The recent debut of the Mary Poppins musical at the Prince Edward Theatre, London, is just the latest Disney-created show to grace the boards. I’m not talking about shows in the theme parks or on the Disney Cruise Line, or even the Disney On Ice shows (wonderful though all these productions are). No, this article focuses on actual bone-fide stage musicals.

Disney’s first large stage production was a version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in New york City. It opened at Radio City Music Hall on October 18th 1979. It was a pretty faithful rendition of the classic movie, with the rubber-masked dwarves and witch looking almost exactly like their theme park versions. However, in a move which set a precedent for future shows, four new songs were added to extend the film’s short running time, including a ballad sung by the Prince, “Will I Ever See Her Again”, by Joe Cook and Jay Blackton.

A film of this production has since been released onto video and was shown on The Disney Channel under the title of Snow White Live. The show did decent business, but nothing spectacular. It simply wasn’t a Broadway-style show at heart. But over a decade later Disney released a movie that was pure Broadway through and through.

When the animated Beauty and the Beast movie came out in 1991, one East Coast reviewer said that it was “the best musical in New York”. The company evidently agreed, and in 1992 Disney Theatrical Productions was formed, headed up by Thomas Schumacher. Their first production was an interpretation of that movie and since its debut in the spring of 1994 it has become one of Broadway’s biggest successes ever as well as playing to packed houses around the world. It’s combination of well-loved characters, memorable songs and a huge feel-good factor proved beyond doubt that the public would embrace this form of Disney entertainment. The show was a “safe bet”, not digressing from the film much, with only the addition of songs to surprise the audience. It’s been running for over a decade in New York and is still doing well.

Back when the Beauty and the Beast show was still in the planning stages, Michael Eisner had been invited to visit the derelict New Amsterdam theatre on 42nd Street. The 42nd Street Development Project had tried to interest Disney in getting involved with the renovation of Broadway over a decade earlier, but with no joy. This time they met with more success; Eisner agreed to at least look at the theatre. He had fond memories of visiting it as a child, but discovered that the once-great building was now dilapidated and stood in the middle of a seedy area of New York City. Eisner agreed that it would be a great site for a big budget Disney show and when he got assurances from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani that the area would be cleaned up, the company agreed to begin work renovating the theatre to it’s former glory. They did however get huge financial assistance from the city, which in return got the prestige of having Disney operating at its entertainment heart.

Tim Rice and Alan Menkin’s King David was the opening show at the New Amsterdam in May 1997 with a nine-performance run. The oratorio piece had originally been commissioned to celebrate the 3,000th anniversary of the city of Jerusalem, and Menkin and Rice had hoped to have the show’s world premier at those celebrations. However, when the presentation became a logistical nightmare, Disney stepped in and agreed to co-produce the show as the opening production at their newly renovated theatre.

In truth it was only a partial success. The sheer audacity of returning this kind of spectacle to the area was widely applauded, but the actual King David show met with very mixed reviews. The music has only been performed on very rare occasions since, and Rice has said that it will need considerable rewriting before any Broadway run can be seriously considered.

But the next show that appeared at the New Amsterdam was a huge success. The Lion King was a hit with critics and paying customers alike, winning Tony and GRAMMY awards and spawning tours around the globe. The story of Simba’s progress from innocent lion cub to king of the Pridelands that worked so well on screen is wonderfully reinterpreted on stage. It appeals to young and old alike, from the wisecracking Timon to the beautifully crafted costumes and stunning set design. This was the first time that Disney had taken the gamble of not simply dressing actors in a costume that recreated the movie characters, but instead had new creations that suggested the character, trusting that audiences would be intelligent enough to make the connections themselves. It works a treat. The lion masks in particular are stunning, being raised above the actors’ heads when the animal is calm, then snapping into position over their faces to show their full feline aggression. Once again, Disney Theatrical had a huge hit.

Perhaps the company’s most interesting production to date has been a show called Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame. This adaptation of the Hunchback of Notre Dame has only been seen at the Stella Theatre in Berlin, Germany, where it ran for three years from June 5th, 1999 making it the longest running musical production ever in that city.

As with other Disney Theatrical productions, Der Glöckner took the classic cartoon movie and added extra songs to flesh out the story and extend the running time. That wasn’t the only change though. The show that was performed on the series of rising and falling cubes that replaced a conventional stage was much darker than the film, reverting to the adult feel of the original Victor Hugo book. The ending is totally different also, with Esmarelda actually being burned to death at the stake and Quasimodo deliberately throwing Frollo to his death from the roof of the cathedral. Also the three gargoyles are clearly represented on stage as simply representations of the Hunchback’s subconscious, not zany sidekicks who are merely there for humour purposes. In fact the writers fought to remove them altogether but Disney insisted they remain in some respect, even though they allowed their names to be changed from Victor, Hugo and Laverne to Charles, Antoine and Loni.

By all accounts, Der Glöckner was a fabulous production, the perfect antidote for those who complained of the perceived saccharine “Disneyfication” of the theatre. Perhaps its darker interpretation wouldn’t have gone down so well on Broadway, but in Europe it was a huge success. Once again Disney Theatrical had hit the right spot with its target audience.

But even Disney sometimes gets it wrong…