Animated Broadway: Disney and Musical Theater in the 1990s and Early 2000s

Abstract

When the ninth edition of Forbidden Broadway—a revue that satirizes Broadway musicals by parodying show tunes—opened in 1996, it commented on Disney’s recent arrival on Broadway. To the music of Beauty and the Beast’s (1994) “Be Our Guest,” spoofs of Lumière and the Beast sang, “Broadway, while you’re fading, we will be invading. . . . Now you’re fated to be animated. You’re so stressed, I suggest you recoup and take a rest.”1 These lyrics accentuate Disney’s impact on Broadway musical theater, which for more than a decade had been undergoing aesthetic challenges with the arrival of British megamusicals Cats (1983), Les Misérables (1987), Phantom of the Opera (1988), and Miss Saigon (1991).2 The arrival and solid presence of the British megamusical in the 1980s and early 1990s initially contested Broadway aesthetics. In this article, we argue that when Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP) started its activities in New York City’s theater district, it relied on these new aesthetics to leave its own stamp on the American musical, effecting changes that