disnet got smart and has gone to some of the theater's best and brightest to turn their movies into stage shows. This is good news. why reinvent the wheel after all. there are some very famous naems dropped in this article. Read on...
Quote:
Disney adds dash of Broadway to its mix
Theatrical pros bring greasepaint glamour to 'Aladdin' extravaganza in Anaheim
Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater Critic
Enter Anne Hamburger, a dyed-in-the-greasepaint theatrical producer, most recently artistic director of the adventuresome La Jolla Playhouse. Hamburger, who had made her name as founder and leader of New York's innovative En Garde Arts -- staging plays on abandoned piers and producing works by the likes of Charles L. Mee ("Big Love") -- might seem an unlikely match for Disney. But so was Taymor. So is Matthew Bourne, of the all-male "Swan Lake," now reportedly developing a stage version of "The Little Mermaid" for Disney.
Hamburger was brought on as executive vice president for creative entertainment of the theme park division. "Aladdin," which opened in mid- January, is her first show, and in some respects it represents a full-scale theatrical invasion. The 2,000-seat two-balcony Hyperion is a spacious but intimate-feeling Broadway-style house, designed by Manhattan theater architect Hugh Hardy (of Hardy Holzmann Pfeiffer). The book was adapted from the animated film by playwright Chad Beguelin. And Alan Menken added a new song to those he wrote for the film with the late Howard Ashman and Tim Rice (who stepped in after Ashman's death).
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