"Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends": A Blueprint for a "Disney's On the Record" Revival?

One of the hottest tickets on Broadway this season isn’t a musical or a play, but instead a revue. While the performance is almost entirely sung through, Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends is not a musical in its truest sense. There is no overarching story, but instead, a selection of his more famous and beloved works sung by some of the best to ever perform on stage as a way to honor his memory and abundant body of work.

Inside the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (an underrated Broadway house), the stage comes alive with Bernadette Peters (Two-time Tony Award winner, ABC’s Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella), Lea Salonga (Tony Award winner, singing voice of Jasmine and Mulan), Gavin Lee (Two-time Tony Award nominee, Broadway’s Mary Poppins), and more as they sing through Sondheim’s remarkable work.

They jump around his repertoire from Into the Woods to A Little Night Music, from West Side Story to Sweeney Todd. Heck, even a little known song from The Mad Show pops up to delight the audience. With every song, the audience is in the palm of the cast’s hand. It doesn’t matter that the songs are out of context, each performance brings to the forefront the music’s emotion and lets it breathe throughout the walls of the theater. While I have seen other revues before (oddly enough, in the same theater), the ability for every performance to shine as if it was a full length musical, while simultaneously celebrating the visionary that was Stephen Sondheim was a tremendous victory.

Almost the entirety of the performance, a little bit of my brain was elsewhere. While I was still able to savor seeing Ms. Peters on a Broadway stage singing from Sunday in the Park with George, I couldn’t help but think of my beloved, yet oft ignored, Disney Theatricals property.

In 2004, Disney premiered On the Record, a revue of 75 years of Disney classics presented through the guise of artists recording an album. On the Record debuted after the success of Mamma Mia brought the jukebox musical to the forefront. Many copied (Lennon, All Shook Up, Good Vibrations), but no one succeeded (On the Record included).

The set featured the orchestra on stage, stacked in two recording booth towers, as the cast of four leads and four ensemble members danced and sang their way through Disney’s catalog. While a light story element was presented through song and dance, this also chose the revue format, instead bringing all the focus to the music being performed.

The show was created strictly as a touring piece, where it ran for 9 months across the country. While an album was released, nothing else came from the show and it has been rather forgotten by Disney fans and theater kids alike. In the midst of my Disney nerd and theater geek heights in high school, I fell upon the album and instantly fell in love. In my high school choir, I made friends perform one of the show’s many medleys for a project. Thanks to YouTube, I rewatched 30 minutes of the show that was filmed on repeat while doing homework. Since the album only had one printing, I had to pay a pretty penny to purchase a second CD after I scratched my first. I have been all-in on On the Record for over a decade.

Where theater has the ability to survive and thrive is through licensing. School, community theaters, and local professional companies can license shows and perform them at their own theaters, helping not only their own groups, but also furthering the success of a show’s longevity. A famous story is that of Seussical, which ran for six months on Broadway in the early aughts and was deemed a massive failure. However, since then, Seussical has remained in the top ten most produced musicals every year by school and community theaters alike. It’s a testament to the power of local theater across the country.

In the case of Disney’s On the Record, it’s unfortunately not feasible. Due to rights issues with some of the songs in the show, the ability to be produced is non-existent. It’s a true shame, as Disney is always a boon for local theaters due to the immediate brand recognition. And, in the case of On the Record, it’s remarkably cheap to produce since next-to no set is needed for this revue.

As I sat and watched Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends, I was reminded of On The Record and the cult-like status it has gained over the years. The show’s ability to create exceptional medleys practically out of thin air remains a goosebump-inducing thrill for me and its presentation of Disney music in a new, yet reverent fashion keeps me going back for more.

With a revue at the forefront of the Broadway season and Disney consistently focused on an extensive library of licensable hits, is there a place for On the Record in a modern Disney Theatricals landscape? I think so. It doesn’t need to debut on Broadway, but a small off-Broadway house to get its bearings and warrant a revival cast album would be extraordinary. From there, the kinks can be worked out to allow for licensing across the country and a whole new era of OTR lovers.

On the Record has always been one of Disney’s greatest hidden gems, seemingly being ignored more so for contractual reasons than anything else. With another 25 years of music under its belt, there’s a place for On the Record to be reborn and remade for success. It remains my favorite cast album of all-time and has become a purpose of mine to share it with everyone I know (much to the dismay of every human being). I hope that Old Friends’ success can show The Walt Disney Company that revues are valuable, especially when they already have one in their back pocket.

Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends runs now through June 15th at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.