So this is going to be my last blog for a few weeks (I’ll be back). I’m leaving for vacation in a week, and things are going to be hectic. Feel free to follow me over on Twitter (@edohertyauthor) for all of the vacation fun.

Where am I going, you ask? DISNEY WORLD. It’s pretty much my favorite place, and I am insanely excited.
So for today’s blog, I thought that I would rank my five favorite Disney stage musicals.  For the record, I love them all. But these ones hold special places in my heart. (NOTE: I have NOT seen all of these on Broadway. In fact, most of them have been regional productions or national tours.)

5. The Little Mermaid – I know that this show has its problems, especially the Broadway run, but I am a sucker for a Menken score and Ashman lyrics. And this was a movie I grew up on. So if for nothing but the cast recording and the nostalgia, I love this one. Plus, they made Ariel more kick ass than she was in the movie.
4. Aladdin – I saw this one very recently. The best part about this show was that it took characters that we loved in the movie and expanded on them. What I mean by that is that the characters on stage became their own. They weren’t an imitation of what we saw in the movie. Which was great. And it was so beautiful and colorful.
3. Aida – I know that not everyone counts this one as a Disney musical but I do. It has, probably, my favorite cast recording of the whole bunch (Sherie Rene Scott, Heather Headley, Adam Pascal!). A rock score set against a heartbreaking love story, with classic Disney flair. I know this one by heart I love it so much.
2. Beauty and the Beast – The original Disney stage show! I’m a little bit biased because Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie. Menken/Ashman songs and a lovely story. Plus, I was just telling my friend the other day that the Transformation scene is my favorite piece of stage magic I’ve ever witness. I still don’t know how they did it.
1. The Lion King – Again, this is one that I am completely biased about. The Lion King was my first Broadway show, and what a Broadway show it was! The costumes were like nothing I’d ever seen before. The staging was incredible. I saw the original cast, and they were breathtaking. But mostly, there’s the music. This show deserves all of the accolades that it’s still getting, nearly 20 years later.