"Classic (yet a bit under the radar) love story + Julie Taymor-esque visionary + a NEW, smart score (or enough added to pre-existing score to make it feel new) = a hit musical?"
This would lead me to believe that you would need all three of these to make a hit... which was not the case for BatB, TLK, and Aida..
Sorry I misunderstood the original post... oh and for including an "e". I am so glad you fixed that for me. I hope she isn't reading this board and sees I put that e.
finebydesign wrote: Interesting you mention ALICE and SLEEPING BEAUTY. Linda Wolverton (who wrote AIDA, BEAUTY, LION KING) wrote the ALICE movie and is writing the film script for MALEFICENT which is a Wicked take on that character.
Linda Woolverton is a hack who shouldn't be writing anything, period. Her work is consistently terrible.
^Personally? I'd love to see Taymor take on Pinocchio. Apparently she had tinkered around with the idea after Lion King but it never got off the ground. With the right treatment I think it could be fantastic.
'I've been wanting them to do Hercules for years. It could be amazing.'
Hercules has potential, could take its cue from Ancient Greek theatre, the major challenge would how to do the Monsters and Pegasus although TBH you could cut Pegasus and also more songs especially for the main characters like Herc, Meg and Hades and also expanding the role of the Muses who IMO were the best bit of the film.
Julie Taymor's Pinocchio would be interesting especially with what she did with The Lion King with the puppetry. One of the things I've wonder is should Pinocchio be a real puppet or an actor as we've seen with War Horse how effective puppets can be if used correctly, maybe get Handspring or Basil Twist to design Pinocchio if they decided to go the puppet route.
So much of Hercules appeal is on the cartoony imagery and humour. While that's true of Aladdin too, with Hercules I think it's even more true and I don't get the point of transfering it to stage personally.
If they do anything I would love for them to give us a proper Hunchback of Notre Dame (Just for the soaring, Out There) and Aristocats (The score is full of wonderful French and jazz influenced songs that I love, plus the story is different and fun)
"Mulan would need expanding as there is only five songs and also some elements like Mushu would have to rethought, it's one of my favourites as well but it's not one I would put on stage. " Isn't there a school version of Mulan that actually incorporates some of Stephen Schwartz original score before he was bumped from the project for working with Dreamworks (I still have the Lea Salonga demo of his song Written in Stone from it)--but I may have that wrong. Ironic of course since Alan Menken is now working on a Dreamworks project.
"Their next "Broadway" specific projects are: Dumbo, Father of the Bride and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. To me Dumbo is the only that seems slightly interesting. "
Seriously?!?!?!?! Alice in Wonderland would be terrific on Broadway!
I've always thought Hercules would make a great musical. The music in it is already great and the muses really could take more of a role like what was said.
Swing Kids could work on stage--I always have it a bit mixed up in my head with Newsies although it definitely has more adult themes. But does that mean we can count any movie from any of Disney's more adult arms like Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures (who released Swing Kids?) Then I vote for a Frank Wildhorn Joy Luck Club
I still say Alice in Wonderland has proven hard enough to adapt interestingly for the musical stage, but to try to adapt the mess of a more action, "quest high fantasy" version Burton foisted on viewers makes even less sense.
Alice in Wonderland would need to reworked story wise and expanded, I liked the film but the appeal was 3D and Johnny Depp, the plot wasn't great.
Disney does seem to looking beyond their own Animated and live action films for potential stage projects like Father of the Bride and Shakespeare in Love, the latter is being written by Tom Stoppard and is being co-produced with Sonia Friedman, I wonder if Disney produced Arcadia as part of the deal for Shakespeare in Love.
They should do The Aristocats with real cats. Hey, if Sandy in Annie and Bruiser in Legally Blonde were real dogs, there is no reason a show with real cats can't be done.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
Ignored Users: suestorm, N2N Nate., Owen22, master bates
As long as they have a more racially authentic portrayal of the Asian cat--we all knew that was a white cat with makeup and some Mickey Rooney-in Breakfast at Tiffany's buck teeth