Mickey The Thespian

mkt

Disney's Favorite Scumbag™
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Mickey The Thespian

NEW YORK (Forbes) -- A new attraction will soon be unveiled at The Walt Disney Co.’s California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, Calif. But instead of the regular amusement park junkies who flock to test out the latest ride, the first people to experience this new attraction are more likely to be some of the theater world’s most grizzled drama critics. With its theme park attendance down dramatically as a result, the company says, of the weak US economy and terrorism fears among tourists, Disney is launching a new stage version of “Aladdin” that is expected to rival the best Broadway has to offer. The company is hoping that an injection of The Great White Way will help the nearly two-year-old California Adventure to finally start attracting crowds. Premiering on Dec. 9, “Aladdin” is expected to be of the same high caliber as the hit shows Disney currently has on Broadway — “The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aida.” “Aladdin’s” choreographer is Lynne Taylor Corbett, who received six Tony nominations in 2000 for “Swing.” The music team includes a collection of Academy Award nominees in lyricists Howard Ashman and Tim Rice and composer Alan Menken. Menken wrote the songs for the animated theatrical release of “Aladdin” in 1992, and is composing a new song for the live-action version. The recently completed 2,000-seat Hyperion Theater, where the 40-minute show will be staged, is designed for the lavish scene changes and amazing stunts that have come to characterize big Broadway productions. During “Aladdin,” characters will fly over the audience on magic carpets. “What we’re offering is Broadway-quality entertainment inside a theme park,’’ says “Aladdin” director Francesca Zambello, whose credits include three Olivier Awards, London’s equivalent of the Tonys. The venture is the first of its kind for the company. It is yet another example of some of the steps that Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner and his No. 2 and heir assumed, Robert Iger, are putting into place in an effort to revive the struggling entertainment giant, whose stock has dropped more than 60% from its high in 2000. By transplanting a piece of Broadway to the theme park business, Eisner is taking one of the company’s thriving units and using it to help revive a struggling one. Disney’s live-action theatrical business, which includes traveling versions of the company’s productions as well as the Broadway fixtures, has over the past several years grown from a tiny business to one generating nearly $220 million in annual operating income. “The live-action theater business does very well for us,” says Eisner, who notes that the amount of operating income the unit earns is comparable to what the entire company took in when he took over Disney in 1984.
 

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