Broadway has continued to have it’s ongoing legacy shows that may have not run that long but earned a huge cult following from Theater goers. One of those shows was considered at Disney on Broadway‘s shortest lived production….. That particular musical was Tarzan.
For those who may not know, the show was based on Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ best selling novel TARZAN OF THE APES. It later has adapted into various movies, comic books, and radio shows. This musical was mainly based on the Grammy and Oscar winning 1999 Disney Animated film of the same name. Set deep in the heart of the African Jungle, it centers on an orphaned baby who grows up being raised by a family of apes. However, everything changes when “Tarzan” meets with people of his own kind including the young English naturalist “Jane”. The show featured a book by David Henry Hwang. It also featured a score by Phil Collins marking his Broadway debut as a composer. It features all the notable songs from the film including TWO WORLDS, SON OF MAN, TRASHIN’ THE CAMP, STRANGERS LIKE ME, and the Oscar winning YOU’LL BE IN MY HEART. It also included several new songs written for the show including I NEED TO KNOW, DIFFERENT, LIKE NO MAN I’VE EVER SEEN, SURE AS SUN TURNS TO MOON, and EVERYTHING THAT I AM.
TARZAN was conceived as a Broadway Musical as early as 2002. At the time, Disney on Broadway was becoming the TALK OF THE TOWN with it’s 3 Award winning smash hits running at the time…. Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aida. At the time, everyone working for THE MOUSE was putting the ideas together of other of their notable films could fit to well for the Broadway stage. One of them would be….. Tarzan. The film was already a huge smash when it was released in 1999. It has just won the Grammy Award for its soundtrack and the Oscar for its beautiful theme YOU’LL BE IN MY HEART.
With the idea in set, Disney knew right away of who to hire to put the pieces together….. it all started with Bob Crowley (who had just won a Tony in 2000 for his Scenic Design on AIDA). It would mark as his directorial debut. The original vision for the show was having it done in-the-round as more of an Touring production held in a giant tent. However, the idea was too much. Immediately, it was changed to being performed on a Proscenium stage. From there, Crowley hired acclaimed playwright David Henry Hwang to write the book of the musical (also having worked together on AIDA). Along with hiring Phil Collins to do the show and the rest of the creative team on board, everyone immediately went to work.
The show had its first early development lab workshop in 2004. That original reading had featured Tony and Emmy nominee Matthew Morrison as the title role and Tony nominee Laura Bell Bundy as “Jane”. The duo previously played opposite each other in the original cast of Hairspray. It also featured Adam Pascal serving as “The Narrator” for the show. Sadly, this trio did NOT continue with the project.
A year later after the workshop going through various changes including getting rid of “The Narrator” and tweaking up the script, TARZAN was ready to hit the stage. The team began hosting auditions and finding its cast. From there, it was putting it all together
Rehearsals for TARZAN begin in the Winter of 2005. Because the production was very high teched with tons of aerial flying, it was NOT done in one of the traditional rehearsal studios here in New York City. Instead to practice using the fly rigs and getting a great sense of what will their set look like, the rehearsals were held in Brooklyn at Steiner Studios (located right on the Navy Yard) where various films and tv shows are filmed. The whole creative team was there for every step of the way including Phil Collins being the mentor and moral support to the company while still revamping and writing the new songs non-stop.
Because the show also being high teched and learning from their previous experiences, Disney did NOT have TARZAN do a traditional Pre-Broadway out of town tryout. The company rehearsed for 6 MONTHS in Brooklyn before moving into the Theater. To work really hard with the technical aspect, the team at Disney did something a little bit different in having it directly go to Broadway. During its preview process, TATZAN only did 4 SHOWS A WEEK with the rest mainly focusing on tech rehearsals.
Finally in the Spring of 2006, TARZAN opened on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theatre where it ran for only 35 previews and 486 regular performances. Under the direction of Bob Crowley, the cast would be led by….
Josh Strickland in the titular role,
Jenn Gambatese as “Jane Porter”,
Merle Dandridge as “Kala”,
Tony winner Shuler Hensley (later Rob Evans) as “Kerchak”,
Chester Gregory II as “Terk”,
Tim Jerome as “Professor Porter”,
and
Donnie Keshawarz as “Clayton”
TARZAN earned mixed to negative reviews. The critics praised the cast but panned the production. Despite all of it, audiences went but tickets sales did NOT do so well. It went on to become Disney Theatrical Productions first major flop on the Great Bright Way.
Despite the reviews, the show would only be nominated for 1 Tony Award in 2007 for BEST LIGHTING DESIGN OF A MUSICAL (for Natasha Katz). However, it lost the category.
A year after the show initially debuted on Broadway, the team began to launch International companies of TARZAN including its first 2 companies in Holland and in Germany. Both companies even did reality shows to help find the newcomers to star the titular role.
The Holland company opened in 2007 where it earned rave reviews, it was a huge success and ran for 2 years there. A year afterwards, the German company opened in 2008 where it became an instant smash. This production did several updated tweaks to the staging (that were not even in the Broadway company). It became true to what the musical was supposed to be. It ran for 10 YEARS playing Hamburg, Stuttgart, and Oberhausen.
During the German run, several of its company members from Broadway found themselves back in the jungle doing the show there including original understudy Kevin Massey and even its OG star Josh Strickland.
Despite its initial flop run on Broadway, Disney did NOT give up hope on TARZAN and it still went on to be successful afterwards. There was NO North American National Tour. However, it continued to live on here in the States today (plus productions around the world) being done in schools, community, and regional Theaters everywhere.
Any fans of TARZAN out there?
Who has seen it?!!
