‘High School Musical,’ ‘Little Mermaid’ Stars Perform for Disney’s Throwback Concerts at Hollywood Bowl

Disney took a look back at its work from decades past with a pair of throwback concerts at the Hollywood Bowl over the weekend.

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Disney ’80s-’90s Celebration in Concert featured live performers, many of whom had worked on previous Disney projects, belting out live renditions of favorite tunes from those two titular decades. Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel in the 1989 movie The Little Mermaid ), Corbin Bleu ( High School Musical ), Bill Farmer (the official voice of Goofy and Pluto), Krysta Rodriguez ( Smash ), Aisha Jackson (Anna in Broadway’s Frozen ) and Susan Egan (Meg in Hercules and the original Belle in Broadway’s Beauty and the Beast ) were some of the performers to take the stage.

Among the era-appropriate songs performed in the shows were “A Whole New World” from Aladdin , “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas , “Circle of Life” from The Lion King and “What’s This?” from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas . The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra provided orchestral accompaniment.

When she took the stage to perform The Little Mermaid’ s “Part of Your World” on Friday, Benson recalled having met late producer Howard Ashman earlier in her career and that he encouraged her to audition as the voice of the movie’s lead, Ariel.

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“I just miraculously booked the role of Ariel, and I’m honored that I’ve been doing this role for all of you for 37 years,” Benson told the crowd. “It’s a privilege. Howard taught me amazing lessons, but the one that I am so thankful for is, he taught me how to be vulnerable, how to be real, how to be authentic behind the microphone — but not to be perfect. But to be perfect for Ariel.”

When Bleu joined performer Adam J. Levy onstage to introduce a song during the same concert, Levy teased Bleu about his role as Chad in High School Musical by singing a snippet of “Get’cha Head in the Game,” a number from the Disney Channel’s hit 2006 feature. This led Bleu to quip, “Nice job, buddy.”

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