Oberhausen.
For Disney’s 100th birthday, musical stars sing the hits from “Aladdin”, “Jungle Book” & Co. We met the main actors for a chat.
In the beginning there was the “Heiho” of the seven dwarfs: in 1937 the first full-length feature film from the house of Walt Disney was released. The “Snow White” adaptation of the Californian media company founded 14 years earlier was a huge success and can not only be described as groundbreaking on the moving image level. Because the soundtrack by Frank Churchill and Larry Morey is considered one of the first commercial film music releases ever. What followed were countless other blockbusters with great melodies – and they will soon be heard together in a live show just in time for Disney’s 100th birthday.
“Disney100: The Concert” is the appropriate name of the program that will be touring through Germany from mid-April. Accompanied by the Hollywood Sound Orchestra, well-known musical actors sing pieces from films such as “The Lion King”, “Beauty and the Beast” or “The Jungle Book”. Probably the most prominent singer of the ensemble is Roberta Valentini.
“Disney100” awakens childhood memories
The sister of 1.FC Nuremberg professional Enrico is known to the musical audience from her engagements in “Elisabeth”, “Dracula” or “Ghost”. Your first contact with Disney? “That was in my childhood. ‘Arielle’, I watched that with my parents back then.” For her stage colleague Gonzalo Campos Lopéz (previously on “Bat Out Of Hell” among others) it was “Beauty and the Beast, that was also when I was a child in Madrid my first visit to a musical.”
The Spaniard was hooked when he received the offer for “Disney100” because: “I’m a big fan of Alan Menken’s compositions.” In addition to the already mentioned albums for “Arielle” and “Beauty and the Beast”, Menken’s work on “Aladdin” and “Pocahontas” was also awarded the Oscar.
Favorite character Peter Pan
However, when it comes to their favorite character, Lopéz and Valentini, who will share the songs on stage with Kristina Love, Anton Zetterholm and Richard-Salvador Wolff, agree: “Peter Pan is a character that I loved. As a child, I always wished that I would still have imagination as an adult – it worked,” says Lopéz.
Valentini, who also has a great fondness for “Merida”, adds: “My father would still say today that I’ll probably never grow up. That suits Peter Pan.” Whether, for example, the “Crocodile Song” will be heard on the tour, neither of them want to reveal just yet. There just have to be a few surprises – on the approximately two-hour journey back in time to childhood.
>>> INFO: “Disney100: The Concert” with the Hollywood Sound Orchestra
Dates: 26.4. Cologne (8 p.m., Lanxess Arena), 29.4. Oberhausen (8 p.m., Rudolf Weber Arena), 3.5. Dortmund (8 p.m., Westfalenhalle). Tickets from around €60.
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