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‘Tarzan’ to rock the Fox next year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tarzan and his menagerie of hairy apes will swing into the Fox Theatre next January.
Atlanta’s Theater of the Stars and three other regional producers are mounting North America’s first post-Broadway production of the 2006 Disney musical, which features music and lyrics by rocker Phil Collins. After Atlanta, the show will travel to San Jose, Calif., Dallas and Raleigh.
Lynne Taylor-Corbett — who directed “Swing!” and choreographed “Titanic” on Broadway — will stage the upcoming “Tarzan,” based on Disney’s 1999 animated film and original material by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
No word on casting. But it’s worth noting that director/designer Bob Crowley’s original production starred Atlanta-born Tony Award winner Shuler Hensley in the role of Kerchak, the ape who adopts the young Tarzan.
“The show will be different than Broadway,” Theater of the Stars publicist Karen Hatchett says. “We will have a different approach because we have a different creative team.”
By Disney standards, Broadway’s “Tarzan” was a flop. It ran for 486 regular performances, compared to 1,852 for Disney’s “Aida” and more than 4,000 performances for “The Lion King,” which celebrated its 10th anniversary in November. Disney’s latest Broadway musical, “The Little Mermaid,” opens Thursday.
A Dutch production of “Tarzan” opened in April 2007, and a second European installment will be unveiled in Hamburg in October.
Besides Theater of the Stars, the other regional producers are American Musical Theatre of San Jose, Calif., North Carolina Theatre in Raleigh and Dallas Summer Musicals.
“For us, that’s huge and exciting news to be the first in the country,” Hatchett says.
Comments
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By Teisha
January 8, 2008 12:53 PM | Link to this
I’m so excited i will be there!!!
By Kierin
January 9, 2008 6:42 PM | Link to this
I have seen the animated film of Tarzan but I’m wishing I can go see the Broadway version of Tarzan, with my Aunt Jeanne Braddick of Hackensack, New Jersey and my friend Joe DaSilva of Northport, New York. I wanna be just like Josh Strickland as Tarzan.