Tarzan Swings & Mermaid Swims to London???
Date: 23 May 2006
Following the success of the likes of
The Lion King and
Beauty and the Beast, the next full-scale Disney production to hit Europe based on an animated movie musical will be
Tarzan, which is scheduled to open at Holland's Circus Theatre in spring 2007 and in Germany the following year. It’s tipped for a possible West End transfer in 2008/9. The musical - about an orphaned boy who is raised by gorillas and falls in love with the first human he meets, explorer Jane - has a book by David Henry Hwang and score by Phil Collins. Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Stage Entertainment, it opened earlier this month to mixed reviews at Broadway’s Richard Rodgers Theatre and garnered just one nomination (for lighting design) in this year’s Tony Awards (See
News, 16 May 2006). Meanwhile, according to
Playbill.com a one-week costume and movement lab for Disney’s
The Little Mermaid will be held in London in June 2006. Long on the cards, director/choreographer
Matthew Bourne and designer
Lez Brotherston withdrew from the project in 2002 (See
The Goss, 23 Dec 2002).
Stephen Mear, Bourne’s Olivier Award-winning co-choreographer on
Mary Poppins, will gather together six (unnamed) performers he’s previously worked with for the London workshop, while
Francesca Zambello, whose production of
Show Boat opens at the Royal Albert Hall next month, is now signed up to direct.
The Little Mermaid will have a book by
Doug Wright and a score by
Alan Menken. Other previously mooted Disney stagifications include
101 Dalmations and
Aladdin (See
The Goss, 2 Dec 2003).
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