Saturday, January 15, 2011
Confirmed! Disney's Aladdin to Play Seattle's 5th Avenue in July 2011 2011/01/12
broadwayworld.com: "BroadwayWorld.com's Seattle sources have exclusively confirmed for us that Disney's Aladdin will indeed open at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in July of 2011. The stage production will feature all the songs from the film as well as restored songs from early drafts of the score.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
9 comments:
As with so many new shows my first thought is "please do it right!" The story of Aladdin could be really great onstage but I'm a little worried about putting in material that was cut the first time around. Perhaps the music was cut for time but I hope the writers can see when one of the cut songs just doesn't work, which I'm pretty certain is bound to happen.
Elize, I can understand your concern about trying to force in cut music but remember that each Disney Theatricals show has either added in concept music or rewritten other music to create new content. "Shadowland" and "Endless Night" from Lion King, "Human Again" from Beauty and the Beast, etc. were originally pieces from the score put to lyrics, and new songs like "The Morning Report" and "Human Again" have fit so well into the story that they've been animated and added back into rereleases of the films.
Aladdin itself is actually known for a song that was cut that gave more depth to the character of Aladdin and his backstory. Reserve your thoughts on Clay Aiken, but give a listen to "Proud of Your Boy" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdWB9zYLsAA. I think it'll do nicely in the show.
I'm so excited for another great Disney movie coming to the stage! I know a lot of people hate Disney and think its just a giant hole where money goes but Aladdin is a great movie for both kids and adults and has the potential to make a beautiful and wonderful musical on stage. And with shows like this it promotes theater to little children who may one day grow up to support and love theater. After all when I was just a little girl it was the musical Cinderella that made me fall in love with theater.
I am also very excited about this! Not only will it be interesting to see Aladdin on the stage, it will also be interesting to see why they would include songs that originally didn't make it to the final film version. Beauty and the Beast was a show i very much enjoyed as a kid, and to this day I wish to see The Lion King, based on the wonderful things I have heard about it. Hopefully, Aladdin will be just as enchanting for all the age groups who come to see it.
Q: When did all this Disney take over start?
A: 1994 http://disney.go.com/theatre/disneytheatrical/
There are a lot more Disney productions than I remembered.
And as far as adaptations go, I am trying to think of Broadway shows that are purely original content and the list is short. I know that my musical theatre proficient colleagues will provide me with a host of exceptions but recently, you have to admit the percentage is low.
And so it begins. I got this form a friend. List of ORIGINAL musicals
1776
Evita
Anyone Can Whistle
Bye Bye Birdie
A Chorus Line
'Chess
City of Angels
Urinetown
Next to Normal
Avenue Q.
[title of show]
A New Brain
American Idiot
I stand corrected.
I agree with Elize and i really hope they do it right. Hopefully it will translate better from movie to stage with the new songs better than the Little Mermaid did. All the added songs made the plot weaker and less coherent.
Its interesting that the purpose of creating this production Isn't for Broadway, but for regional theaters. It'll be interesting to see the product and what spectacle they include.
I've never seen a Disney musical on stage. I have seen Little Mermaid on ice when I was very little. My understanding of the Disney musicals is that instead of "on Ice" after the title you see "on stage." How different are these shows from the film? Was the Beast a different Frankenstein of animals than the cartoon design? Did the Little Mermaid have red hair on Broadway? I know Lion King was aesthetically very different, but I can't imagine Mary Poppins without the chimney sweep chorus line, though there's nothing pivotal to the story that says it has to be chimney sweeps. I'm asking because Dev points out something really interesting, that it's being developed at a regional theater. Does this mean it'll be cookie cutter designed there and move to NYC later or is this a total reimagined design? Is the world ready for a genie that is not blue?
Of course, I hope this show does well, but the current backlash against the film adaptation on stage seems to be really strong. So many of these shows recently (Shrek, Young Frankenstein, Little Mermaid, etc.) have had big peaks in interest at the start of their run, and then quickly fizzle and die. I wouldn't call this show a sure thing to even hit Broadway, but I do think could find success in touring. From the responses people have given to this article, I can see the excitement is still there for these types of shows, but I think it is starting to fade away.
Post a Comment