It's Showtime! September 2023 Exercise Challenge

[Twilight Sparkle]

100 minutes - horses

625/2500

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Congrats to sophy1996 and Twilight Sparkle for turning Ovation Orange and to CarolineBowmanFan37 for being the first to reach Grand Finale Green!!!


Disney's next musical, The Lion King, opened to previews at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, MN, on July 8, 1997 before premiering on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on October 15, 1997. It was technically in previews there until the official opening night of November 13, 1997. The Lion King ran at The New Amsterdam until June 13, 2006 when it moved to its current home, The Minskoff Theatre. This will be the show's 26th year on stage (minus the mandatory shut down during the pandemic), making it the 3rd longest running show in Broadway history. Over 112 million people across the world have attended this show, and CarolineBowmanFan37 and I are two of those people, having each seen it twice. It's a fantastic show, and I highly recommend seeing it if you have the chance. If you've seen it already, I'd love to hear about your experience.

Here are a couple of articles about the Lion King in celebration of its 25th anniversary:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/theater/the-lion-king-25th-anniversary.html

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/celebrating-the-lion-king-on-broadways-25-year-legacy/

And here's a really fun video in 360 format that you can manipulate to see all aspects of the opening number of the show. If you time your manipulations right, you can see the puppets walking down the orchestra aisles to the stage. This was such an incredible sight our first time seeing The Lion King, but when we saw it again more recently, our touring production had cut that aspect and all the puppets entered from the wings. Be sure to really take advantage of the 360 viewing because you can also see backstage as the performers are waiting for their cues. Have fun with this and welcome to The Lion King!

 

[ShannyMcB]

94/300

 

[PollyannaMom]

30 minutes on 9/5, then life got in the way for a few days.

90/500

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

And here's a really fun video in 360 format that you can manipulate to see all aspects of the opening number of the show.

Oof. That was dizzying! But super cool!

+20 minutes for the evening, walking.

125/475

 

[sophy1996]

Cool video!

I saw The Lion King when it was on tour. So amazing how they put it together!

+25

405/1500

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

65 minutes - running

690/2500

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

High fives to ShannyMcB and Elizabeth Smith who have both reached Ovation Orange! Way to go!


You can discover some fun facts about The Lion King musical here and learn the differences between the stage production and the movie here.

 

[sophy1996]

+45

450/1500

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

60 minutes - horses

750/2500

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

No color changes today, but the team moved up slightly to 45%.

Our next musical never actually made it to Broadway, but it did make it to the Broadway equivalent in Germany.



The Hunchback of Notre Dame (musical) has an interesting story. It was the first Disney theatrical production to premier outside of this country, opening as Der Glöckner von Notre Dame ("The Bellringer of Notre Dame") in Berlin, Germany in 1999. This musical adaptation is much closer to Victor Hugo's 1831 novel than to the animated Disney film, though the film's songs were included in the musical along with new music written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz (also responsible for the music in Wicked). The musical is a much darker and more gothic adaptation than the film. It was thought that a European audience would be more drawn to this style of musical than an American audience, and that thought seems to have been on point considering this was one of Germany's longest running musicals.

Disney did eventually bring the show to the US. It premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, CA, on October 28, 2014, enjoying a brief run through Dec 7 of the same year. The Hunchback of Notre Dame then moved to the east coast, playing at Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, NJ (a famously pre-Broadway venue for new works). Even though the show did well on both coasts, Disney decided against a Broadway opening. Here's an article discussing the possible why of that decision (though there is a big spoiler contained in the article, so if you intend to ever see the musical and want to be surprised, don't read it).

One of my favorite Broadway leading ladies, Ciara Renee, played Esmerelda on both coasts in the US. Here she is singing my favorite Disney song God Help the Outcasts:

You can also find the entire US version of the musical on youtube if you are interested in watching it. I don't know if it's okay to link here or not, though. There are several high school versions that pop up in a general search, but if you see the La Jolla one, that's the one you want. The title makes it appear it will be in Spanish, but it's not.

ETA:

Differences from the original 1996 film​

• The gargoyles' names have been changed from Victor, Hugo and Laverne to Charles, Antoine and Loni. The gargoyles' comedy in the musical is greatly toned down; they sing in many more songs, and they are also firmly established as figments of Quasimodo's imagination.
• Neither Esmeralda's goat Djali nor Phoebus' horse Achilles appear in the stage musical.
• Esmeralda is shown a way out of Notre Dame rather than Quasimodo climbing down, holding her.
• When narrating, Clopin appears as a crippled old beggar and no longer uses puppets.
• The song from the film "The Court of Miracles" is replaced by a dance number called "Dance of the Gypsies".
• Frollo's past is expanded to note that he was once a priest, harking back to his position as the archdeacon in the original novel.
• Spoiler

  [*]Esmeralda dies at the end.
  [*]
• Frollo is thrown off the cathedral by Quasimodo, instead of falling from the crumbling gargoyle fixture.
• "Sanctuary", the song that consists of Quasimodo and Frollo that played before "Out There" is expanded and the Gargoyles are added in the number.
• It is the archdeacon who brings Phoebus to Quasimodo instead of Esmeralda.

 

[CarolineBowmanFan37]

Here is some of my favourite content from the musical

 

[livih99]

+12 from yoga yesterday

120/600

 

[Oneanne]

Back home from a fabulous trip and getting caught up. I'm in for 1350 this month.

690/1350... 51%

After all that walking at WDW last week my body is asking "why are we sitting - let's move!"

 

[sophy1996]

+35

485/1500

That was so interesting! I had no idea Hunchback was a stage show outside of DHS.

 

[CarolineBowmanFan37]

+50
squats and push ups from my voice lesson.

2150/2000

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

135 minutes - horses

885/2500

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Back home from a fabulous trip and getting caught up. I'm in for 1350 this month.

690/1350... 51%

After all that walking at WDW last week my body is asking "why are we sitting - let's move!"

Welcome back! So glad to hear your trip went well! What was your favorite part of the trip? Did you have a good time at the Halloween party?

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Today we're celebrating Oneanne's leap straight to Playbill Purple fueled by the most fun active minutes ever - a WDW trip!


Next up on our Disney on Broadway tour is a musical I didn't know existed until doing all of this research.



Tarzan opened at Broadway's Richard Rogers Theatre on May 10, 2006. Like the film, the show features the music of Phil Collins. The production had 35 previews and 486 performances before closing on July 8, 2007. Tarzan has since been staged in Europe and in regional theatres in the US.

Here's the original cast list:




And here's the song list and orchestra/band credits for the production:

Fun Facts:

• The 2004 workshop period of the show had Matthew Morrison of Glee fame in the role of Tarzan.
• Tarzan didn't experience an out of town preview period before transitioning to Broadway. Instead its only previews were in its home theatre on Broadway, making it the only Disney theatrical production to not have an out of town try out period.
• Danton Burroughs, grandson of Edgar Rice Burroughs (author of the Tarzan novel), attended the opening night gala, as did Phil Collins.
• The production was nominated for a Tony award for Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Natasha Katz).

 

[livih99]

+41 on the treadmill yesterday

161/600