Disney 100: The Concert. It's The Way They Work That Makes It Magic
Celebrating 100 years of the Walt Disney Music the Disney 100 Concert brings a full orchestra, star names and a big dose of magic to venues across the UK and Europe
In his seminal book, Creating Magic, former Walt Disney World Executive Lee Cockerell explains how hard Disney works to make everything seem effortlessly magical. Having worked for Disney for five years I can absolutely confirm that there is a company wide mentality to ‘plus up’ the Guest experience at every turn. Whether that is spotless restrooms, exceptional Guest service or fantastic shows, movies and attractions the focus is always on making the Guest experience the best possible. As my former boss at Disney once told me “Look after the Guests and the rest will look after itself”
The fact is that incredible experiences don't just show up with a little sprinkling of pixie dust or a quick wave from Mickey. As Cockerell says “Its not the Magic that makes it work, its the way we work that makes it Magic” Which brings us to the totally magical experience that is Disney 100: The Concert which I saw recently at the inappropriately grim Bournemouth International Centre - known locally as the BIC (like the razor).
The premise looks simple; get an orchestra to play a load of Disney tunes with a bunch of singers in front of a big screen showing the appropriate movie clips. And a regular company might have left it there but The Walt Disney Company works hard to take this to a different level with a full orchestra, West End and international singers and a star name presenter. The show weaves in songs from classic Disney movies, tunes from Pixar films and big orchestral suites from the Star Wars, Marvel and Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. The creative team have put in a whole load of extra work to make the show better because that’s what makes it Magic!
Each piece of music is artfully arranged for the full size Hollywood Sound orchestra under the baton of Wilhelm Keitel. The orchestra is charged with taking us out of the brutalist cavern of the BIC with its untidy stanchions, and secondary school chairs. The Disney overture sets the scene musically and creatively. It comes complete with a voice over from Walt explaining why music was so important to him creatively and beautiful visuals showing the company’s origins. It is like the best opening numbers: it telling you where you are and what kind of show you can expect. It allows the 6000 Disney fans in the venue to breathe and lets them know that they are in their happy place with their tribe. Their Mickey Mouse t-shirts and Minnie Mouse head gear are proudly displayed and they don’t need to explain to anyone here why they spend thousands on trips to Florida, Paris and Anaheim. Because everyone here is Ohana!
The show is hosted by Disney super fan Janette Manrara who is an absolute revelation - at least for me. I knew that she was an outstanding dancer but what I didn’t know was that Janette is a superb, engaging and perfect host. She exudes warmth and positivity, delivers the script like she is having a conversation with friends and she knows exactly how to pitch the humour. Doing this for a Disney audience is tough and the fact that the crowd fell in love with her shows how good she is - I can’t wait to see her next presenting gig and what a keynote speaker she would make as well!
After the overture the show is on a roll with a cast of incredible singers kicking us off with Be Our Guest - of course. The audience would not have it any other way! The beauty (and the beast) of the Disney songbook is the sheer range of material available. Look back through 100 years of music by the Sherman Brothers, Elton John, Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Schwartz, Tim Rice, John Williams, Kristen and Robert Lopez and even Shostakovich and then choose two hours of tunes!
The cast and creative team on this show make sure that every song and orchestral piece lands. The light opera of A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, the camp theatricality of Poor Unfortunate Souls and even You’ll Be In My Heart made sense - with the orchestra backed up by a hard hitting Phil Collins style drummer the song fell into place. Colours of the Wind from the sometimes overlooked Pocahontas suddenly had a new life. Janette’s perfectly scripted and delivered introduction set up what that song is about and gave it new relevancy around both colonialism and environmentalism:
‘You think you own whatever land you land on / The earth is just a dead thing you can claim’
Before what could be seen as a plea for less polarisation in society;
‘but if you walk the footsteps of a stranger / You’ll learn things you never knew you never knew’
Of course many of your favourites are here. Let It Go, We Don’t Talk About Bruno, A Whole New World, Part Of Your World and How Far I’ll Go. There was a powerful vocal and orchestra suite from The Lion King and some good old fashioned audience participation with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
The international cast led by German singer Roberta Valentini and West End star Earl Carpenter are incredible. They take their responsibility to the material seriously recognising that they are part of continuing the Magical Guest experience but also surely aware that there is no tougher crowd than a Disney crowd, They have to get this stuff right and they do!
Disney 100 is a big, visually exciting event with a full orchestra and beautiful cinematic images on a huge upstage screen. This feats for the eyes only served to daw attention to the cast’s costuming which, at the start of the show, felt a little underwhelming . As the concert developed so did the costuming which started to match up better with the material.
As a venue the BIC has to do much better. The building feels scruffy and unloved with a series of temporary F&B structures, grumpy staff, unacceptable queues for dirty restrooms and 40 minutes to get out of the BIC’s own car park.
The venue experience stands in stark contrast to the incredible show inside which has been worked on, refined and developed. The concert feels like it has a vision and a desire to plus itself up. Disney 100: The Concert is such a successful piece of theatre exactly because they way it works makes it Magic!
I saw DISNEY 100 at the Bournemouth International Centre on 8th June 2023
The Cast performing were:
Janette Manrara
Roberta Valentini
Earl Carpenter
Bessy Ewa
Cleve September
Masengu Kanyinda
Georgina Hagen
Richard-Salvador Wolff
Charlie Burn
Tobias Joch
The Conductor of the Hollywood Sound Orchestra was Wilhelm Keitel
Tickets were £60.75 each - Parking was £10
The review is truly spot on! having seen the show I agree on what a magical experience it was!