Since the Mouse first squeaked on Broadway 13 years ago, bringing a live action version of their film hit of Beauty and the Beast to the Broadway stage (where it is still running and has now entered the record books as the sixth longest running show of all time, just behind Oh! Calcutta!, of all things!), Disney has gone on to roar as a major theatrical player.
Successors (and successes) like The Lion King have not only established the brand, but also stretched the envelope for the kind of work they were capable of: after the theme-park literalness of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King was a bold and imaginative piece of theatre making that brought Julie Taymor’s amazing creation of animals through puppets to Broadway.
Aida, an attempt to create an original pop musical (with a score by Elton John) out of the legendary story, took Disney further away from their own territory, but they tooled it into a four-year hit nevertheless.
In the process, Disney have provided a safe haven for Broadway family entertainment that may have made it a bit more like a theme park than before, perhaps, but has also introduced entire generations to the theatregoing experience, and that can’t be a bad thing.
But is the bubble now bursting on this particular chapter of Broadway history? Even Disney’s fabled marketing and cross-promotional possibilities haven’t been able to save their stage version of Tarzan, which has suddenly and dramatically announced its Broadway closure on July 8.
“The sales trends over the last few weeks just haven’t held up,” according to David Schrader, managing director and chief financial officer of Disney Theatrical, quoted in Variety. But by Disney standards, not only is the barely two-year run a surprise, but so is the suddenness of the announcement to close, with just two weeks notice. As Variety points out, it’s “another indicator of the show’s struggling sales. For other productions the company has announced the end of a run months in advance to capitalize on a resultant bump in receipts. The strategy is currently working well for Beauty, which announced six months ago it would end its 13-year run in July and is now logging impressive receipts in its final frames.”
In the last season, Disney brought their stage version of Mary Poppins – co-produced with Cameron Mackintosh – to Broadway, and though snubbed in all but one of Tony Award categories it was nominated for (its sole win was Bob Crowley’s scenic design), sales for that are holding up. But the fact that the original London production is flying away, in every sense, in January, after only three years, doesn’t augur too well for the longer-term prospects of Mary Poppins on Broadway. I would have expected it to have run for years and years here.
Maybe there just isn’t enough audience to go around anymore. Disney was always in danger of cannibalising its own audience; later this year it is bringing The Little Mermaid to Broadway, but has already seen off its own competition there by installing it into the Lunt-Fontanne, i.e. to replace Beauty and the Beast.
Disney’s producing wobble with Tarzan, however, proves that even Disney are not infallible.
The "success" of the musicals reflects what's happened over the last few years to the cartoon films. Disney are slipping back to the doldrums of the late 70's/early 80's.I
Tarzan was never going to be huge - the Phil Collins songs were hardly the greatest Disney songs ever, and the film did well because of it's stunning visuals.
They should have done a Les Mis style production of Hunchback of Notre Dame. That was the peak of Disney musicals and it's been downhill ever since...
Whilst my Broadway attendance only involves around 15 holidays going back to 1993 and so consists of a small snapshot of the shows on offer, I have to say I found Tarzan to be the worst musical I have encountered there. I will say I saw a middle preview after a couple of weeks of performances but it was really dire and dull stuff without an engaging story and hours of people swinging backwards and forwards on vines, an effect that soon passed its sell by date.
It surprises me to hear of the success of the show in the Netherlands but apparantly they had made many changes to the original production and coupled with the fact that they used a television programme with viwers voting to find their Tarzan, I guess it gave it a better chance with the public.
Perhaps it is more a case of a single clunker in Tarzan than collapse of an empire? If the producers had allowed more widespread discounts for Mary Poppins then it may well have had a longer run here.They will only be able to charge £35 for top price tickets on the tour so why not allow those prices midweek in London? Is it a case of Cameron wanting the theatre for Jersey Boys rather than Mary Poppins failing? Perhaps it was a specific decision based on the expected popularity of Jersey Boys?