The Disney team visited Manchester as part of a whistle-stop tour, performing a special concert to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary. The show celebrates the greatest storyteller that ever lived, and his ongoing legacy that has captivated all generations, and audiences across the globe.
The multimedia production is pitch perfect and seamless, but I expect nothing less with a Disney production. The show is brought to life with the help of gigantic screens, the Hollywood Sound Orchestra, conductor Willhelm Keitel, and an ensemble of amazing singers and soloists from the West End, Broadway and beyond.
The concert is hosted by Strictly Come Dancing's Janette Manrara, who looks incredible In her sequin dresses and heels with her pregnancy bump. Janette takes us on a journey through our childhood, and our parents and probably most of our grandparents' childhoods too. It’s a celebration for all ages, and the AO arena has a very mixed audience to prove this. There is no age limit for wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
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The show starts with images of the great man himself, Mr Walt Disney flashes on the screen, with his characters including snippets of the earliest cartoon dating back to the 1920’s.
Then we see Fantasia, which was a groundbreaking film and won an Oscar in 1941 for outstanding video music. With this video the Hollywood Sound Orchestra really shows us what they can do, and the dramatic music makes it all the more captivating.
We see snippets of all my childhood favourites such as Dumbo, Snow White and Cinderella- including a captivating solo from Charlie Burn who sang “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes’ so beautifully. Some of these films I’ve not watched since I was a child and it makes me so happy to see them on a huge screen in a busy arena, being enjoyed by thousands of people. It triggers such lovely memories.
All of the classics are featured, a fun and fabulous rendition of Beauty and the Beast “Be Our Guest” is a strong start early doors, and the Manchester audience get fully involved, singing along, dancing and swaying in their seats and clapping. As the show moves on each of the talented soloists sound like a worthy Disney Princess or Prince. It’s very Disney-fied. Everything they do on that stage, is presented perfectly.
With lots more Disney classics flashing before our eyes on the impressive staging, we move through the decades. The Little Mermaid and Ursula, Aladdin, Encanto, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Book, even Star Wars!
And with a special friendship element towards the end of the second half, with a friendship cam on the stage zooming in on the audience members, one Manchester lady got fully into the spirit and jumping out of her seat to show the arena her dance moves, while the orchestra played “You’ve Got a Friend In Me” and a cute but gigantic Woody appeared on the huge screens.
Lion King’s Circle of Life provided all the drama you would expect as a grand finale, before Janette Manrara returned on stage for an encore and to encourage some audience participation with a gigantic singalong of Mary Poppins favourite “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”.
As the show draws to a close, gigantic balloons were released into the crowds and 95% of the arena are singing along enthusiastically. Any tiredness from it being past 9pm on a Monday night, seems to be forgotten even by the smallest members of the audience, for a little while anyway.
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