Celebrating 25 Magical Years of Disney on Broadway

[Sotiris]

Last November’s sold-out, one-night-only benefit concert featuring 79 performers from Disney’s 25 years on Broadway will be streamed April 13 to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund. In addition to the taped performances, live guest interviews with Disney stars from their homes will be interspersed throughout the evening. Ryan McCartan (Frozen, TV’s Liv and Maddie) will host the stream live from his family’s basement.

The event will be streamed at broadwaycares.org, youtube.com/BCEFA and facebook.com/BCEFA. The stream will also be available through media partners Playbill.com, abc7ny.com and the sites of the ABC Owned Television Stations around the country. The concert, titled Celebrating 25 Magical Years of Disney on Broadway, was presented onstage November 4, 2019, at the New Amsterdam Theatre to mark the silver anniversary event of Disney’s arrival on Broadway. The event raised $570,426 for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

The streamed show will feature performances by Jelani Alladin (Hercules), Sierra Boggess (The Little Mermaid, School of Rock – The Musical), Christian Borle (Little Shop of Horrors, Mary Poppins), Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins), Kerry Butler (Beetlejuice, Beauty and the Beast), Lauryn Ciardullo (Aladdin), Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly!, Waitress), Merle Dandridge (Tarzan, Aida), Lindiwe Dlamini (The Lion King), Bongi Duma (The Lion King), Susan Egan (Beauty and the Beast), Andrew Barth Feldman (Dear Evan Hansen), Bradley Gibson (The Lion King), Whoopi Goldberg (TV’s The View), Mandy Gonzalez (Hamilton, Aida), April Holloway (Aladdin), James Monroe Iglehart (Aladdin, Hamilton), Adam Jacobs (Aladdin), Ramona Keller (Hercules), Nina LaFarga (Frozen), Tamika Lawrence (Hercules, Come From Away), Norm Lewis (Once on This Island, The Little Mermaid), Kara Lindsay (Newsies, Beautiful – The Carole King Musical), Tshidi Manye (The Lion King), Sbusiso Ngema (The Lion King), Ashley Park (Mean Girls, Grand Horizons), Adam Pascal (Rent), Krysta Rodriguez (Hercules), Michael James Scott (Aladdin), Sherie Rene Scott (The Little Mermaid), Kissy Simmons (The Lion King), Josh Strickland (Tarzan), Katie Terza (Aladdin), Marisha Wallace (Aladdin, Something Rotten!), Rema Webb (Hercules, The Lion King), Alton Fitzgerald White (The Lion King) and Syndee Winters (Hamilton, The Lion King). The show also includes the reunion of 18 Newsies from the show’s Broadway and national touring productions, and a performance from Broadway Inspirational Voices.

“The event last November was such an unforgettable evening of Disney on Broadway magic,” Broadway Cares Executive Director Tom Viola said. “We are so grateful to all our friends at Disney Theatrical Productions for generously joining us in sharing this evening again, supporting our entertainment industry friends and colleagues who are out of work and facing serious health and personal challenges due to this devastating coronavirus pandemic.”

Celebrating 25 Magical Years of Disney on Broadway will be streamed at 7 pm ET on Monday, April 13.

Source: https://deadline.com/2020/04/disney-bro ... 202901383/

[blackcauldron85]

^ That sounds amazing!!!

The show also includes the reunion of 18 Newsies from the show’s Broadway and national touring productions

[blackcauldron85]

James Monroe Iglehart, Heather Headley, Ryan McCartan, Ciara Renee, Steven Taylor, Jelani Alladin, McKenzie Kurtz, Adrienne Walker, and Michael James Scott performed an emotional rendition of Alan Menken's "Go the Distance" from Hercules.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/V ... A-20200409

[Disney's Divinity]

I watched the short clip GMA has on YouTube. I might try to watch the full clip via the ABC website later if I can get the site to load properly. What little they showed on YT, they sounded surprisingly good considering all the separate cameras.

[blackcauldron85]

Someone uploaded the whole thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_SFEF8mCsI

[Disney's Divinity]

Oh, wonderful, thank you for seeing that and posting it! I just got back from watching it. I thought Ciara and the woman from Aida were the two best during the song. Very pretty. The song is somewhat cheesy, which I think suited a group performance like this.

[rodrigo_ca]

Cancelled because the American Federation of Musicians was not able to understand the meaning of charity
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/thea ... virus.html

[blackcauldron85]

^ Oh. I'm bummed, but I see both sides. The unions of the other talent, whether the lighting and audio workers, the actors/singers, producers and stage managers, costumers, etc., were fine with this being a fundraiser, everyone was already paid when the show took place...they'll be sitting on their couches or whatever, they're not putting on a show again, it's just being shared. Not much different than a recording at a show being put on YouTube, except this is higher quality and legal...

I can see that the musicians' union has its members in mind, and...I don't know anything about the business, but let's say for example, when PBS airs a Great Performances of a Broadway show, they're not paying each person that was involved in the production of the show when it was originally performed, right? Usually for something like this, would all the employees be paid *again* when aired? If not, then the union's request doesn't quite make much sense. But good looking out for your own.

“They are trying to raise money to help your members and the entire community...It’s your decision but it seems a harsh and punitive one to your members and the larger community.”

Broadway Cares argued that it could not afford to pay the musicians for an already recorded concert without also paying the other unions. It noted that it had already given $50,000 this year to musicians’ assistance programs, and offered to give another $25,000 to a musicians’ emergency fund, which Viola said would be more than the value of the payment Hair was seeking.

Is the union thinking that each member won't see much, if anything, from the raised $? Maybe musicians make less than the other members in the other unions (actors, dancers, etc., and lighting/audio workers, costumers, etc.)?

Maybe the interested parties can do a live stream, or multiple, to raise $ for Broadway Cares?

[rodrigo_ca]

the members of the orchestra signed up an open letter (and also the president of the local musician union) saying they were more than happy to donate their times, especially in light of the 25k that Broadway Cares offered to donate to the local union's emergency fund in their names, but that the president of the national union just went against their own will.

https://www.change.org/p/ray-hair-b-way ... t-let-them

[Disney's Divinity]

That's a real shame. Maybe there'll be some degree of backlash and the president of the national union will change their mind.

[blackcauldron85]

Now the stream will go on, but not tonight:

https://deadline.com/2020/04/broadway-m ... 202907268/

[blackcauldron85]

The link above has been updated: streaming now Friday, April 17, at 7 p.m. ET

[Farerb]

The stream will be available here:
https://youtu.be/nbStmh_l8NI

[blackcauldron85]

^Thank you! Playbill.com and BroadwayCares.org also will have it. I think having multiple sites to watch it on is important, in case one site is really sluggish or not working due to the amount of people watching...?

[blackcauldron85]

FYI, Broadwaycares.org has a white screen saying: "Error establishing a database connection." And I can't figure out where on Playbill.com it'll be, but farerb, your link works- thank you!

*edit* Susan Egan is on the chat sidebar, and she said Thanks for the donations!

[blackcauldron85]

The show just ended $31,781 has been raised! + the $ from the BroadwayCares.org website!!! I love that the donations are being doubled tonight. I was only able to donate $5, but tonight that turns into $10!

Wow, what a show!!!!!! Everyone was amazing. Susan Egan singing "I Won't Say (I'm In Love)" as a duet- those harmonies + the Muses = <3 <3 <3. So awesome. Norm Lewis was phenomenal singing "If I Can't Love Her." Newsies of course was a highlight. The goddess that is Ashley Brown did such a spectacular job with every song, even the Freaky Friday one she just learned!!!

I had such a great time watching this, even staying up later than I wanted to. I appreciate everyone involved with streaming this, and for raising that much needed $ for the out-of-work cast and crew.

[Sotiris]

Disney on Broadway Concert Series at the Epcot International Festival of the Arts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgEHg4aStt4

Disney On Broadway Concert Series Live at Epcot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT3E5s6TkAk

[blackcauldron85]

That second video says it's marked as private. I added that first video to my watch later list- it says it's from a couple years ago so I wonder if I've seen it before but will watch it again!

[Sotiris]

New Fan-Created Documentary Tells the Untold Origin Story of Disney Theatrical Productions
https://www.laughingplace.com/w/disney- ... gin-story/

[Sotiris]

iHeartRadio Broadway Celebrates 30 Years Of Disney On Broadway
https://www.iheartradiobroadway.com/con ... -broadway/

Celebrating 30 Years Of Disney On Broadway With Alan Menken And Susan Egan!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2i0XlsU7DPk

Disney Hits Celebrates Three Decades of Disney on Broadway with an Exclusive Special
https://www.siriusxm.com/blog/disneys-3 ... n-broadway


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