Walt Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Live at Radio City Music Hall (1979)

In the late 1970's, Radio City Music Hall was in danger of being torn down. They needed a miracle. They found it with Snow White Live!

Walt Disney had a history with Radio City Music Hall going back to the beginning of his career. That relationship remained in place after he died with many Walt Disney films premiering there. That loyalty carried on when the Music Hall needed an attraction to bring in audiences and remain open. That attraction was a Broadway show based on Walt Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and it saved the Music Hall at a time when movie palaces were being demolished across the country. While there had been traveling stage productions using Disney characters for some time, this marked the first time Walt Disney Productions allowed an outside company to adapt one of their films in a stage production. That production was overseen by longtime Disney Parks vet, Robert F. Jani and first debuted in St. Louis in 1969 returning again in 1972. The decision was made to bring this production to New York City at a time when America's future looked bleak. Originally only intended for a 14 day run, it proved immensely popular and was not only held over but returned after Christmas.

The original production opened on October 18, 1979, closing November 18, 1979 after 38 performances in order to put on the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It then reopened on January 11, 1980 running 68 performances and closed on March 9, 1980, a total of 106 performances. It also went on national tour. A cast recording LP was released in 1979 and was the final Buena Vista label LP record release. The performance was recorded and released on home video as Snow White Live! at Radio City Music Hall in 1981. The Walt Disney Company had stated they would never release Walt's actual animated feature to home video and this took the place of it. This stage production was the only way to see Walt Disney's Snow White story for a generation of people. It aired on HBO in the early 1980's and, starting in 1987 to coincide with the original film's 50th anniversary, it aired on the Disney Channel.

The VHS of this production is long out of print, fetching hundreds of dollars on Ebay and has never been released to DVD. The entire production is here.

While the Walt Disney Company began a string of Broadway adaptations of their modern day animated features, this is the original and a faithful adaptation it is. The story was expanded to give the Prince more to do and added a great character moment for Dopey in the finale. It also added additional characters such as Luna, the servant of the evil Queen, and for the first time we got to meet Snow White's father the King. Verses to the established songs cut from the animated film were restored and new songs were written adding to the score and they fit rather well. In casting the role of Snow White a national casting call went out looking for an unknown to create the PR of the fairy tale discovery story.

A fan produced documentary on the stage production featuring interviews with man of the key players can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR-AyeartfM

It should also be noted that Howard Ashman attended a few of these performances. He would go one to revitalize Walt Disney animated features starting with 1989's The Little Mermaid.

Cast
Mary Jo Salerno as Snow White
Richard Bowne as The Prince
Anne Francine as The Evil Queen
Charles Hall as The Hag & Magic Mirror
Don Potter as Doc
Benny Freigh as Grumpy
Richard Day as Happy
Jay Edward Allen as Bashful
Louis Carry as Sneezy
Jerry Riley as Sleepy
Michael E. King as Dopey
Bruce Sherman as The Huntsman
Thomas Ruisinger as The King
Yolande Bavan as Luna
Heidi Coe as Greta
Lauren Lipson as Mother
David Pursley as Chamberlain

Songs by Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, & Paul Smith

Additional songs by Joe Cook & Jay Blackton

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.