Jim Hill has an article up about Disney Theatrical's plans for 2006: Opening "Tarzan," moving "Lion King" out of the New Amsterdam & opening "Mary Poppins." He also mentions that "Little Mermaid" is scheduled to open in 2007.
The version that we get may be somewhat different than what you folks had over in London.
Apparently, the productions team isn't confident that the darker tone will fare well with American audiences. They're also concerned that it's not they've left out (or changed?) the tunes from the original Sherman score.
I'm really interested to see how it plays out.
We were at the World of Disney on 5th Ave today, and they had a snowglobe - a teeny one - with stitch, and the logos for Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins on it.
I love Lion King and I'm taking my musical theatre students to see BEauty and BEast in NY in March 06. Would love to see Mary Poppins but The Little Mermaid? Come on! I'd rather see Hunchback on Broadway. I've always thought it would lend itself quite well to the stage.
Disney has not done Peter Pan and I doubt that they ever would. Around the same time that the Disney animated Peter Pan came out, there was a Broadway stage musical Peter Pan that was produced starring Mary Martin. The stage version has a different score than the animated movie. This Broadway version has been very popular over the years, been presented on television a number of times and for the past several years Cathy Rigby has starred in a number of Broadway productions and touring companies of this version.
I doubt that Disney would ever consider competing against this well established stage version of Peter Pan when they have so many other properties that they could bring to the stage.