Music makes Disney great. Who could imagine wishing for a star, longing for a prince to come, or wanting to be a part of a new world without the uplifting swell of the famous scores accompanying those stories? As I’ve implied before, part of Disney’s magic comes from its music, and when that music isn’t strong the movie’s better off not trying to be a musical.
It’s no surprise that, given the high quality of most of Disney’s musical movies, many of them have migrated to Broadway. While “The Lion King” continues its reign as Disney’s most popular musical theater adaptation, shows like “Beauty and the Beast,” “Mary Poppins,” and more have also conquered the Great White Way.
Now Disney’s preparing to unleash an onslaught of its films onto the theater scene. Disney news web site Stitch Kingdom reports that the Mouse Company has purchased theater-themed web domain names for a surprising number of its films. The list includes:
Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, Calendar Girls, Father of the Bride, Freaky Friday, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Jungle Book, Nightmare Before Christmas, Pirates of the Caribbean, Shakespeare in Love, Sister Act, and Toy Story.
Disney now owns web addresses for “Toy Story,” for example, titled ToyStoryonBroadway.com and ToyStoryonTour.com. One or both matching addresses for each of the chosen films are also now registered by Disney.
The purchase of domain names for the films doesn’t mean that each of these adaptations will make it onto the stage. Just as Disney might start the writing process for several films that never see the light of day, so does the registration of these domains only pave the way for possible adaptation.
Basically, this is a way for Disney execs to explore their options for making theater versions of movies to which they own the rights, without actually committing to an adaptation. If a production gets a green light and real work on it begins, I’m sure we’ll hear more details by way of an official press release and full-blown ad campaign.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Disney might be able to do with some of these films. Obviously its animated movies have the easiest transition to the stage (as we’ve seen before), given that they already come with famous soundtracks.
Other musically-inclined films like “Sister Act” also shouldn’t have any problem making the leap. Some of the movies on the list, like “Toy Story,” already boast stage productions performed onboard the Disney cruises and at theme park sideshows.
I have to admit, though, that I’m scratching my head over a few of these choices. I’m not saying that “Freaky Friday,” “Shakespeare in Love,” or “Father of the Bride” can’t be done, but Disney’s certainly got its work cut out for it in successfully adapting films like that.
I just can’t picture Shakespeare pausing to belt out show tunes; sure, some of his plays have songs in them, but can a minstrel plucking a lute sustain a whole Broadway show? His plays have been successfully updated for the musical stage (think “West Side Story”), but how does one modernize “Shakespeare in Love” without basically changing the whole story?
If anyone can do it then Disney, the company founded by a man who made his fortune through innovating both original and adaptive storytelling, can do it. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see which of these movies make it to the stage, and then what they do when they get there.
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*(This image by b r e n t is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
