> The last big musical success I believe was "Wicked". I
> haven't seen or heard it, so I can't really give a
> personal opinion.
I have the CD of "Wicked" but I've never heard it. The cast album went platinum so that was great.
I do think most of Disney's musicals and
> animated movies have failed since the death of Alan
> Menkin. From "Little Shop of Horrors" to Disney's
> "Aladdin", his songs were very catchy.
I didn't really care for "The Lion King", save for the visuals which look amazing, or "Aida". Alan Menken is still alive, working on the Broadway musical of "The Little Mermaid" which premieres at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre this year (replacing "Beauty And The Beast"). I liked the music I heard on the demo but it didn't touch the music from the film. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Menken is also working on "Leap Of Faith" which, if I'm not mistaken, is based on the film that contains "Paradise By The Dashboard Light". He just premiered "Sister Act: The Musical" in Pasadena which threw out the Motown sound of the movie (and Marc Shaiman's beautiful compositions) as opposed to a 70s Disco-sounding score completely done by Menken. How lame. Shaiman should have done it with the movie's songs included.
Musicals have always been an enormous risk but lately it's gotten really hard and no one's really getting anywhere. It'll be interesting to see, in the light of "The Pirate Queen" and "The Woman In White", how Phantom 2 will go.
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