Disney’s The Magic Box has nothing to envy of Broadway musicals

The magic box of Disney, illuminated, awaits the public who arrives on the stage of the Opera House. It’s small, but it will grow later, like the ambitions of this show that brings together fragments of 78 iconic Disney songs and 22 people on stage.

There is an entire productive unfolding that will begin when the small box, by magic, becomes huge. The protagonist is sitting in the audience. It could be any of us, but Mara (Luján Blaksley) is guided by a small yellow light and brought onto the stage. And yes, as if she were Alice in Wonderland, log into. He doesn’t know what awaits him.

And neither do the spectators.

The magic box It’s a medley of moments, with no sequence to indicate which song will be intertwined or after which. The arrangements by Isaac Saúl (musical director, arranger and orchestrator) are truly to be applauded, as is the performance of the orchestra, which is located in the stalls.

Everything you see on stage is Disney in its purest form.

The Box device is like a SUM: a Multipurpose Room. It will open and close, and will provide space for the different sets with which the pieces are played. And if we talk about arrangements, there are times when two songs are combined at the same time. Therefore, the sea contains a theme of The little Mermaid and the common thread of Pirates of the Caribbean (one of the most beautiful moments).

At the beginning, Jiminy Cricket’s shadow appears cast to the side (he will also appear Bambi). The visual work of The magic box It’s great. There are audiovisual resources, mappings, projections of all kinds on the walls of the Box, which move or are fixed. It is also impressive when Goofy’s hand is crushed on a piano, it becomes huge, he puts it in a bucket of water and it returns to its size.

Goofy is one of the six puppets that make up the cast and interact with the other dancers, singers and actors, as well as Mara. This is how Mickey Mouse appears on the scene, an icon of these one hundred years of history of the company. And there will be Minnie, Donald Duck, Daisy (Donald Duck’s companion, often postponed) and Pluto.

78 songs in 90 minutes

There are films that have multiple songs represented, such as Mary Poppins (6), the same number as The little Mermaid (From Under the sea TO kiss her), 4 of The beauty and the Beast (Our guest will be you could not be missed) e The Lion King (with The infinite cycle AND thoughtless), Charm AND Moanathree of Aladdin and of Hercules…Luckily they included The Jungle Bookand they even got to put it My desireFrom wishposted here a week ago.

Obviously there will be absences in a 90 minute show, with no intermission. Disney films that aren’t musicals are running behind. From Pinocchio We said we saw Jiminy Cricket, and the whale that appears must be the one that swallowed the wooden doll transformed into a child (and two song fragments). From Snow White there are some apples and a blue bird (and 4 song fragments), but of Dumbo (Walt Disney was at the premiere of the elephant movie, and Snow White in this same theater, in 1941), nothing, unless you imagine that the pen belongs to him.

But as we were saying, the songs come and go, from medley to medley, they are not in order and not even those from musical films all together. There are themes of The strange world of Jackthe successes of Tarzan, Mulan AND Pocahontas, Coconut AND Charm.

The fact that Mara doesn’t speak, doesn’t explain what’s happening to her, is certainly a handicap for the little ones. There is nothing to understand, other than seeing and listening to the performance of the songs they know by heart from many times reproduced on video, DVD or streaming.

The costumes are very colourful, as are the performances in general (Manelik Cambiaso is one of the names to remember).

Written and directed by Thaddeus McWhinnie Phillips, The magic box It has nothing to envy of Broadway musicals.

“The Magic Box”

Screenplay and direction: Thaddeus McWhinnie Phillips. Co-director and choreographer: Format Lynne Kurdziel. Musical director: Isaac Saul. General Manufacturer: Filippo Gamba Paredes. With: Luján Blaksley, Lala Livschitz, Mauricio Vila, Menelik Cambiaso and 18 other actors. Duration: 90 minutes. Room: Opera House. Characteristics: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm, Friday and Saturday at 6.30pm and 9.30pm, Sunday at 7pm. Tickets: $8,000 to $20,000.