Imagine the alternative timeline where The Lion King was the show where Julie Taymor had too much power and that became the biggest financial flop on Broadway, and Spider-man turn off the dark was the show where marvel took tact with Taymor and it went on to become one of the most successful musicals of all time...
Okay, but I still wanna see Simba as a furry gladiator in Centaur!Vegas as an animated series in the vein of Talespin. That shit sounds like the kind of idea that’s ridiculous on paper but could be pulled off brilliantly with the right animators+writers+voice actors.
As a set designer for my high school performance of Shrek, I can tell you, that that set piece is a BITCH TO MAKE!!! Even with the “Get Out” sign, I had to make the sign look EXACTLY like the one in the show, and the damn story book in the beginning too!! I didn’t work on the dragon, but I saw the guys who did, and they ended like, therapy after making that beast, it was THAT hard! Someone also almost was crushed during the tech rehearsal the DAY before the opening night, and they had to scramble to fix the mechanics of it all. I was sweating bullets that opening night. I feel like you could make a video on how The Addams Family running was so short, but how it basically took over the community theatre world. That would be a great timeline video! ☺️
Seeing Shrek on this list is surprising to me, because the only time I've ever seen the show is at a small local theater. Like, has seats for about 150 people max, small. The show was amazing though, the only part that didn't work was Shrek's makeup... For the Dragon I think they just did a small puppet, the magic mirror just had the actor in face paint, etc, but the show was really fun and entertaining. Kinda shows that the music and book are really solid and it didn't need that elaborate of staging, imo.
Defunctland dedicated a large part of one of his seasons to talking about things that Eisner was involved in, and used it as a way to talk about the man's tenure at Disney itself. At least the way he presents it, I would say that Eisner had more than a few wins, though more than a few losses as well. Same could be said for Walt, when it comes right down to it. (Honestly, I'm less interested in being an Eisner apologist than I am in recommending Defunctland.)
@@THATGuy5654 I watch Defunctland all the time! You don’t have to recommend it to me! 🤣 but I get what you are saying! However it seems that he just always takes more Ls than Ws
My last trip to Broadway I had the choice to see either King Kong or SpongeBob. While I like the show, I am a lifelong kaiju fan and could not resist the opportunity to see Kong brought to life. Unfortunately he was the only good part of the show. Kong had more life in him than the rest of the story and cast combined. This was one time the critics got it right.
I am so, so curious what the earlier versions of Frozen on Broadway looked like. The final show we got on Broadway (and subsequent tours/replica productions) was such a direct, almost literal translation of the movie to the stage, and I wonder if the earlier version were more abstracted and puppet-driven like The Lion King or even The Little Mermaid were.
Ngl, for an adaptation of such an overhyped movie, Frozen the musical is really underrated imo, and to me, it’s a big improvement over the original film. Was legitimately angry when Disney cut its Broadway run out of nowhere, I think it deserves a pro-shot on Disney+ like what they did with Hamilton and Newsies tbh
the book about the making of spiderman is gr8 !!! Frozen was ghastly....spiderman had too many risky stunts gone wrong.... times sq was fun till disney arrived/ and guliani........sigh
More like Times Square was a dangerous, crime-ridden shithole in the '70s and '80s. The city almost went bankrupt and some even wondered if Broadway would survive at all? Rather, it was the Republicans via Rudy Giuliani who really cleaned up the city in the '90s and made it safe for residents and tourists alike. Sadly, the "woke" Democrats in charge, who are soft on crime and tend to romanticize "gritty" NYC of the '70s/'80s, are letting it go back to shit again.
Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark was just about THE worst Broadway show we have ever seen. And, we’ve seen approximately 25-30 in the past 20 years. Too bad; as Julie Taymor (who graduated from the same high school as I; just a year after) had such great success with The Lion King.
We saw King Kong in New York and liked it very much. Though I agree, the story and human characters were weak. So was the music except for the last number. But, boy, King Kong stole the show! He was fabulous! Imaginative sets. I think the production may have done better in Las Vegas, a placed known for Super Spectaculars.
Why would a Frozen musical need that many people in the cast? There were only 6 important beings in that movie: Ice Queen, Pollyanna, Himbo, Just A Moose, Snobomination, and Meet-Cut. Get 6 others to play background nobles, peasants, soldiers, and trolls, and there you are.
I am very proud of myself for having witnessed King Kong in person. Was the theater practically empty during the middle of summer? Yes. Did the lovely woman at the box office hook me up with a rush seat right in the front? YES. Was it awful? OH HELL YES, but the puppet, that glorious puppet!
I've been looking up stuff on the Broadway show, because I never got to see it and I am a pretty big King Kong nerd. Absolutely everything about it looks execrable, EXCEPT the puppet. I wish I could have seen THAT.
Highly doubted that anything could have been more expensive than Turn Off The Dark at this point. I saw a recording someone posted online of the Frozen musical & it was actually pretty good. Would have loved to have seen those sets in person! Got to see Shrek when I was a kid in a local production; wasn't as fancy as the Broadway one but the audience had fun.
Frozen is still open in Hamburg (though it's translated into German) and apparently it's doing quite well over here. Haven't seen it myself yet but it's very popular
Had a opportunity but missed out due to work. Talked to a work colleague who saw the show and loved it. Said it was a visual spectacular and overall very enjoyable and well done. Was sad that it closed (wanted to see the new cast that caught my attention and had less then a month so I felt so sad for them having an opportunity then losing it).
@@AngelJD That's sad. It would be amazing if they'd give it another chance but given everything that's going on right now (& the cost of staging it), that would probably be a long shot.
@@JuniperJadePR While I was busy with work and going back to college (which took even more time) I also incorrectly assumed it would last long enough that it would be my self graduation present in 2021. I thought it was "Frozen" so it should last plus if announced it was closing then I could have had time to rush to the theater possibly. Then 2020 happened. Still sad for the new Elsa and Anna actors losing their big Broadway opportunity whom I saw preform on Kelly and Ryan with the new song for the show "I can't lose you".
very interested to find out what the budget was for the new Back to the Future musical. it's clearly had a LOT of money thrown at it (that has been put to EXTREMELY good use - it's definitely a Lion King rather than a Spider-Man) but i would be interested to see if it would out-rank anything on this list
Quick correction. Julie Taymor was the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, but she was NOT the first woman to win a Tony for Best Direction, as your video says. That same year, Garry Hynes won for Best Direction of a Play when she helmed of The Beauty Queen of Leenane. As it happens, Direction of a Play was presented before Direction of a Musical, so Ms. Hynes beat Ms. Taymor by a few minutes. Now, if you'll excuse me, there are other videos that need my brand of pedantic nerdery. 🤓
So basically, Lion King was when the people hiring Taymor knew when to draw the line while Spider-Man was them “Yes, and?”-ing each other into oblivion.
If I had a dollar for every time the director of a Lion King property was brought on to direct a second project with another company, and decided to rely heavily on traditional myth, only for their ideas to bomb/get scrapped, then I’d have two dollars, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird it happened twice.
As someone who has seen King Kong, OMG I loved it - that puppet was seriously so impressive to see in real life, saw it in Melbourne. It was the first musical I ever watched
The Frozen cost is more absurd when you know that Disney rejected putting Hunchback of Notre Dame on Broadway because it would “be too expensive”. (They we’re given the choice to choose between Hunchback of Notre Dame and Frozen)
Note that all of these are movie spin-offs by producers seeking to make money, rather than genuine new musicals written by composers. They are using studio funds to blast their way onto the stage, but usually the best musicals don’t get written that way.
Even going back to Broadway’s “Golden Age”, it was typical for musicals to be adapted from something, usually literature. Movies just happen to be the current popular medium to adapt from.
The discussion about most expensive musicals will always remind me of a minor obsession I once had: the Lord of the Rings musical. So expensive and overboard that I think it didn’t even make it to Broadway, but the music is actually surprisingly good
BEGGING you to do a video about the Lord of the Rings Musical. It’s such a rare musical I’ve never heard someone talk about it in the wild. I feel like I’m all alone when I listen to it. 😅 would love a deep dive on it!
@haleymist09 this was running in the West End from 2007-2008 I think, but closed after a short run because I believe it still holds the record as the most expensive musical on the west end to date. As you can see from the ✨slime tutorial✨ I posted in the comment above, the writing, music, choreography, and the SETS AND EFFECTS are mind boggling so the money did not go to waste! I wish they could revive it- I feel like perhaps with todays tech the effects could be done a lot cheaper.
It's funny how the King Kong puppet is visually impressive because it's something in real life, but if it were say just CGI graphics then it'd be laughably terrible looking. It does look like very old cgi when looking at it imo, but knowing it's just a gigant puppet is pretty wild.
Considering Phantom is the longest-running musical of all time, you'd think it would be the most expensive. Shrek is one of my all-time favorite musicals, so I'm happy that show was produced. Had it performed better, I think Shrek 2 could make a really great musical, as well. I wish I could see the Spider-Man musical to see how bizarre it was.
I’m sure Phantom made its initial capital investment literal decades ago and the only thing is it’s weekly running cost which it almost sells out every night so it ends up being quite “inexpensive” when looked at that way. And I absolutely loved Phantom on Broadway, but it is still very old and could benefit from a refit
@@andrewleeadkins93…. If Mackintosh gets his way, he would replace the original staging with the inferior, cheaper, but “newer” 25th anniversary staging, so he won’t have to pay royalties to the original set designer and director anymore. Just like he did with Les Miserables, my favorite musical, and the reason I won’t go see the show anymore.
A couple of things. The Lion King was NOT the first Disney show in the New Amsterdam. The first Disney show was King David, composed by Alan Menken (you know, the guy who wrote the music for Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Newsies, etc.). About The Lion King. Count me as someone who absolutely hated it (loved the movie, an African Hamlet, though Disney claims that's just a coincidence-yeah, right). First of all, the plot doesn't even kick in until Act II. Okay. Everyone praised the puppets and how "original" they were. Except they weren't original. Julie Taymor ripped off the concept from The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. The same puppets had been featured in shows there TEN YEARS BEFORE. So much for originality. If we learned anything from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Ms. Taymor is a crappy director. Seriously, her record on Broadway consists of The Lion King (yes, a money maker), The Blue Bird (huh-it came and went), Titus (likewise), and SM:TOTD. I rest my case.
I agree with you on The Lion King. I haven’t been impressed any of the Disney staged musicals that I’ve seen. The Little Mermaid and Mary Poppins are just a step above Spamalot as being the worst musicals I’ve ever seen.
Yeesh I have to wonder what sort of life these mega-musicals would have after Broadway. Would “Spider-Man” or “King Kong” have any life in regional or community theaters?
Shrek gets a decent amount of regional / community theatre play, at least; I suspect it's because it's a fairly well-known property, it has a big cast, and there's a kids version available -- so it works well as a family show. Besides that, its origin as a cartoon means you can opt for a more stylistic than realistic take on costuming and props if you want, and it's almost thematic. Turn Off The Dark wouldn't have seen regional play, I don't think. Its identity is too fundamentally tied to the aerial stunts. Same with King Kong and the puppet. The required minimum budget for those is... yeesh. (Same with Frozen and its gigantic video screen -- you need to have a way to compellingly pull off Elsa's ice powers.) The first two are also not... kids' shows? Not that Shrek is, either, but it's definitely more aimed at kids than, like, King Kong is.
They did what always happens when superhero adaptations go bad. They tried to make it "serious" they took a beloved story that already had enough pathos, character and theme to hang their hat on and they decided it needed to be a myth! Or a commentary! or a deconstruction! And it flopped, because those always flop.
Taymor hadn't actually read many of the Spider-Man comics, afaik? One of the cowriters wrote a book about his experience with Turn Off The Dark where he mentions it. I don't know how much of this was her trying to make it 'serious' and how much of it was her trying to write a Spider-Man story /she/ wanted to read/watch, but I'd bet it leans more towards the latter half.
I never understood why people didn’t like Frozen. I thought it was fabulous. The set was great, the new songs were fun, and everyone on stage did a great job.
I’m not a fan because Hunchback of Notre Dame was supposed to be brought to Broadway but it didn’t work out. Frozen took the place. I already wasn’t a huge fan of the movie because it was a little overrated in my opinion.
I saw it 21 times across Australia when it was here. I’m not a fan of the movie but the musical was great. My top 4 songs are in the musical and not the movie. It finished its Australian tour back in Nov 22 and gee do I miss it.
@@erianwilliams9059 - I still kick myself for not going to see “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” at the Paper Mill Playhouse. Since, I had assumed it was going to Broadway. The strangest thing about Disney choosing to adapt “Frozen” for the Great White Way, was it was even more expensive than “Hunchback”. They stupidly thought a trendy and overrated film would play better with Broadway audiences, than an adult-oriented musical. Not understanding that the reason “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin” were successful, was due to adults loving those films just as much as their children. “Frozen” did not have that luxury. Adults generally despise it, and think it is Robert Lopez’s weakest music. It was such a colossal flop, that Disney can no longer afford to stage more than two shows simultaneously. That is with owning the New Amsterdam Theater. The only way I can see Disney closing “Aladdin”, or just opening a new show, is for a “Beauty and the Beast” revival. They truly missed a golden opportunity with “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”.
I saw King Kong’s very first New York performance (the first “preview”, so before opening night… my ticket was October 5, 2018). That puppet spectacle was absolutely stunning. The music was terrible though, I couldn’t remember how any of the songs went by the time I got back home
thought the title of this was 'most experimental musicals' when i was looking through the homepage. i think that would make a pretty awesome video as well.
As someone who saw Kong on broadway I can attest that the puppet is the only memorable thing about the show because I can't remember a single song from that musical.
This is the only time I've heard of King Kong the Musical. That or from a Taxi cab Ad. 😆 We did saw Frozen on Broadway before it was close and it was so cool.
that's because you can't even get a cast recording of it, not even the original Australian cast, when it was on in Melbourne all those years ago it was when many musicals struggled to get bums on seats and while the sheer magnitude of the puppet was amazing and some of the original tracks were lovely the story was lacking
As someone who actually experienced Spiderman Turn off the dark before it imploded, I must say that the main problem was the music - there wasn't one single memorable song in it. Other than that, I found it quite enjoyable
it would be helpful to know if these costs were upfront, weekly, yearly, etc. Without that info this video is pointless. You only gave the weekly cost on King Kong. Video is interesting but leaves out key info
WOW! I never knew "KING KONG"'s weekly nut was $700K, How did anyone think it could recoup the original investment, let alone EVER turn a profit... I guess one could make the top ticket price $1,000.- , but even at that...
There’s a small part of me that kinda wants to see Taymor’s original version of the Lion King, just because of how off-the charts WILD it was. That idea was somehow even WORSE than her idea for Turn off the dark!
I saw Spider-man, honestly it was impressive, but story was lame but worst, the music was BORING, Bono can’t write for anyone else, but him. Still happy I saw the biggest flop on Broadway lol
I love Taymore’s idea for Spider-Man. I don’t want to see it instead of an actual Spider-Man story, but maybe a reimagining a la what they’re doing with Batman movies. Like how Joker both is and is not a Batman movie.
King Kong was a cool show it didn't deserve the evisceration by critics thst it got forgettable characters and music but it was a spectacle show and it delivered on that
You can tell someone has never read a comic when they call comic story lines simple. Try finding any other type of fiction that readers need to decades of stories to understand every part of the story
The ‘fight scene’, up near the ceiling of the theater, between Spider-Man and The Green Goblin, was lame. Not exciting at all. And, we saw the show AFTER Julie Taymor was fired and Bono and The Edge reworked some of the score. Still sucked!
It was such a misguided musical. They just needed to focus on spiderman being spiderman for families to go and see it. I've seen people really excited for those spiderman shows they do at some theme parks... and they don't cost 76 million dollars.
King Kong was absolutely amazing - the definition of spectacle. There is a a difference in how much a Broadway show cost and how much it lost. Pretty Sure Spiderman still holds both records.
