DISNEY’S BROADWAY HITS

Mesdames et messieurs, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you this weekend. And now we invite you to relax, swivel your chair, as the Royal Albert Hall proudly presents Disney’s Broadway Hits

A review by Tanya Howard

For over two decades, Disney on Broadway has astonished millions worldwide with theatrical magic that amazes and entertain. One of the greatest and simplest joys in life for me would have to be Disney, and one of the saddest things for me is having to miss out on Disney. I would love nothing more than to be whisked away to New York City to catch the shows in all their glory but for now I will happily settle for Disney’s Broadway Hits which returned to Royal Albert Hall after sell out performances in 2016.

Keith Lockhart was our conductor for the afternoon, accompanied by the amazing BBC Concert Orchestra, with four incredibles performers straight from the stages of Disney Musicals themselves. Anton Zetterholm and Willemijn Verkaik, who were both a part of Germany’s production of Tarzan in Germany, and Ava Brenna and Shaun Escoffery, who have both been a part of the Lion King on our very own West End, playing Nala and Mufasa.

The show began with the classic introduction from Beauty and the Beast’s Be Our Guest, adapted to welcome us to the show at Royal Albert Hall, and followed by a number of hits from the stage show. During the first half we heard songs from The Lion King, Aida, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tarzan and Mary Poppings. The finale of the first half was a show-stopping, crowd pleasing performance of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious with all four singers joining in.

After a short interval we were welcomed back with hits from a musical I can’t say I’d ever heard of, King David, and this was not the only one I hadn’t heard of before. Once again proving that I have been deprived of some Broadway classics and that they should be moved over to the West End. The second half also saw songs from Little Mermaid, my favourite of the Disney films, Newsies and Aladdin.

Before finishing all four took to the stage for an encore performance of Let It Go from Frozen, which is actually rumoured to be coming to the West End in 2020 for the grand reopening of Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Willemijn actually provides Elsa’s singing voice in the German and Dutch versions of the film and the performance was incredible, bringing the audience to their feet for a well deserved standing ovation.

There were so many amazing performances throughout the night, and I was introduced to three new musicals that I had never heard of. King David, as mentioned before, Aida and Newsies, which in particular was my favourite of the three with a very pumped up energetic soundtrack and has an interesting storyline inspired by the true story of the 1899 Newsboys Strike. Newsies is an ebullient, joyful, and entertaining musical capturing the strength that young people have when they join together and stand up against injustice.

One of the most memorable performance’s for me was Ava’s effortless rendition of Part Of Your World from The Little Mermaid, of course. I also loved Shaun and Willemijn’s duet of A Whole New World and both finale pieces from each half were great. The Royal Albert Hall is such a stunning venue and the magic of Disney truly came alive through the use of special lighting effects and the beautiful music played by the orchestra.

I celebrated my 30th birthday by throwing a Disney themed fancy dress party so it’s always been a big part of my life, and after leaving the show both myself and Abi were in such an update beat and serene mood. We made sure our Disney playlists were up to date with all the new songs we had heard, as well as some older ones that had slipped our minds. Now if anyone would like to send me over to New York to see all of the shows I’d be more than happy to accept.