How Disney's Theatrical Future Can Find Inspiration on Broadway Today
A recent crop of shows running in New York City present some fun options for Disney's future.
With Broadway an ever changing art form, different genres of theater are all having success on stage in New York City. For every expected movie-to-musical production, Midtown is also welcoming more inventive, inspired pieces of work to bring to the masses.
On my recent trip to New York City, I got to experience some of the best (and worst, to be completely honest) Broadway has to offer. For full transparency, in my mind the worst Broadway show is worth watching. Nothing can compete with the magic of live performance, especially in a Broadway house. Using my recent theatrical experiences as inspiration, I’ve chosen some Disney properties that could be brought to the stage in inventive and unexpected ways.
- Luca - inspired by Redwood - Y’all…Redwood wasn’t good. This haphazardly put together tale of a woman looking to find herself in the trees is “Wild, but bad." In the Playbill, Idina Menzel is cited as having a duet with a character named Stella who, come to find out, is the name of a tree. She has a duet with a tree…and for that reason, I’m out. However, a cast of five paired with a story inspired by the natural world and a small, intimate set would do wonders for a story like Luca. With the Pixar film being all about relationships and the power of “other", there’s a place where an intimate, stripped down environment would let the story of Luca soar.
- Fantastic Mr. Fox - inspired by Operation Mincemeat - Mincemeat is a farcical, Monty Python meets StarKid musical following the WWII operation which worked to divert the Nazi army through the use of a bizarre deflection technique. It’s part pantomime, part heartfelt underdog story, and it somehow works. Fantastic Mr. Fox, the animated film from Wes Anderson based on the Roald Dahl box, could take on this brand of musical comedy perfectly. Through smart humor and physical hijinks, it could also be a standout use of Wes Anderson aesthetics on stage.
- The Emperor’s New Groove - inspired by Death Becomes Her - Death Becomes Her is serving up a platter of hilarious antics and CAMP for audiences eight times a week. The cast and crew are forever in on the joke, never trying to squeeze out any dose of importance out of this nonsensical, yet engaging tale. What Disney property could also dial up the kitsch to provide a crazy good time for audiences? The Emperor’s New Groove! The hijinks (mostly physical) are at an all-time high, the break neck comedy is ripe for adaptation, and you get the benefit of Yzma on a Broadway stage. Make it so, theatrical gods.
- Cruella - inspired by Moulin Rouge - Another entry into the “wow, not good, but spectacle is neat?" oeuvre of Broadway musicals, this film adaptation takes pop songs, creates some kooky medleys, and performs them over the known story about love and longing. The stage show is…not successful, but I always have to applaud a show for relishing in the excess. It did bring to mind Cruella, the Emma Stone-led origin story of the fashion-forward villain. Utilizing 1960s/1970s grunge-adjacent hits and pairing them with a fashion show inspired production could not only be a match made in theatrical heaven, but also work to fix some of Moulin Rouge’s biggest flaws.
- A Complete Unknown - inspired by Gypsy - The story of Mama Rose is often regarded as the greatest American musical in the canon. The classic tale of a stage mom barrelling towards a breakdown savors its vaudevillian time period through laugh out loud comedy mixed with gut-wrenching tales of familial woe. Now, here me out, I think A Complete Unknown might be a perfect film to bring to the stage that would follow Gypsy’s embracement of the classics. Unknown was a successful movie biopic in that it didn’t shy away from Bob Dylan making bad choices, even if he is the lead character. Surrounded by songs that are part of the musical lexicon, there’s something there in doing an old fashioned Bob Dylan biomusical that isn’t trying too hard. (Looking at you, Girl from the North Country and The Times They Are A Changin’)
- Difficult People - inspired by Oh, Mary - The thing about Oh, Mary is that everyone knows it’s stupid. Its ability to savor its own stupidity while still providing a thruline plot about Mary Todd Lincoln’s push to return to the world of cabaret performing (!) is a feat. It is the hardest I’ve ever laughed in a theater. While I am aware writer and star Cole Escola also starred in Difficult People, I think bringing the Hulu series to the stage really could work if it embraced the insanity of Oh, Mary’s story and the pitch perfect patter written by Escola. (ANd, for good measure, throw in a Spacey joke or two.)
- WALL-E - inspired by Maybe Happy Ending - Currently running at the Belasco Theatre, this tale of two robots and the power of connection is a jewel box of a musical. With a stunningly quiet score and a cast of only four performers, the story revels in the quiet and the unspoken. Now, doesn’t that description remind you of WALL-E. While maybe not necessarily pining for a musical adaptation, an inventive use of puppetry and human actors could bring the story of togetherness to the stage, bringing to light yet another tale of robots who start to understand how to feel.
- Coco - inspired by Buena Vista Social Club - It has been discussed. No further momentum has occurred. If we can just bring this amount of joyous singing and dancing to the stage using the beautiful songs of Coco (and, god willing, much better acting and scripts), then it’s all good in the neighborhood.