Disney's Tarzan Confirmed for Spring '06 Opening

By: Jun. 29, 2005
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Disney's Broadway musical adaptation of the animated film Tarzan has now been confirmed for a spring 2006 opening, with the creative team set for the show.

Disney Presents Tarzan, which will feature a cast of 34 and will play at a theatre to be announced, will be helmed by two-time Tony Award-winner Bob Crowley (Aida, Carousel), who will also design the sets and costumes. Phil Collins, who has received six Grammys for his work as a rock musician, will expand upon his score for the film in writing the music and lyrics for the show, while Tony Award-winner David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Aida) is set to adapt the show's book from the film's script; the latter was penned by Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker and Noni White.

The acclaimed Australian choreographer Meryl Tankard has also been enlisted for the show while Pichon Baldinu (De La Guarda) is set to handle the Aerial Movement. Tony Award-winner Natasha Katz (Aida, The 25th Annual Putnam County Bee) will be the show's lighting designer, with John Shivers (Hairspray, The Producers) as the sound designer.

Tarzan, which is based upon Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Tarzan of the Apes, tells how a vine-swinging feral man raised by gorillas learns English and civility under the tutelage of a beautiful English woman named Jane. A pop culture fixture since it debuted in 1912, Tarzan has spawned comics, TV shows and films such as the 1930s series that starred Johnny Weismuller. The 1999 Disney film featured the voices of Tony Goldwyn, Glenn Close, Minnie Driver and Rosie O'Donnell, with Collins' "You'll Be In My Heart" winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

While the musical has not yet been cast, a January 2004 workshop of the show featured Matthew Morrison as the adult Tarzan and Laura Bell Bundy as Jane, with Will Chase, Chris Fitzgerald, Anika Larsen, Alton White and others also included in the cast. Disney Theatrical Productions, whose past Broadway smashes include Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and Aida, is also working on a Broadway-bound production of The Little Mermaid, with the London hit Mary Poppins also set to cross the pond.
 

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