Jim on Film
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Broadway
By the time On the Record is touring
across the country, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King will
still be bringing in the family audience to Times Square, but Aida will
sadly already be closed. Aida has music that screams out to be performed
by powerful Broadway/Pop voices, and it would be great if the music could live
on in On the Record. It would also be nice to hear some of the new songs
written for the stage versions of The Little Mermaid and The Hunchback
of Notre Dame as sort of a sneak preview.
Others
I’ve always wanted to have a recording of If I
Never Knew You from Pocahontas as it was intended to appear in the
film (the Jon Secada/Shanice duet is beautiful, but it’s not how Menken and
Schwartz wrote the song). Michael Crawford and ultra-talented Sherie René Scott
performed the song on Crawford’s Disney album, but, as La Chiusa would say, it
received the embellishment it didn’t need.
The one strong memory I have from The Devil and Max Devlin is Julie Budd’s powerhouse performance of Carole Bayer Sager and Marvin Hamlisch’s Roses and Rainbows, a song exploring the nature of dreamers who wait for others to make their dreams come true. It’s not well known, but it would be an awesome experience to hear it belted out by a Broadway talent like Merle Dandridge, Carolee Carmello, or Rachel York.
In addition to these, the animated films from the seventies once proved to be audience favorites, but despite the success of The AristoCats, Robin Hood, and The Rescuers (along with The Fox and the Hound), the studio itself tends to push them aside. Let’s hope the theatrical division at least gives them a chance.
And of course, there are plenty of other great songs not mentioned on this list. It would be fun to hear A Whale of a Tale from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Pretty Irish Girl from Darby O’Gill and the Little People, Let’s Get Together from The Parent Trap, or even the beautiful title song from The Light in the Forest, among many others.
Without a doubt, the songs audiences will come for and pay large sums to hear are the usual suspects from Dumbo, Cinderella, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and all the other great Disney animated films. But with fifty songs in their nightly repertoire, one can really hope to hear some of the lesser known Disney classics, the great songs that have been brushed aside with time or by the studio’s lack of interest.
For some of these songs, it’s ‘bout time for an entirely new audience to be introduced to them.
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-- Jim Miles
A graduate of Northwestern College in St. Paul, Jim Miles has been studying Disney animation and storytelling since 1988, when he was awed by Oliver & Company while still in elementary school. In addition to his passion for Disney films, Jim is a teacher, play director, and writer. Last year, he produced and directed a workshop reading for Fire in Berlin, an original musical work for which he is writing the book (www.fireinberlin.com). In addition to his column for LaughingPlace.com, he is currently revising a novel entitled Little Man; is working on a second musical work, a comedy entitled City of Dreams; and has developed a third musical work which he has yet to announce.
The opinions expressed by our guest columnists, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted May 20, 2004