After a string of semi-hits and outright duds, word in Shubert Alley is that Disney’s in talks to launch another theatrical adventure on Broadway — Dumbo!
Disney’s shopping the idea, but has yet to nail down a director for the show. It seems “Billy Elliot”‘s Stephen Daldry has passed on the option, and other potentials are just in the pipe line for now.
Dumbo, the animated film nominated for an Oscar in 1941, is about a baby elephant whose big ears allow him to fly. The film’s score, by Oliver Wallace and Frank Churchill, who were both friends of Walt Disney’s, is ready-made for Broadway, with fun and rousing numbers and touching ballads (who doesn’t cry when they hear “Baby Mine?”).
Says the New York Post:
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. … 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.
