Disney Celebrates 25 Years on Broadway

Thursday 18th April was a very special day for Disney Theatrical as they celebrated 25 years of bringing Disney magic to Broadway!

That's right, it's been 25 years since Disney first brought Beauty and the Beast to the Broadway stage. Disney's first stage adaptation ran for an incredible 13 years, helping to revitalise Broadway and bring in a whole new generation of theatre goers. Since then Disney Theatrical have adapted many of Disney's most famous animated classics, live action movies, and even crafted entirely new productions just for the stage.

To celebrate 25 years of theatrical magic, the casts of Disney Theatrical's current Broadway hits, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Frozen, took part in a very special medley on Good Morning America that spanned 25 years from Beauty and the Beast to Frozen.

Here's to the next 25 magical years!

Don't Miss ABC's 20th Anniversary Special Tonight!

If you live in America then make sure you don't miss tonight's special Backstage with Disney on Broadway: Celebrating 20 Years on ABC at 7pm EST.  And to get you in the mood Entertainment Weekly have a special preview of Glee's Darren Criss singing Aladdin's Proud of Your Boy.

Hosted by Jesse Tyler this hour long celebration will take you from 1994's Beauty and the Beast to 2014's Aladdin and feature performances by Elton John, Mary Poppins' Ashley Brown and Aladdin's own Adam Jacobs as well as taking you back stage during the show stopping extravaganza that is Friend Like Me.

Farewell to the Kings of New York

The Cast of Newsies



In 2011 Disney Theatrical, working with regional theatres, developed Pilot Productions of two shows.  The first was Aladdin and if you're reading this blog then chances are that you know the story behind that production.  The second was Newsies.

Like Aladdin, Newsies was based on a 1992 Disney musical and the Pilot Production, produced at the Papermill Playhouse, was not intended for Broadway.  Like Aladdin, the intention was for Newsies to be a licensable production for professional and amateur regional groups who had long been requesting an official stage version of the musical from Disney and MTI.  Like Aladdin, the fans of Newsies had other ideas and support for the Papermill's Pilot Production was overwhelming.  And, unlike Aladdin, the Newsies had the critics on their side.  Within a month of closing in New Jersey it was announced that Newsies would be carrying the banner all the way to Broadway in March 2012.

Originally announced as a limited run of 101 performances the fans once again turned out in overwhelming support for Newsies that saw it's limited run extended to an open ended stay on Broadway.

Today, after 1005 performances, the Newsies will take their final bow on Broadway.

I was lucky enough to see this fantastic show when I went to New York earlier this year.  It's a great night at the theatre and the choreography is incredible.  If you have the chance I would highly recommend seeing the US Tour which starts in October.

Today, I just want to wish the cast and crew a fabulous closing show and congratulations on their record breaking run.  Farewell, Kings of New York.

Aladdin and Jasmine, Together Again!

Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed as Aladdin and Jasmine, Photo by Mark Kitaoka

Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed, better known to readers of this blog as Aladdin and Jasmine from last summer's world premiere production of Aladdin: The New Stage Musical, are to share the stage once more in the Paper Mill Playhouse's production of Once on this Island.  Like Aladdin, this is a limited production running only from 30th May until 24th June.

Courtney will be playing the role of Andrea and Adam will be playing the role of Daniel in this exciting re-invention of the original production by the Tony Award winning director Thomas Kali (who also directed In the Heights, which Courtney Reed starred in).

Tickets are now on sale at the Paper Mill Playhouse's website so if you can make it to New Jersey whilst this is on, be sure to go see it!  For more information on the production, check out the Broadway World article here.  Special thanks to Tipawan for bringing this to my attention!!

In related news (and I'm sorry for not reporting on this earlier) The Newsies, which made it's world premiere at the Paper Mill Playhouse last year, has extended it's limited Broadway run through to 19th August.  Tickets are on sale here.  The Newsies stars another Aladdin alum, Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Omar) as Crutchie, a role he originated at the Paper Mill Playhouse.  More details are available here.

Andrew Keenan-Bolger (left), Phto by T. Charles Erickson

I can only hope that after this next round of regional productions and international premieres, Aladdin: The New Stage Musical goes on to share the same level of Broadway success as The Newsies, which has just been nominated for Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Jeff Calhoun), Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical (Jeremy Jordan), Best Book of a Musical (Harvey Fierstein), Best Original Score Written for the Theatre (Alan Menken/Jack Feldman), Best Scenic Design of a Musical (Tobin Ost/Sven Ortel), Best Choreography (Christopher Gattelli) and Best Orchestrations (Danny Troob)!  Disney's new play Peter and the Starcatcher is also up for several awards, including Best Play and a Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Play nomination for Andrew's sister Celia Keenan-Bolger!  Alan Menken's other new musical, Leap of Faith, is also up for Best Musical, meaning he's worked on half of the category!

Newsies Tickets now on Sale and Q&A with John Musker at Part of His World

Two updates today.  First get ready to seize the day as tickets for Newsies: The Musical, which stars Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Omar in Aladdin: The New Stage Musical) as Crutchie, are now on sale here.  The show is booked for a limited run of just 12 weeks from 15th March until 10th June at New York's Nederlander Theatre, so be sure to get them now whilst they're still hot off the presses as they're sure to go fast.

Ok, that's enough of the bad puns.  The second piece of news is that Howard Ashman's sister, Sarah Gillespie has posted a new blog asking for questions for John Musker.  As most of you will know John Musker was, along with Ron Clements, co-director of both The Little Mermaid and Aladdin where he worked with Howard Ashman and Alan Menken.  If you have a question you'd like to ask (about Howard, John and their work, not necessarily about Aladdin) pop over and say hi!  This is an amazing opportunity for any Disney fan to ask a question of one of their best directors.  I know I'm going to try and think of one or two!