Disney Theatrical Production: Shows On Broadway

“Disney theatrical production depends for its success on its connection to the preexisting Disney film” – John Bell

Downturn of animated film in the early 90s led Disney to gain audience by bringing film onto a Broadway stage with more music and stage magic. The Walt Disney Company officially began to become active in Times Square as an investor and theater production company. After arrival of Disney Company to Times Square, there was a significant increase in business activity. Disney agreed to spend six million dollars to renovate the New Amsterdam theater, as part of its ninety-nine-year lease agreement with New York. At the same time the city and state agreed to lend 28 million dollars to Disney Company. Following the agreement to renovate the theater which was very costly for Disney, Disney began expanding its presence in Times Square through developing its other properties such as Disney Stores, Disney-owned ABC television and sports-related entertainment, which began to influence more sectors of American society and as well as the rest of the world. Any conversation about Disney Theatrical Production should include its impact on New York City. Disney certainly played a major role in bringing other businesses and entertainment venues to Times Square. In less than a decade, the Times Square area transformed from the neighborhood plagued by porn shops and peep shows to the commercialized holiday destination, where hundreds of jobs were created by the arrival of new restaurants, cinemas, television studios and shopping centers. (Wollman, 2002) The number of tourists travelling to New York City had increased from 6.9 million to 58.5 visitors per year between 1982 and 2015. According to World Atlas, Times Square was the second most visited tourist destination in the world in 2016. (Whitaker, 2017)

In order to analyze the cause behind Disney’s entrance into the Broadway market, we ought to dive into the perspective of corporate strategy relative to the early 90s. At the time, Disney was faced with the question of stifled internal innovation concurrent with a drop in market share in traditional entertainment markets across the US. The strategy of expanding to Broadway was seen internally as a hedge against potential drop in other markets – perhaps as even a tool for financial diversification. It was also thought that the move would enable the company to gather institutional learning about a new industry at the time.

On April 18,1994, Disney premiered its first show on Broadway. From the beginning the musical was a huge risk for Disney Theatrical Production since it was the first musical to be converted from the animated version of the film. Why would people want to pay such high prices in order to see something they could watch at home? Would children’s watch the longer production? How could producers combine characters and story while controlling the beauty and familiarity of the animated film-version? The musical opened up to mixed theater critics review, however, it was well received by the audience. Disney jumped in with significant ability and money after presenting Beauty and the Beast musical on Broadway, and secured a permanent place in Broadway. Beauty and the Beast has been performed more than the four longest running Broadway shows combined. Despite the initial apprehension and unbelief, it is the tenth-longest running production of Broadway and has broken records at both venues for it’s long-term run. It may be difficult to argue that the show has changed Broadway’s overall landscape but there is no doubt that the Disney’s first theatrical production’s success has forever changed the industry.

After the huge success of Beauty and the Beast, Disney decided to put one of it’s most well-known films, The Lion King into the musical. The Lion King musical, however, has redeveloped stories and characters with the addition of new songs and ideas, unlike Beauty and the Beast, which was a visual representation of the animated film version on stage. The most significant difference of the Broadway version is the appearance of animals. Producers decided to depict many of the animals from the film as actors in the costumes that use some specific tools to move their costumes, as an example, giraffes are portrayed by actors walking on stilts.The physicality of actors and their interactions with each other brought new insight and characters layers into the plot. The other difference is the gender change of the mandrill Rafiki, Rafiki’s gender has been changed from male to female as there was no leading female character in the film. The musical version is longer than the film, so the musical has been followed by several new scenes and songs. The risk paid off, and Disney’s most remarkable and impressive performance has yet been The Lion King musical.

After the Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King’s jaw-dropping success , which not only transformed Broadway musical but also reshaped the entire Times Square neighborhood and the musical theater’s global economy, Disney decided to put another one of it’s most famous films on stage, Aladdin. The musical premiered on March20,2914 at the New Amsterdam Theater and since then has been produced internationally. Even before the production began, Disney’s Aladdin was dogged by controversy and skepticism due to dripping in orientalism and harmful racist depictions of Arab culture in the film version. The stage version of Aladdin had a lot to overcome by eliminating all the complicated cultural nuances involved in the film version. At the same time the stage version of Aladdin tries its best to regenerate all that magic that can be seen in the film, and surprisingly it finds some success. (Romano,2019) Disney tried to remove the racist tropes that were present in the original, and they have cast actual MENA actors. (Albadrawi, 2019)

“Our willingness to challenge the status quo and embrace change is one of our greatest strengths, especially in a media market rapidly transforming with each new technology or consumer trends. We are inspired and energized by the opportunities in this dynamic era, especially given our unparalleled pipeline of creative content and collection of world class media brands – ABC and Disney which allow us to navigate the changing landscape strategically and effectively”

Robert A.Iger and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company

Disney is focused primarily on children’s fare, in fact it has virtually cornered the market on children’s theater on Broadway. Either other producers don’t want to compete with Disney Company or didn’t find a way out a way to appeal to kids. It means that nearly every family that would like to go to watch a show on Broadway, has no choice but to see a Disney musical. Nowadays, the animated films, stage shows and related products of Disney have a tremendous impact on children’s moral education and understanding of society and life around them. Disney has influenced the way children grow up and shape memory development. The company is therefore paying attention to the messages that it sends influencing and shaping the creation of memories of childhood. (George, 2017)

“I wonder whether Walt Disney, who made his fortune first in film, might have foreseen a time when his company would be one of the world’s most prolific and successful producers of theater musicals” – Brad Kramer

Due to the fact that Disney has accelerated and increased its investment in live music theater, it makes money and promotes the brand itself. Disney uses synergy in business strategy to use its properties to advertise its musicals. Beauty and the Beast musical, for example, can be mentioned in any Disney movies, or advertised in any Disney stores or Disneyland by making toys, photos or rides related to the musical. (Wollman, 2002)

Disney did not create a single new property specifically designed for the stage. Surely it’s a huge risk, however Disney certainly has the deep pockets to take some risks, as it would be perfect if Disney was once seen as a pioneer in an art form rather than a recycler of older animated-film versions. It’s not just an opportunity to be creative, however, it could inspire younger generations who might find the stage more inviting than film. Disney should certainly try something other than a musical. Comedy and drama is what has historically been an opportunity for playwrights and directors to challenge the way people think and the way they look at the world, it might not bring in the megabucks, but could change people’s perception of Disney and it could reverse the directions of remakes, going from stage to film as was often the case decades ago. (Kramer, 2018)

As tourists now make up most of the public buying broadway tickets, theater has relied more on recognizable names to attract audience. Disney has almost 100 years of material to draw on, they need only the most popular titles, considerably use their money and advertise the product in a good way. So from here we can see that simply because of the titles Disney is bringing to Broadway, it’s received media and viewers from all over the world. In addition, Disney specifically puts it’s already familiar films into the musical, so people would buy tickets after becoming worldwide known as popular movies, possibly associating watching a Disney musical with how they felt when they first came across the source material. It induces the desire to revisit one’s childhood. (George, 2017)

Is Disney worth Broadway, should we bring back the live life stories, Broadway musicals like a Chorus Line or Hamilton, or should we continue funding the Disney and then not really present morality in theater that is far from the essence of the theater itself.

Broadway has not quite reached the size of mass culture industries such as film, but it has been moving for over a century in the direction of their larger money economy. However, unlike movies, a theater experience is unique in that each performance has the potential to be a different experience for the audience and performers.Theater is uniques since you can see transformation, right in front of you, at the moment. Many people may think that Disney degrades the essence of Broadway and the essence of the musical. Before Disney joined Broadway, it used to be a combination of dance, singing and acting that reflects the state of society, as it has a huge contribution to shifting people’s minds – through music and dance people are more attached to the show by lifting reality for a moment and actually joining the show even without being on stage. Broadway used to be very popular stage where real life stories were transformed into music, acting and dancing, as an example, Chorus line – it features human’s life without having any fictional stories. It’s musicals build more room for liminality within the minds of people and develop more catarsis. There is, however, a lot of falsehood in DIsney that it completely destroys the idea of musical being a reflection of real life. After Disney joined Broadway, it’s being capitalized, and it’s aiming for money rather than social change as a reflection of society, however, nowadays tourists only come to Broadway to see Disney.

Disney is something that everyone would enjoy, whether children or adults. Since most of the time in the Broadway show there is an age limit, or it focuses on being against particular ideology, particular perspective or group. Meanwhile Disney is a common ground, the show which brings the community together regardless of anything, race, gender, age and without any judgements and assessments. Disney is one that brings the community together.