Disney Broadway Productions

I've seen a few. Beauty and the Beast was spectacular. I was amazed at how much I loved it. I saw a (bootleg video) of The Lion King and it was a fairly impressive show. Not so much that I've rushed out to see it live, but if I had the chance I would go. Aida was pretty good as well. I also had the misfortune of sitting through Tarzan and The Little Mermaid. TLM was ruined by the terrible terrible new music that was added in -- I had more fun at the show in DHS. Tarzan was a disaster -- the "jungle" was literally green streamers. It was pathetic.
I haven't seen Mary Poppins yet, but would like to. The new songs at least ARE up to par with the classic original songs.

They need to make a Broadway show after the Finding Nemo musical. That would be a blockbuster hit, and I would drive to NYC to see it.

I've seen Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins. Both were very good, but Mary Poppins is the clear winner. Incredible music. And the storyline if more from the book than the Disney movie, so you get some darker parts of the story as well. Incredible. And the finale is amazing.

Rather than create a new thread, I'm going to resurrect this one.

One my favorite things to do is to go to musicals and living in NYC I'm fortunate to be able to see numerous productions every year. I recently saw Aladdin and loved it! The staging was beautiful and involved a lot of Disney magic. The show had songs from the movie as well as new songs. James Monroe Iglehart really deserved the Tony Award he just won as he stole the show and amazed the crowd as the Genie. Disney on Broadway has clips from the show up on YouTube and you can probably also find the number "A Friend Like Me" that the cast performed on the Tonys (it's a truncated version of what's actually done in the show). An interesting fact about the musical is that the actor who voiced Jafar in the movie (Jonathan Freeman) is now playing him on Broadway all these years later.

I've had the opportunity to see a number of other Disney shows, too, including Beauty & the Beast (my favorite Disney musical so far), Little Mermaid, the Lion King, Tarzan (didn't care for this one) and Mary Poppins. I think Disney has done a wonderful job bringing its shows to life in theaters around the world, including in its parks.

Have you seen any good Disney musicals on Broadway or at other theaters or been a part of any productions?

One thing I love about Aladdin is that they brought in Alan Menkin to compose for the Broadway show. Alan is a great composer and he proved it by composing new musical numbers that sound like they should have been in the movie.

I saw Lion King in L.A. and in
Germany both were very amazing and it sounded
even prettier in German. I love the Lion King so both
were beautiful and I cried from joy.

Mandy, you are absolutely correct - he did an excellent job blending the movie songs and new songs together to create the Broadway version of the show. Aladdin really was a lot of fun to see, and based on the audience's reaction everyone was having a great time. I would definitely see the show again.

Wow Disneylover21, that's really cool that you got to see Lion King in Germany! Do you speak the language so you understood the dialogue/songs or did you just follow along since you knew the story already?

Weren't the costumes in the Lion King amazing? They were by far my favorite part. I saw the show via standing room in NYC so many of the animals (ie outstanding actors/actresses) were standing behind/beside me as they waited to go down the aisles for the opening number. It was a great way to check out how they created/portrayed the animals.

I saw Mary Poppins in both London and NYC (no language difference of course). I liked it a lot better in London, but that could have been because I saw it there first (so it was more magical) and our seats were a lot closer.

I really want to see Lion King and Newsies. Not only do I enjoy and familiar with the films, I've been told Newsies has the best choreography out there while the TLK is a great classic. Tickets are expensive as always but my family isn't really the type that goes out to theaters. I've only seen Aida which was years ago but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was able to follow along with the story, it was breathtaking.
The costumes are absolutely amazing my friend tried to make
Simba's costume for her son one year for Halloween but it didn't look
right. I want to see Aladdin because of Nick Pitera he made it look amazing!!

I saw Lion Kind on Broadway when it first opened. ( So awesome! We were even given a backstage tour) Then the touring show when it came to Houston. I will be seeing Little Mermaid in a few weeks and then next Spring Break we are going back to New York so Aladdin is on the list! So excited! I love the productions.Disney spares no expense.

If we see a show, it's typical in DC at either National or Warner Theater because travel expense to NYC is considerable for us and DC is a day trip & we can take my mother-in-law who lives right outside the city, but it's been quite some time since we've even done that. The only Disney shows that we've seen are The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. I'm not the world's biggest Lion King fan, but the production was very impressive. Beauty & the Beast on the other hand edged out Les Mis for my favorite live show. I heard something not too long ago about Hunchback being developed/brought back? I would love to see that! I'd also like to see Mary Poppins and eventually Frozen.

So jealous that you've seen Aladdin, CEB NYC! That and Newsies I would love to see! I've seen the Broadway tour of Lion King and, though obviously not Broadway, was in Beauty and the Beast as one of the silly girls in our local theatre company where my husband also directed Little Mermaid last year and will be directing Mulan Jr. and Tarzan this next season.

I was lucky enough to see Beauty and the Beast on Broadway when I was like 10 in NYC and I saw The Lion King on Broadway a few years later. Both of them were absolutely spectacular. I would love to see Mary Poppins and Aladdin, must put them on the bucket list

Allie that's so great that you were in Beauty and the Beast! As someone who loves the theater but can't sing, dance, act, build a set, etc., I'm very impressed with anyone involved with shows. It doesn't matter if it wasn't on Broadway. Best of luck/break a leg to your husband on his upcoming productions!

I thought this may be of interest - "Backstage with Disney on Broadway: Celebrating 20 Years" will air on ABC on December 14 at 7PM eastern.

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/backstage-with-disney-on-broadway-celebrating-20-years-will-air-on-abc-with-performances-by-ashley-brown-adam-jacobs-335945

PS Sorry I've been MIA - I've been enjoying reading all of the trip reports!

I enjoyed Mary Poppins and look forward to Aladin.

Guess who is going to see Newsies this Tuesday night?

Awwwwwwwesome!

I got so lucky to get an affordable ticket with a group. It is only here in Atlanta for 5 days!

Thats so exciting Doc! I'm going to see them while they are here in Orlando as a Christmas and Birthday present from my parents!

Awesome - we will have to compare notes!

Yes we will!

I'm sooooooooooooooo jealous, Doc!!!

Have a great time, doc & Mandy!

We saw Mary Poppins at the Toby Dinner theater in Columbia, MD yesterday afternoon and I was blown away! I've never seen a dinner theater cast where every actor was equally strong. There's always someone who sticks out on the cast for just being not quite up to par with the rest of the group. No the case this time. Even the children, scratch that, ESPECIALLY the children were FANTASTIC. They didn't miss a line or a note and Benn even commented when we left that he liked them better than he liked Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber! The characterizations were a great blend of keeping true to their film counterparts and showing a deeper side of each character.

The story & music differences from the movie to musical are plentiful, but most of the changes are ok. I still prefer the film, but after seeing it so many times, the film IS Mary Poppins to me (sorry, Mrs. Travers), so it was hard to not hear Sister Suffragette, The Life I Lead, Stay Awake, and Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. Some of the added songs were great, but there were some that I would have happily swapped for one of missing songs from the film.

As for the theater itself, it's a very small theater in the round that seats 300. I thought they did an amazing job of making sure that everyone got plenty to eat and that traffic was flowing well throughout the meal. The quality of the food was mostly ok to good, but there was plenty of variety and for dinner & a show of the quality that we saw, I think that $53 each was a very reasonable price. So if you live in the area or are taking a trip to the DC area, it might be worth your time to investigate the schedule and see what's planning. Poppins is supposedly sold out for the remainder of its run and I didn't see any other Disney shows, but it was a nice enough experience that I would go to a non-Disney show there as well.

I got to see an off Broadway production of Mary Poppins this past fall and it was terrific too! Cannot wait for Broadway Newsies!!

The Newsies was fantastic! I was blown away by how they used very little set wise without missing anything! We gave them a standing ovation for like five minutes. I also went to the stage door. I got my play bill signed and pictures with some of the cast. The little boy Vincent, who played Les, had a very strong voice for being only 9 years old. I loved the many jokes they had throughout the whole show. It was a perfect way to spend my birthday. The Dr Phillips performing arts center is amazing! The Walt Disney Theater is really pretty.

I agree - the music and dancing were great. Atlanta sold out every night it was here.

Oh yea they were sold out every show in Orlando as well.