Abstract
In March, 2013, Disneyland opened the Royal Theatre, condensing Disney films like Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, and Frozen into 22-minute stage adaptations. The decor of the theatre, the language of the characters, and the costuming of the performers all work together to evoke a nostalgic and loose sense of history that calls on guests to interact with the story in the style of an “old-time melodrama,” booing, hissing, cheering, and singing along to the story. In this essay Maria Patrice Amon argues that tourists are taught how to perform as actors and given a new hybrid identity as both performer and audience that extends to the parks as a whole. The essay explores the theatrical genre of melodrama and asserts that the Royal Theatre’s use of this genre gives the audience a way to exceed their assumed passivity and interact with the performers as actors themselves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Brooks, Peter, and Henry James. 1976. The Melodramatic Imagination, 4. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- 2.
Melodrama is literally translated as “drama with music” (Brooks 14). The original melodramas first developed by the French playwright René-Charles Guilbert de Pixerecourt played over a special orchestration that accompanied and intensified action.
- 3.
Melodrama’s fundamental popularity with the lower classes historically marked it as an inferior art form. This association with the masses tainted the genre as less-than by cultural elites who preferred the realistic style. Theatre historians and critics wrote a story of dramatic history in which melodrama is a failed version of realism, over which realism finally triumphed with the emergence of Eugene O’Neill. For more, see Ang, Ien. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination, 62. London: Routledge, and Postlewait, Thomas. “From Melodrama to Realism,” in Melodrama: The Cultural Emergence of a Genre, 47. Eds. Michael Hays and Anastasia Nikolopoulou. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
- 4.
Brooks, 25.
- 5.
Schencker, Heath M. 2003. “Central Park and the Melodramatic Imagination,” Journal of Urban History 29.4, 376.
- 6.
Schencker, 379.
- 7.
Korkis, Bill. 2013. “WDW Chronicles: The History of Disney Topiary,” All Ears: August 20. http://allears.net/ae/issue726.htm. Accessed August 14, 2018.
- 8.
Glover, Erin. 2017. “Rivers of America Through the Years at Disneyland Park,” Disney Parks Blog: July 24. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/07/rivers-of-america-through-the-years-at-disneyland-park/. Accessed December 22, 2018.
- 9.
MacDonald, Brady and Christopher Reynolds. 2015. “Disneyland: 60 Things You Might Not Know about the Magic Kingdom,” Los Angeles Times, July 17. http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-d-disneyland-60-things-20150712-story.html. Accessed December 22, 2018.
- 10.
Aronstein, Susan L. and Laurie A. Finke. 2013. “Discipline and Pleasure: The Pedagogical Work of Disneyland,” Educational Philosophy and Theory 45.6, 614.
- 11.
Olya, Gabrielle. 2018. “Running Disneyland for Just One Day Costs an Insane Amount of Money,” Go Banking Rates: April 12. https://www.gobankingrates.com/making-money/business/how-much-does-it-cost-to-run-disneyland-day/#12. Accessed December 22, 2018.
- 12.
Although the theatre plays pretty heavily into Melodramatic theatre’s legacy of inferiority—the storylines of each of the shows are so faithful to the original films that they can feel redundant, the shows lack the spectacular stage magic of larger theatre spaces like the Fantasyland theatre, the humor is corny and often pun-based, a small number of actors play all the roles, the only musical accompaniment comes from a single piano, and it often seems to be valued by guests more as an opportunity to sit down in the shade more than the artistic craft of the shows—the shows in the theatre are unique.
- 13.
Smith, James L. 1973. Melodrama, 14. London: Methuen.
- 14.
Martin, Hugo. 2015. “Disneyland Prepares for Crush of Visitors during 60th Anniversary Celebration,” Los Angeles Times, May 19. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disneyland-crowds-20150519-story.html. Accessed December 22, 2018.
- 15.
For more, see Jill Morris’s essay in this collection.
- 16.
Cross, Gary S. and John K. Walton. 2005. The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places in the Twentieth Century, 171. New York: Columbia University Press.
- 17.
Randall, Charles H. and Joan L.G. Bushnell. 1986. Hisses, Boos, and Cheers, or a Practical Guide to the Planning, Producing, and Performing of Melodrama, 5. Woodstock, IL: Dramatic Publishing Co.
- 18.
Park, Seunghyun B., Hyung J. Kim, and Chihyung M. Ok. 2018. “Linking Emotion and Place on Twitter at Disneyland,” Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing 35.5, 664–677.
- 19.
Guiver, Mathew. 2015. “Does Disney Jail Really Exist?” Buzzfeed, August 6. https://www.buzzfeed.com/mathewguiver/does-disney-jail-actually-exist. Accessed December 22, 2018.
- 20.
Mumpower, David. 2015. “Five INSANE Reasons People Sued Disney,” Theme Park Tourist, April 9. https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20170406/32636/five-insane-reasons-people-sued-disney. Accessed December 22, 2018.
Bibliography
Ang, Ien. 2005. Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination. London: Routledge.
Aronstein, Susan L., and Laurie A. Finke. 2013. Discipline and Pleasure: The Pedagogical Work of Disneyland. Educational Philosophy and Theory 45 (6): 610–624.
Brooks, Peter, and Henry James. 1976. The Melodramatic Imagination. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
Cross, Gary S., and John K. Walton. 2005. The Playful Crowd: Pleasure Places in the Twentieth Century. New York: Columbia University Press.
Glover, Erin. 2017. Rivers of America Through the Years at Disneyland Park. Disney Parks Blog, July 24. https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/07/rivers-of-america-through-the-years-at-disneyland-park/.
Guiver, Mathew. 2015. Does Disney Jail Really Exist? BuzzFeed, August 6. https://www.buzzfeed.com/mathewguiver/does-disney-jail-actually-exist?utm_term=.arYwV9Em4#.beBg4rRKk.
Korkis, Bill. 2018. WDW Chronicles: The History of Disney Topiary. AllEars.Net. http://allears.net/ae/issue726.htm. Accessed 14 Aug.
Macdonald, Brady, and Christopher Reynolds. 2015. Disneyland: 60 things you might not know about the Magic Kingdom. Los Angeles Times, Travel, July 17. http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-d-disneyland-60-things-20150712-story.html.
Martin, Hugo. 2015. Disneyland Prepares for Crush of Visitors During 60th Anniversary Celebration. Los Angeles Times. Business, May 19. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-disneyland-crowds-20150519-story.html.
Mumpower, David. 2015. Five INSANE Reasons People Sued Disney. Theme Park Tourist, April 9. https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20170406/32636/five-insane-reasons-people-sued-disney?page=2.
Olya, Gabrielle. 2018. Running Disneyland for Just One Day Costs an Insane Amount of Money. Go Banking Rates, April 12. https://www.gobankingrates.com/making-money/business/how-much-does-it-cost-to-run-disneyland-day/#12.
Park, Seunghyun B., Hyung J. Kim, and Chihyung M. Ok. 2018. Linking Emotion and Place on Twitter at Disneyland. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing 35 (5): 664–677.
Postlewait, Thomas. 1996. From Melodrama to Realism: The Suspect History of American Drama. In Melodrama: The Cultural Emergence of a Genre, ed. Michael Hays and Anastasia Nikolopoulou. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Randall, Charles H., and Joan L.G. Bushnell. 1986. Hisses, Boos & Cheers, or, a Practical Guide to the Planning, Producing, and Performing of Melodrama. Woodstock, IL: Dramatic Pub. Co.
Schenker, Heath M. 2003. Central Park and the Melodramatic Imagination. Journal of Urban History. 29 (4): 375–393.
Smith, James L. 1973. Melodrama. London: Methuen.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Amon, M.P. (2019). The Royal Theatre Presents: Echoes of Melodrama in the Magic Kingdom. In: Kokai, J.A., Robson, T. (eds) Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29322-2_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29322-2_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29321-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29322-2
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)