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Disney Live - Mickey’s Magic Show
Manchester Opera House
March 2009
Reviewed by Paul Moore
I
have to start by saying that this is a "Disney Show" and is aimed at under 10's
so is full of saccharine sweet, life-affirming messages, sledge hammer
subtleties, relentless cheeriness and day-glow colours that make the
Tellytubbies look like they were directed by Quentin Tarantino. If you're
looking for a piece of serious drama, realistic portrayals and muted
underplaying of beautiful magic then this isn't the show for you. It's also wise
to borrow some small children to take with you when you go to see the show as I
stuck out like a sore thumb as the lone adult eating popcorn in a crowd of 2000
of kids.
The show is entering its 4th year of a World tour produced by Kenneth Feld
(Siegfried & Roy) with ensemble magic sequences by Jim Steinmeyer and is playing
a range of venues across the UK until the middle of April.
The show opens with a cute voice-over preshow announcement and then the
introduction of our 2 magical leads - the young/hip/fun older brother magician
"Brad Ross" (played by Brad Ross) and the kooky/nerdy/underdog magician "Benny
Boyle" (confusingly played by Fred Moore) who warm the audience up with some
banter, establish the magic words the audience have to use to help the magic
happen and then introduce the main show. After the big opening song-n-dance (the
only non magic sequence in the whole show) our 2 magicians return to the stage
and Brad does KJ's Bowl-o-Rama whilst Benny manages to link 2 rings but cannot
unlink them; this establishes Brad as the alpha magician and the rest of the
show will be Mickey & Mini helping Benny to believe in himself so that one day
he can become a big magician like Brad, after all "...there's a little bit of
magic in us all"
An Alice in wonderland sequence opens with a cute sucker effect where the Mad
Hatter produces a multitude of object from his hat "accidentally" exposes the
effect then goes on to produce even more props in an impossible way culminating
in a giant painted silk of the "running late white rabbit" which is then used to
produce a 7ft tall rabbit using a very simple method but which produced audible
gasps and shock from the audience. Mickey returns to do a giant card trick with
Benny's help culminating in a visible (giant) card change to the queen of
hearts. Brad turns all the dancing playing cards on stage in to Queen's which
enrages the Actual Queen of Hearts who orders "off with his head" leading to
Brad being put in a Head & Body Twister that was beautifully presented though
was the only prop in the whole show that didn't seem to be decorated to fit in
with the scenic themes.
The next act was a nod to Fantasia as a UV sequence with Mickey, Mini and some
dancing broomsticks lead in to a nicely themed (but noisy) Steinmeyer Pole
Levitation used to float Mini. The effect was rather lost in the overall staging
but the choreography used to introduce the prop and get Mini in to position was
brilliantly subtle and very well thought out.
A short section front-of curtains enabled Brad to really interact with the
audience and bring a boy out of the audience to join him onstage for a Hat Tear
which was an odd choice of effect but his routine, adlibs and presentation show
it was clearly a sequence he had spent years honing and refining. He even tidied
up the stage and turned the trash-can in to a giant bunch of flowers; Eddie
Izzard would have been most impressed!
Cinderella's Kitchen was the setting for a rather wasted Million Dollar Mystery
sequenced used to produce Cinderella, Snow White, an old Hag and even Prince
Charming. Unfortunately the prop was big enough to load a race-horse and was
left on stage for the entire 10 min scene with many poor choices of lighting so
that by the middle of the sequence the kids sat around me were pointing to
something they shouldn't have been able to see and shouting out the method. A
Bim-Bam-Box presented by Brad was used to turn an audience members shoes in to
Cinderella's Glass slippers before Cinderella magically changed from
rags-to-ball gown (and somehow her eye colour as well) in seconds inside a giant
Pumpkin.
Another front of curtain sequence saw Donald chicken out of being shot from a
cannon and Benny being press-ganged in to taking his place. Squished flat via a
wringer, shot from the cannon and re-appearing from a target on the other side
of the stage the props and technology used were a little rickety and low tech
but again the staging and a wonderful subtlety made it in to a great fun effect
that will catch a lot of magicians off guard!
A starry Arabian skyline was the setting for Brad to Levitate "Princess Jasmine"
in a traditional presentation of the "Airtime" double levitation, again the
staging and ensemble presentation was beautiful though a few technical issues
with lighting and sound did distract slightly. Could someone call Walter Blaney
maybe?
Front of Curtain again and Brad presented his traditional Sub-Trunk routine
using 2 kids from the audience to examine the trunk and act as onstage witness's
it was a really fast and very slick presentation that again has clearly been
refined over thousands of performances to the extent that it's the sequence
they’ve used use to promote the show on other shows. Great fun!
Unfortunately Ariel (the little mermaid) has gone missing so Brad makes her
appear in a giant Aquarium which was actually a brilliant and ultimately logical
use of a Crystal Casket smoke chamber.
After taking part in so many illusions’ Benny finally finds the magic inside
himself and presents a 5 ring linking ring routine that builds in to a silk
routine. It's not knuckle-busting magic but it’s a very logical sequence that
builds and builds as the character's confidence grows and ended up with the
biggest cheer of the night. Now he's a fully fledged magician he joins forces
with Brad to present a Double Sawing in Half - using the Doug Henning Routine
complete with mis-made-assistants finale and using original Doug Henning props
to do it! Finally Benny is locked in a Lions Bride cage by Brad and turned in to
Donald Duck..... Brad removes his wig & jacket to reveal he is now Benny & Brad
appears at the back of the theatre! Everyone returns to the stage for the big
bows as Brad & Benny do a double KJ Snow Animator to shoot glitter out over the
audience.
Overall it's a really good fun show and at 90mins long and tickets for £10 it's
a bargain; it's by far the biggest and most lavish magic show to tour the UK for
20 years and offers a great chance to see proper "big production" settings for
illusions that you just won't find performed anywhere on this side of the
Atlantic. On the downside the set & costumes are starting to show their age, the
story has gotten lost as the show has evolved and (ironically) the big character
illusion sequences don't feel that magical as it seems perfectly logical that
Princess Jasmine can actually fly and that the Mad Hatter could keep a 7ft bunny
hidden in his hat. On the flipside Brad & Benny manage to cut thru the Disney
schmaltz and stamp their own personalities firmly on their sequences whilst
keeping it all looking fresh and fun when in reality they must have performed
this show several thousand times. It's good, untaxing fun and definitely worth
catching as it works its way around the country.
www.disney.co.uk/MickeysMagicShow
© Paul Moore, March 2009