Broadway and the Beast: Disney Comes to Times Square

Abstract

Can America's foremost purveyor of family theme parks and movies find a home in New York City's foremost sleaze zone? The New York opening of the Walt Disney Company's first Broadway show, Beauty and the Beast, came hard on the heels of the news that Disney would also be renovating and occupying the historic and long-vacant New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street, once home to Florenz Ziegfeld's storied Follies revues, and now collecting dust on a block largely the province of porn emporiums and the homeless.' Disney's action is expected to accelerate interest in the other theatres on 42nd Street, which the city and state hope to revive as part of an overall plan to redevelop the area as a theatrical and entertainment district. Prior to the New Amsterdam deal, only the Victory Theatre, among the nine theatres on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, was under renovation (see plate I).2 Despite the expressed hope of state and local officials that Disney's move to Broadway would energize the dormant Times Square renovation project, America's most influential entertainment conglomerate was greeted with less than open arms by the supposedly unflappable Broadway establishment. Although the New York commercial stage has long played host to flamboyant producers with deep pockets, Disney is a 3oo-pound gorilla like no other. Disney CEO Michael Eisner described the move in suitably grandiose terms: