The last time I saw anything like Disney’s “On the Record,” it was called “Stax of Wax,” and it was performed at Elitch Gardens. Where it belonged. Eight impossibly perky people singing songs set to minimal choreography seems the perfect diversion between the log flume and the Tilt-a-Whirl.
It’s hard to fathom how anyone thought it would be a good idea to take 64 timeless Disney songs and strip them of the context and beloved characterizations that made them magical to begin with. Robert Longbottom sets “OTR” in an antiseptic recording studio, slaps songs together in no discernible order, gives them only minimal production values and hopes people will turn out, wallets open.
Then again, it’s easy to figure out: “OTR” is an inexpensive manufactured good that feeds not on artistic credibility but audiences’ memories. So people will turn out. This is cold, crass, theme-park commercialism.
Watching this travesty play out on the same Buell Theatre stage where Disney launched the national tour of its revolutionary “The Lion King” in 2002 was an affront to anyone who expects theater to be a place of magic, especially theater with the resources of Disney.
Or maybe I’m missing the appeal of moving the transporting world of Julie Taymor into a sound booth. Or a middle-aged man wearing a tie singing “I Wanna Be Like You” from “The Jungle Book.” (Where have you gone, King Louie?) Or a model-
handsome guy in a white muscle shirt and leather pants singing as the Beast on a “Beauty and the Beast” song.
Turning 75 years of Disney songs into a stage revue is a potentially good idea. But there has to be a better way. The present premise makes no sense whatsoever. Eight singers – only four of whom get fancy clothes, not to mention names – show up at a studio, and they just gotta sing, gotta dance.
The list of “whys?” is long, and absurdly funny: Why would studio musicians break into dance? Why would they wear costumes? (Don’t you dare say “That’s the magic!”) If they are laying down Disney classics, why would they be made into medleys? Why are these singers flying indoor kites? Why do they carry fake saxophones? Why would studio singers lip-sync to the voices of famous cartoon characters?
Oddly, the most mystifying moment is also the highlight. A flat screen drops (who knew recording studios had fly space?) as the cast performs “Be Our Guest” in German, Japanese and Swedish – to animated video accompaniment. It’s completely self-congratulatory but still a great moment, albeit one that makes no sense at all.
The show is grouped into 15 incongruous “recording sessions” (code for “medleys”). While some in the audience are surely playing the “Where’s that song from?” game, I was playing the, “Why is junk like ‘Hercules’ (1997) next to ‘The Parent Trap’ (1961) and ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (1991)?” game.
Most showstoppers from animated films come off horribly because they can’t live up to audiences’ memories in this context (“Under the Sea” is set to a guy wearing a Caribbean shirt). Instead, it’s the ballads that soar because the power of those songs are enough to carry their moment anywhere – “When Somebody Loved Me” (“Toy Story 2”), “Reflection” (“Mulan”), “Colors of the Wind” (“Pocahontas”), “Out There” (“Hunchback”), “A Change in Me” (“Beauty”) and “Will the Sun Ever Shine Again” (“Home on the Range”). An upbeat exception was Andrew Samonsky’s cool “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat” (“The Aristocats”).
Tuesday’s opening teemed with kids, but this show should be marketed for nostalgic middle-aged adults and older, because the kids I saw were bored out of their gourds. It’s not a good sign when a weary tyke asks his dad “Is that the last song?” and there are 16 more to go. One girl played video games on her cellphone.
“OTR” isn’t catastrophic. Much of the material is too good and the cast’s eight phenomenal singers too talented (especially Kaitlin Hopkins and Ashley Brown) for that to be the case. But if you are going to bring Disney to the theater, why strip it of everything that makes it theatrical?
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“On the Record”
*½
DISNEY MUSICAL REVUE|National touring production presented by Denver Center Attractions|Conceived by Robert Longbottom|Buell Theatre at Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets|THROUGH JULY 31|8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays|2 hours, 15 minutes|$25-$60|303-893-4100, 866-464-2626 or denvercenter.org (800-641-1222 outside Denver)
