www.themeparkinsider.com: The Disney Cruise Line is debuting its latest live musical production this week — "Beauty and the Beast" on the Disney Dream. Disney live-streamed part of the 70-minute performance this morning. The show starts at the 11:00 mark and runs for 20 minutes, if you'd like to sample the production for yourself.
3 comments:
When the article mentioned this production bringing together the aspects of the animated and the new live-action film, I did not give it much thought. However, after watching the 20 minute clip of the performance, they were very successful at combining these two movies in more than just a script and dramaturgical sense. I was not expecting puppetry, but I think it is brilliant. It gives a sense of the animated character in the puppet and the traditional, theatrical nature of the show with the costumes of the actors playing the puppets. The choreography and costumes was also unique – having the runway show of courses and breakdancing food during Be Our Guest. And above all, the media/scenery combination is stunning. Those three LED screens really do create a sense of in the space, and most definitely make it more convenient for having a theatre on a boat. The screens combine the hyperrealistic nature of film with live theatre. Plus, from what I watched, everything is expertly cued together – none of which is surprising because this is Disney. I wonder what the difference in cost is between the price of the screens and programming/creating the media for this show and the price of creating all the set pieces in a traditional live theatre production of Beauty and the Beast with the same or similar level of detail? Then again, it is Disney, so the price tag probably was not their concern when designing this production.
Being from Orlando Florida and growing up with the Walt Disney World in my back yard, I have seen the in park stage show of Beauty and the Beast. I have loved this show for years. I am a huge Disney fan and the classics are what i grew up on. I have never had a chance to see the Broadway production of Beauty of the Beast, but I have worked on touring shows that have done cut down versions of the show, both on stage and ice (arena show). So in a way i know the show very well. So to see even part of this new production being brought to ships, impresses me immensely. There is a strong correlation to the recent movie that just came out but I think it fits a modern audience, in a more literal way. I love the puppetry in the show. I though it was very well done. I don’t think the full sized characterization of the enchanted furniture works any more for this younger generations. Going back to puppets and there narrators was a nice choice in my opinion.
I find it incredibly interesting that Disney has chosen to debut new stage productions at Sea rather than by doing workshops or out of town tryouts on the mainland. It begs the question of what performing new productions on the ship does for them in comparison to performances in on-land theaters. The only reason I can think of has to do with the audiences on ships, who may have expectations that are significantly lower than someone attending a workshop of a Disney show elsewhere. This way, Disney can continue to demand total control over their image, which is critical to their business structure. Otherwise, I would think that it would cause more trouble than it is worth to put together these debuts on the ship. At the same time, they have an immense amount of resources to do whatever they desire, and the Walt Disney theatre, located aboard on the Disney Dream is just as large and if not larger than a great majority of theatrical spaces.
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