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End of the Wang or a Threat to Democracy?


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I am going to go way out on a limb here. I can already hear it cracking. But after reading the NY Times article, I am thinking maybe Disney ought to have a ballet company? OK,OK, we don't really want to see Beaty and the Beast on pointe, but they sure have a way a making things work. Certainly, they put profit over art, but you have to give them credit, they do some of the art quite well. And it sounds as if "Poppins" will be quite a production. And in the article, the quote by the owner of five theaters, NONE of which had a Disney show, said Lion King was good for his theaters. And good for business. So if Disney had a ballet company, and families were going to see the Disney Princesses on pointe in things like Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, maybe those same families would be taking in more classical ballet, etc.

In Florida, I am quite familiar with Clear Channel. They have been notorious in certain markets here.

I am also familiar with Disney as an employer. First hand experience. I have superlative comments about Disney as an employer. So just how far out would Disney be doing ballet... they have put their shows on Ice and have done well. :D Would Disney be good for ballet?

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To have a corporate economic juggernaut like Disney behind a ballet company could at least ensure that another producer like Clear Channel couldn't push them out of a venue, but you've put the other side of the coin neatly -- they prefer profit over art. Would they rearrange Sleeping Beauty so that it matched their cartoon version? Their ventures into other media would tend to favor this approach. And Perrault can't sue-he's public domain.

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Would they rearrange Sleeping Beauty so that it matched their cartoon version?

They already have. I remember the first time I heard the Tchaikovsky qua Tchaikovsky music for Sleeping Beauty and thinking it was wrong, because it differed from the version I'd learned off the Disney record.

On the other hand, the themes were familiar and I knew the lyrics :D!

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Disney won't do ballet for a simple reason: profit. Ballet is not profitable. Other forms of theater are cheaper to produce and can draw just as much if not more in ticket sales. So why should Disney do a ballet, rather than the (more profitable) musical theater?

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If it were the same show, performance after performance, wouldn't it be profitable? I understand for Broadway, the show has to sell out for a year before it becomes profitable. Is Moving Out still selling well? Is there a difference between a theoretical Disney Ballet and Moving Out? I'm assuming we aren't talking a traditional ballet company model with a varied repertory, but just one work that's shipped around. It seems like they could do a version of Cinderella. My guess, though, is that they would want to do a recently marketed film to cash in on the already built up PR. Is there a recently released Disney animated film that would lend itself readily to ballet?

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I imagine if Disney were to underwrite some kind of ballet company it would probably be along the lines of Matthew Bourne's Adventures in Motion Pictures, which generally creates a new, program-length show (like their Swan Lake) and then tours it as a stand-alone event. I don't think it would go to the difficulty of curating/commissioning a mixed repertory.

(and apparently Bourne is working on the Disney stage production of Mary Poppins)

We started out talking about the difficulty Boston is having with the balance between a resident company and a touring production, and no matter how many resources Disney put into a ballet company, it would most likely be a touring entity, leaving us with the same dilemma. What affect do these big touring shows have on the life of regional companies?

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I have to do a little more research to get the full scoop but it sounds as though Clear Channel is about to become a major player in the Philadelphia theater scene as well. From what I understand, there are plans for the company to restore the SamEric theater (a boarded up movie palace) and book shows like The Lion King, etc. for six-month bookings. This might be ok except that the non-profit RPAC/Kimmel Center recently sunk a considerable amount of money into renovating the Academy of Music to accomodate touring broadway shows (they extended the ceilings to accomodate larger sets). If Clear Channel joins the fray here, that will make four theaters (Academy, SamEric, Forrest, and Merriam) vying to present the national touring shows. So far, RPAC seems to have been good about allowing the Ballet & Opera companies having their choice of bookings in the Academy- but it does seem like the Rockettes may be coming to town if Clear Channel gets their own theater.

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Is this just speculation or fact?????? I wouldn't want to panic without knowing all the facts.....I also know that PABallet has looked at this same theatre to renovate and make its home possibly.

So has Clear Channel actually purchased the SamEric yet? These are hard enough times without making guesses about the future for Nutcracker versus Rockettes in Philly as well as elsewhere.....and the Boston scene seems still unclear for the future site of BB's Nut. but they seem to have strong community support to find a good solution to this new set of circumstances.

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