Disney Theatrical Group News

The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center today announced that Disney has awarded the Center a grant to bring the Disney Musicals in Schools program to the Dallas area. The three-year program is an initiative developed by Disney Theatrical Productions to create sustainable theatre programs in under-resourced public elementary schools. The Center and Disney will select five Dallas Independent School District elementary schools to participate in this year's program. An additional five schools will be chosen for the program in 2020. The Center is one of the first organizations chosen for the program in the southwest United States.

Production on Disney's “Mulan,” a live-action adaptation of the studio's 1998 animated feature, has begun. The film will shoot on locations in New Zealand and China and will open in U.S. theaters on March 27, 2020. 

Season features three productions: the world premiere of an original play written by a Broadway veteran, a boldly staged concert production of a Sondheim classic, and an immersive reinterpretation of a song cycle from a two-time Tony-Award winner.

Samuel French announces that award-winning playwright and cabaret artist Charles Busch (The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Psycho Beach Party, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom) has happily stepped in for the previously announced Lauren Yee (The King of the Yees, The Great Leap, The Hatmaker's Wife) who had to recuse herself due to a scheduling conflict.

In honor of Artistic Director Michael Kahn's final season with the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), the opening show of the 2018-2019 Season, William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, will feature beloved performers, many of whom have been with the Company since the very beginning.

Building on five successful years as a regional affiliate with the national Disney Musicals in Schools program, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts announced today that Disney has selected it as the first performing arts center in the nation to help expand this outreach initiative to rural communities through a unique collaboration with a community arts organization. Developed by Disney Theatrical Productions, the Disney Musicals in Schools initiative is used to create sustainable theater programs in under-resourced elementary schools.

The Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival, the nation's premier short play competition, takes place August 21-25 at The Vineyard's Dimson 15th Street Theatre. Chosen from over 850 submissions from the U.S. and abroad, 30 finalist plays and musicals, each running 10-30 minutes in length, will be presented. The Saturday, August 25th presentation is the culmination of the week-long festival at which the Samuel French staff will choose the winning six pieces for licensing and publication in an anthology.

Producer Michael Barra, who most recently served as President of Media & Entertainment at Broadway's The Araca Group (and was previously an exec at Disney), announces the official launch of Lively McCabe Entertainment. Co-founded with Katie Dietz, Lively McCabe Entertainment is an independent production company that will allow Barra to continue as a packager and producer of media intellectual properties for the live stage, as well as television series, films, digital media, and book publishing. Lively McCabe has now signed with Abrams Artists Agency, and will work closely with their Literary departments in Los Angeles and New York to package projects built around existing high profile Hollywood IP to which the company has secured rights. Lively McCabe and Mr. Barra are also represented by Adam Cooper at Jackoway Tyerman.

Luna Stage Company launched a new era on July 1, when it welcomed Ari Laura Kreith as Artistic Director and Miriam Gardin as Managing Director. The new team has announced a MainStage season featuring four new plays set in locations ranging from Malawi to Manhattan. They are committed to developing work that inspires empathy, provokes dialogue, catalyzes action, and reflects local voices as well as national and international conversations.

City Parks Foundation SummerStage is celebrating Family Day, sponsored by Disney, this Sunday, July 15th and will have a fun filled day of performances by Grammy winners Rebirth Brass Band, The Lady Buckjumpers of New Orleans, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux, and the PuppetMobile's marionette show of "The Big Good Wolf". Disney will also have a family activity station, giveaways and performances by their Disney Theatrical group featuring special guests. The FREE Mardi Gras themed event runs from 3PM-7PM at SummerStage in Central Park and is perfect for all ages. Let me know if you would be interested in setting up coverage on the event! 

Eight outstanding educators from schools and performing arts centers around the U.S. will work one-on-one with Broadway greats at the 9th Annual FREDDIE G FELLOWSHIP July 11th - 14th. The event has once again been underwritten by Myrna and Freddie ("G") Gershon, Co-Chairman of the global theatrical licensor Music Theatre International (MTI). The four days of classes and activities honor instructors and teachers who are working to make a difference for their students and communities through the process of staging musical theatre productions in their schools and educational theatre groups. In addition to the all-expense paid visit to New York, each of the teachers' schools receives $5,000 from Freddie and Myrna. The teachers are empowered to identify and select how their respective school's theatre program can best utilize the funds.

A new production and UK tour of the critically acclaimed West End play Shakespeare in Love, based on the Oscar-winning film by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, is today announced by Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Theatre Royal Bath Productions by special arrangement with Disney Theatrical Group and Sonia Friedman Productions. Opening at Theatre Royal Bath on Thursday 4 October 2018 with press night on Thursday 11 October, the production will then embark on a national tour to Nottingham, Malvern, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Chichester with further venues to be announced.

The 2018 Jimmy® Awards took place on Monday, June 25, 2018 at 7:30pm at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway. Laura Benanti hosted.

Theatre Now New York is pleased to announce the finalized judging panel for SOUND BITES 5.0, the Fifth Annual Festival of 10-Minute Musicals. This one-night only event showcases ten new musicals of up-and-coming musical theatre writing teams.

Despite a sea of butterflies in their stomachs, 300 squirmy, fresh-faced elementary students will sing, dance and act their hearts out Monday afternoon before a crowd of proud family and friends.

Disney's hit musical Aladdin announces that the Prince Edward Theatre, which is owned by Delfont Mackintosh Theatres, is the first theatre in the West End to receive an award from The National Autistic Society celebrating its achievements in welcoming autistic guests and their families through training, staff awareness and initiatives such as the hit show's Autism-Friendly Performances.

According to Deadline, Helen Mirren and Danny DeVito have signed on to join the voice cast of the upcoming THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN. The new Disney film is set to be a hybrid of live action and CGI. The two join the cast already consisting of Bryan Cranston, Ramon Rodriquez, Arianna Greenblatt, Indira Varma, Eleanor Matsuura,  Angelina Jolie, Sam Rockwell, and Brooklynn Prince. Read more about it from Deadline here!

Production has commenced at Pinewood Studios outside London on “The One and Only Ivan,” a live-action/CG hybrid adaptation of the children's book by Katherine Applegate directed by Thea Sharrock (“Me before You”). The screenplay is by two-time Independent Spirit Award winner Mike White (“Pitch Perfect 3,” “The School of Rock”) based on Applegate's award-winning book and the producers are Oscar® and three-time Golden Globe® winner Angelina Jolie (“First They Killed My Father,” “Maleficent”), the late Allison Shearmur (“Solo: A Star Wars Story,” “Cinderella”) and Brigham Taylor (“Christopher Robin,” “The Jungle Book”).

On Saturday, May 19, and Sunday, May 20, 2018, Aspire Performing Arts Company will hold auditions for its upcoming summer musical theatre productions: Disney's The Lion King Jr. for children ages 7-11, and Thoroughly Modern Millie, for pre-teens/teenagers ages 11 through 18.

Director Julie Taymor made the importance of having the animals, which play a big part in the story, represented through costumes, masks, and puppets when it was first being put to the stage in 1997. Taymor also devised a concept to theatrically represent the story and heart of show on stage with what she called the 'double event.' The double event is the representation of the animals through the costumes, puppets, and masks, but still having the human or the actor visible to the audience.