DISNEY THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS was formed in 1994 and operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher. After 13 record-breaking years, the company’s inaugural production, Beauty and the Beast, played its final Broadway performance in July 2007. Currently, Beauty and the Beast is touring in Japan and Mexico and productions will open in Johannesburg and Moscow in Fall 2008. In May 1997, The Walt Disney Company completed restoration of the historic New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street, reopening with the world premiere concert of Alan Menken & Tim Rice’s King David. Later that same year, Disney opened The Lion King, which received six 1998 Tony® Awards including Best Musical, and the 1998 GRAMMY® Award for Best Musical Show Album. Now in its eleventh year on Broadway and entering its tenth year in the West End, The Lion King can also currently be seen onstage in Hamburg, Tokyo, Paris, Fukuoka, and a national U.S. touring company. In June 2007, a 10th anniversary celebration production opened in Johannesburg, South Africa and ran for a record-breaking 40 weeks. Disney premiered its first international musical in June 1999 in Berlin with Der Glöckner Von Notre Dame, an adaptation of the Disney film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida opened on Broadway in March 2000 and received four 2000 Tony® Awards and the 2000 GRAMMY® Award for Best Musical Show Album. Aida ran for four-and-a-half years on Broadway. On The Record, a musical celebrating Disney’s catalogue of beloved songs, launched a U.S. national tour in November 2004, visiting 24 cities over the following nine months. Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, opened in December 2004 in London and completed a successful run at London’s Prince Edward Theatre in January 2008 and is now touring the UK. The Tony Award®-winning Broadway production opened in November 2006 and continues at The New Amsterdam Theatre with a U.S. tour scheduled for 2009. TARZAN®, which opened on Broadway in the 2006 – 2007 season, is now an international hit with an Award-winning production in Holland and an upcoming debut in Germany. In January 2008, The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway with a score composed by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken and the legendary Howard Ashman, with new lyrics by Glenn Slater. In the summer of 2007, Disney Theatrical Productions kicked off a US tour of Disney’s High School Musical Live on Stage. A UK tour commenced in January 2008 and in addition, a second UK production opened at London’s Apollo Hammersmith Theatre in June 2008 for a limited summer season. International productions of High School Musical will also entertain audiences across the UK, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Holland, Finland, Sweden and Australia throughout 2008-2009. Future projects in development include The Man in the Ceiling featuring original book author Jules Feiffer and composer Andrew Lippa, and a new play, Peter and the Starcatchers, based on the novel by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, which will be written by Rick Elice, directed by Roger Rees and co-directed by Alex Timbers. In addition to producing musicals, DTP licenses stage performance rights to over a dozen Disney musicals to schools, community groups and professional theatres around the world through Music Theatre International.
