Those towering Bob Crowley headdresses will be worn on a different head in Aida, beginning Feb. 27. That's the date pop singer Taylor Dayne gives her first performance in the Disney musical. Original star Sherie Rene Scott left the production on Feb. 25, the date of the musical's first year anniversary. Scott has been with the Elton John-Tim Rice tuner since the very start.
Taylor Dayne, the 1980s pop diva, will be the new Amneris in Broadway's Aida on Feb. 27. Original stars Adam Pascal and Heather Headley remain with the musical.
The slinky, blonde-tressed Dayne dominated the pop charts in the late '80s and early '90s with such power ballads as "Tell It to My Heart," "Don't Rush Me," "Prove Your Love" and "I'll Be Your Shelter." By the mid-'90s, however, she had all but disappeared from view.
Disney has, in the past, cast pop stars in its Broadway musicals, Toni Braxton's tenure in Beauty and the Beast being the most notable example. Both Scott and Pascal have carried on double careers as actors and recording artists.
* The national tour of Disney's new musical, Aida, will begin at Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre March 27, 2001, for a run through April 22. The production will then stop in St. Louis, Seattle, Portland, OR, and Denver.
Future stops and dates will be announced soon.
Disney may consider the Orpheum a lucky theatre for the company. The Lion King made a successful pre-Broadway stop there in 1997 before going on to triumph in New York.
After tryouts in Atlanta and Chicago, Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre on March 23. The NYC production was nominated for five Tony Awards, including a nod for Headley, who won.
As with the New York edition, the tour will be directed by Robert Falls, with Wayne Cilento doing choreography, and sets and costumes by Bob Crowley.
The tour schedule runs as follows:
• March 27-April 22, 2001: Minneapolis' Orpheum Theatre
• April 27-May 6: St. Louis' Fox Theatre
• May 12-27: Seattle's Paramount Theatre
• May 29-June 3: Portland, OR's Keller Auditorium
• June 6-24: Denver's Buell Theatre.
