews, the show opened Broadway and is playing at the Nederlander Theatre with an open-ended run. The show was nominated for eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical, winning Best Choreography and Best Original Score, a testament to its positive run thus far. The original Newsies movie was actually short at only about an hour and a half long compared to the length of the Broadway stage production at two hours and 20 minutes long. Therefore, clearly, there have been many additions to the onstage version. Naturally, an enhanced show means more scenes, bigger scenes, and new songs. This transition to a more enhanced version of the movie made for a great success on stage, as proven by the numerous awards the show has received. Characters both old and new needed introduction, and the best way to do that in a musical is through song. Pulitzer, for example, has a charming little vaudeville number called “The News Is Getting Better” at the moment he comes up with his plan to start charging the Newsies more for their papers. As in the majority of Disney Broadway productions created based on film, Newsies also had many changed lyrics in the songs, such as “Carryin’ the Banner,” and “Santa Fe.” Peoople often wonder why such changes are made from film to stage production, but it is evident that these changes are often made to better fit the production to stage, length wise as well as story wise. Gaps are often being filled and new characters are being created. As a stage production, audiences expect a different experience, therefore, the stage production of Newsies could not possibly be exactly the same as the movie, as we are learning what works in film does not necessarily work for live stage audiences. Disney Theatrical Productions along with La Jolla Playhouse in California adapted Peter and the Starcatcher, which is a prequel to the Peter Pan story, into a play with music. The new play is written by Rick Elice, co-directed by Roger Rees and Alex Timbers, and is based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. It was produced as part of La Jolla Playhouse 's Page to Stage program, and ran from February 13, 2009 through March 8, 2009. The Off-Broadway production is now currently playing at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. Just another example of how Disney Theatrical Productions can create a current Broadway show based on an original Disney film. Although it is very different in most ways, it has familiar Disney elements of which we are all too familiar, as we all know the story of Peter Pan. The prequel gives the original story, a twist to entice and entertain audiences. An Alan Menken interview published on February 13, 2013 on Playbill.com discusses with Mr. Menken the process of adapting fill work to the stage. Alan Menken, Academy and Tony Award winning composer with musicals such as Newsies, Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid, states to Playbill interviewer Adam Hetrick, that “The things we wrote for animation were still theatrical, so in a way, bringing it to stage is more fully realizing what our intentions were to begin with we get to fill in those spots we didn’t get to fill in the movie. We also have the incredible magic of live performance, where you have a collaboration between writers, but there’s also the collaboration with an audience that only happens in live theatre.” Mr. Menken clearly states that the changes from film to Broadway Production are made often to improve the production for a live audience, as well as to fill those gaps that may have been in the film or animation. It seems that changing a Disney film into a Broadway creation, gives the producers an opportunity to reinvent and make the production an even better creation than the original film. Mr. Menken states it perfectly as he compares the creation of a Disney production to that of building a house, “Being an architect and building something that people can inhabit and make their own.” Mr. Alan Menken, states it quite adequately as he compares the creation of a Broadway production from an original Disney film, as a process similar of one an architect would take. He is building a production and adapting it along the way. Although, there is the original film, the foundation, he is able to build upon that to create with the producers a production that may be different from the original film, but very unique in its own way. The differences between film and musical theatre productions are clearly profound. Musical theatre productions are created to serve and entertain a live audience, which is a contrastingly different process than film. The new Disney Broadway productions most definitely have more songs added to them, as well as different scenery, costumes, choreography and characters, but it is all done to fill in the gaps, add songs that have never been heard or have been newly created to better fit the flow of the stage production to serve the live audience. Pictures cannot be drawn, as in animation. In live theatre production the pictures must be made in the mind of the viewer through the use of actors, costumes, music, scenery, lighting and choreography. As film and live stage productions are two very different forms of entertainment that amuse audiences, it seems that the original Disney films, do serve as a basis of construction for the theatre, and for the builders or collaborators to build upon and create an even more beautiful, entertaining and awakening structure for audiences to inhabit.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Gottfried, Martin. Broadway musicals. New York: Abradale Press :, 1984. Print.

Lassell, Michael. Disney on Broadway. New York: Disney Editions, 2002. Print.

Lewis, David H.. Broadway musicals: a hundred year history. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2002. Print.

Stempel, Larry. Showtime: a history of the Broadway musical theater. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., 2010. Print.

INTERNET WWW.PLAYBILL.COM