After the bungle in the jungle that was “Tarzan,” the 3-day-old fish that was “The Little Mer maid” and the soggy umbrella that is “Mary Poppins,” I’ve pretty much given up on Disney.
The company that gave Broadway the extraordinary “Lion King” seems to have lost that old Magic Kingdom touch.
But there are rumblings about a new Disney show that does, I think, sound promising.
“Ha!” I can hear the skeptic scoff. “I’ll believe that when I see an elephant fly.”
Well, guess what? That’s just what you’re going to see, because Disney is quietly laying the groundwork for a Broadway musical based on the animated classic “Dumbo.”
Word around Shubert Alley last week was that Disney was in talks with Stephen Daldry to direct. Daldry won the Tony last year for the wonderful “Billy Elliot” and is considered by many to be the best director working in the theater today. (He gets my vote, with Nicholas Hytner, the head of London’s National Theatre, a close second.)
Daldry danced with Disney for a bit, but, sad to say, they couldn’t work out a deal, so it appears he’s passed for now. But “Dumbo” has so much charm it should be able to attract a director of the first rank.
Hytner, who staged “Miss Saigon” and the acclaimed revival of “Carousel,” would be my choice, although running the National is a full-time job.
Another possibility is Bart Sher, who staged “South Pacific” for Lincoln Center. Or how about Susan Stroman? Anybody who thought she was down for the count after “Young Frankenstein” should see “The Scottsboro Boys” at the Vineyard. Her work is outstanding.
Whoever winds up helming “Dumbo” will be tackling a show that already has a couple of good things going for it: the story and the score.
The 1941 movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award, runs just over an hour. The story — which, in case you blocked out your childhood, is about a baby elephant whose big ears allow him to fly — is very lean, making it readily adaptable for the stage.
The score, by Oliver Wallace and Frank Churchill, both of whom were close to Walt himself, contains several gems — the catchy opening, “Casey Junior” (as in “comin’ down the track”), a beautiful ballad called “Baby Mine,” the weird and scary “Pink Elephants on Parade” and, my favorite, “When I See an Elephant Fly,” with the irresistible lyric: “Saw a peanut stand/Heard a rubber band/Saw a needle that winked its eye/But I think I seen about everything/When I see a elephant fly.”
That number, by the way, will have to be tweaked. It’s sung by three crows in stereotypical black dialect. That ain’t gonna fly in 2010.
This one sounds like fun to me, and maybe, just maybe, Disney will get it right this time. Because if you screw up “Dumbo,” you’re really asking for it.
Last week, writing about the upcoming revival of “Evita,” I asked readers to e-mail me their “dream Che.” (The producers are out to get Ricky Martin, but he hasn’t accepted yet.) The results are in, and the winner, although he’s getting a little long in the diente for the part, is Antonio Banderas.
A close runner-up is Raul Esparza, followed by Hugh Jackman (Aussie Che), Cheyenne Jackson (Gay Che) and Justin Timberlake (Tacky Che).
The producers of “Evita” should know that Post readers aren’t crazy about their first choice. As Kristin Felix writes: “My dream Che? Anybody but Ricky Martin!”
As promised, I’ll present all your suggestions to Andrew Lloyd Webber next week at the opening in London of “Love Never Dies,” his sequel to “The Phantom of the Opera,” and see what he thinks.
By the way, I reported that “Love Never Dies” cost $20 million. But I’m told that the cost is in fact about $12 million. Oh, Andrew. What’s $8 million between friends?