Disney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way by Amy S. Osatinski (review)

It seems mind-boggling, perhaps even unfair, that the world’s leading film producer is one of the world’s leading theatrical producers as well. Indeed, over the past three decades, Disney has become one of the most influential and successful producers of live theater on Broadway and beyond. Schools, from elementary to post-secondary, regularly perform Disney-licensed shows, while three musicals reigned on Broadway and international co-productions appeared around the world—that is, until the COVID-19 pandemic prompted a near global shutdown of the performing arts. Despite its reach and dominance, Disney theater has often escaped scholarly scrutiny, whether because it is too popular, too commercial, or too childish. With her new monograph, Disney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way, Amy S. Osatinski examines Disney’s theatrical endeavors—so often ignored or downplayed by Disney scholars as tangential to the conglomerate’s triumphs in film, television, streaming, and theme parks—to offer a highly accessible and informative study of cultural production. The goal here is “to provide a comprehensive overview of the company, examining several production models to illuminate how Disney Theatrical Productions produces Broadway the ‘Disney Way’” (19). In so doing, Osatinski makes the case for the importance of Disney to theater, not only as a power player within the industry, but also as a popular introduction for young people to the performing arts. Love or hate it, Disney remains the most important force within U.S. children’s culture—and perhaps even global popular culture.

Osatinski’s study is a noticeable departure from other scholarship on Disney. Rather than framing Disney as greedy or evil, she accepts the company’s effort as a significant, albeit far from corrupting, part of contemporary commercial theater production. A scholar and theater artist herself, Osatinski brings a love for theater and an admiration for Disney to her work, especially in the foreword and afterword. Disney Theatrical Productions, unlike most Disney scholarship, privileges production over representation or ideology: how—not how well—Disney produces culture. Indeed, her interviews with Disney management may not afford her the freedom and luxury of critique, but it does provide valuable discourse into how Disney understands and publicly discusses making theater—what media industry studies scholar John Thornton Caldwell refers to as “industrial reflexivity.” Osatinski presents what the executives, managers, and creators say at face value, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions, but this hands-on research provides a useful model and way of thinking about children’s culture that could benefit children’s literature studies, in particular. By focusing not just on the text, but on the production process itself, scholars are able to offer more fully formed and nuanced analyses, even critiques, of cultural objects.

Disney Theatrical Productions is comprised of seven chapters, surveying the initiation of the theatrical division through the company’s biggest hit of late, Newsies. (Subsequent productions, such as Aladdin and Frozen, receive mention in passing.) Osatinski primarily focuses on the conception, development, and reception of the stage productions. While she places less emphasis on the text (book, music, and lyrics) itself, she ably demonstrates how each Disney show is actually the result of a collaborative effort by a team of contributors, including both executives and creative talent, who often change from production to production. Consequently, the shows vary significantly, from the eclectic, even avant-garde, style employed by director Julie Taymor in The Lion King to the pop soundtrack Phil Collins composed for Tarzan. Case studies include the division’s inaugural effort, Beauty and the Beast; its biggest hit, The Lion King; and its biggest flop, Tarzan. Osatinski examines playbills, “making of” souvenir books, and reviews to get a sense of how the shows were put together as well as their ultimate strengths and weaknesses. She also notes how the division, which remains relatively small, has expanded over the years and maintained its profitability through effective business strategies, including developing creative properties with a proven track record...