Disney Musicals

^ not based on the Disney film.

And the award for most constructive remark of the day goes to...

I pretty much adore anything Disney (and will accept no judgement on that!). If we never get Newsies on the UK stage, I will fill my grave with tears 😭😭😭

Mufasa's death is for children? Frollo's sexual longings for Esmeralda are for children?

I actually think most people are not mentally old/evolved enough to fully understand some of the Disney Classics.

It may be worth noting that Arts Ed are going to be doing the European premiere of Newsies.

I think there's a strong perception of animation = Saturday morning cartoons = strictly for children, and Disney is particularly hard hit by it because people just love to attack large companies. But animation is an artistic choice, not a genre. There's no story you can tell with live action that you can't tell with animation. And Disney does live action too, of course.

Though almost all Disney films are suitable viewing for children — mainly from necessity because people are going to read "Disney" and take their kids along without any further thought — it seems to me that many of them are not truly children's films. To me a children's film is a film where the average older child is going to fully understand the core issues of the story and the characters; there may be jokes and references that go right over the heads of the non-adult audience but the film a child of ten will see is essentially the same film that an adult will see. But some films — and many Disney films — have a depth and complexity that introduces an entirely different feel to the adult audience. Just the other day I was reading several opinions on Tangled from people who had lived through abusive childhoods, and one person was saying that she couldn't watch the film because Disney had been so accurate in representing her own mother's behaviour in their portrayal of Mother Gothel, while someone else said it was their favourite film for exactly the same reason: Disney got it right. There are powerful core aspects to many of the Disney films that go right over the heads of children in the audience: they still understand and enjoy the films, but from the adult perception there's a fundamentally different quality to the story.

I would love a stage adaptation of Hercules!
can you imagine!!

with Andy Coxon as Hercules
Naomi Campbell as Meg
Theresa May as Hades
Spice Girls reunion as the Muses
Russell Tovey as Pain
Katie Price as Panic

Cynthia Erivo as a Muse. 

Your dream might actually come true: www.broadway.com/buzz/189105/alan-menken-at-work-on-hercules-stage-musical-adaptation/

Isn’t Disney for children?

But

My first trip to New York in 2005 and didn’t really know much about musicals and theatre then, so didn’t decide to see Beauty and the Beast, so saw The Producers and Fiddler on the Roof instead and a whole lot of sightseeing what tourists’ do on their first New York trip right? In those days didn’t know what TKT’s was, but ended up standing next to it on Times Square the old location on a Sunday night, the only show they had on and you guessed it, so took a crapshoot and expected the worst, well the show blew me away and have been waiting 13 years to see it again.

The Lion King - beautifully done, so clever how they incorporated Hamlet with animals, loved this.

Tarzan - loved Phil Collins’ score also enjoyed the Broadway production, even though a bit clunky at times.

The Little Mermaid - absolutely dreadful, had the feeling of a musical constructed in a meeting room.

Aida - I have never seen it, a head scratcher and a surprise it never came over, probably the biggest the biggest musical not to. Sure a score by Elton John and Tim Rice would pulll the punters in over here? Love the score BTW!!!

Newsies - Saw this a couple of times on Broadway and it is very poor at best, the choreography was great, the book wasn’t, neither was the score.

Mary Poppins both beautiful and stunning, Stiles and Drewe additional score matches the original Disney score. With all that Poppins’ flying and Bert walking upside down on the prosenium arch, what not to like? This has more of Cameroon Macintosh’s fingerprints on it, than Disneys.

Pinocchio- mildly enjoyable.