1st Live Play Response- Laura Glucksman
On Saturday May 21st, I saw the Arizona premier of When You Wish: The Story of Walt Disney. The performance was extremely poor in every aspect.
The musical had a terrible plot. It wanted to portray the hardships Walt Disney endured which is an interesting story. However, the musical did not show it well. For example, the characters never developed through the plot. Walt Disney stayed the dreamer, and he always defied Roy, his brother. Their relationship was the same the whole way through the play. It did not add to the plot. Another relationship that could have been shown better was the relationship between Walt and his future wife Lillian. Their love developed over a five-minute time span without any emotion. Also, Walt’s best friend, Ub Iwerks, should have been a major character in the plot, but he was presented as just another animator who worked for Walt. The character development was extremely weak through the musical. If the audience members did not come in with prior knowledge about Walt Disney’s friends and family, the characters were hard to follow. Another way the plot did not develop was they left some crucial information about the process Walt endured to become a great cartoonist. It glossed over the hardships he suffered. Instead, the show focused more on his successes. It did not happen that way. Walt Disney went through years of hard times before his career became what it was. The play’s representation of his life was mostly fictional even though it was presented as historically accurate.
The music was extremely poor. The music did not get stuck in my head. I do not remember the song titles. The music did not add to the plot in any way. In fact, the music did not add to the musical at all. The dancing was horrible too. The choreography was not clean. The performers could have had some more rehearsal time to get the play to a professional standard.
The scenery did not help the play. It was plain and looked unprofessional. Walt’s office looked exactly like the hospital in California Roy later was treated at for tuberculosis. They could have worked on creating the atmosphere of the scene a lot better with more details. The budget of the scenery looked small even though this was a professional play. Also, the costumes were very plain. The costumes did not look like they were from the appropriate time period. The costume designers should have done more research to be able to supply accurate costumes. For example, Lillian’s dress looked like it would be worn now instead of when Walt was alive in the 1900’s.
The sound needed some work. The microphone sound faded in and out. The actors worked through it, but it still definitely hurt the musical. The lighting was fine, but not particularly remarkable. It worked with the scenes of the musical.
Overall, I did not enjoy the Phoenix Theater’s version of When You Wish: The Story of Walt Disney. The musical needs a lot of work to be successful. I went in expecting a professional musical, and it highly disappointed me.
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