The film-turned-musical is currently featured in Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, FL, in the newly enclosed 1,500-seat Theater in the Wild. The show, which plays a number of times per day, began previews in November 2006 in preparation for a January 2007 debut.
Peter Brosius, artistic director of the 2003 Tony Award-winning Minneapolis' Children's Theatre Company (where Broadway's A Year With Frog and Toad debuted), directs the new work, which marks the first Disney (and Pixar) non-musical animated feature to be transformed it into an original musical production.
Featuring original songs by Lopez (Avenue Q) and fellow composer Anderson Lopez (Storyville, Along the Way), Finding Nemo — The Musical takes guests of Walt Disney World underwater to follow "the story of Marlin and Nemo, an overprotective clownfish father and his curious son," in a production that "combines puppets, dancers, acrobats and animated backdrops," according to a previous release.
The 19 songs featured in the musical have been released by Walt Disney Records/Pixar (Jan. 23) in the iTunes store and can be found in the soundtrack section. (At press time, the album was already No. 25 on the soundtrack Top Albums chart.)
The track listing is as follows:
1. Prologue (Finding Nemo: The Musical)
2. In the Big Blue World
3. The Drop Off
4. Dory's Ditty
5. Sharks
6. Fish Are Friends Not Food
7. Where's My Dad?
8. The Tank Gang
9. We Swim Together
10. Dory and Marlin
11. Just Keep Swimming
12. Not My Dad (Reprise)
13. Go With the Flow
14. Gossip
15. That's My Dad (Reprise)
16. Darla!
17. Sewage Treatment Plant
18. We Swim Together (Reprise)
19. Finale - The Big Blue World (Reprise) Michael Curry, who designed puppets seen in the Broadway version of Disney's The Lion King, is part of the creative team for Nemo. Major characters (such as Marlin, Nemo and Dory) are realized on stage by "live performers operating larger-than-life puppets" while other characters come to life through "a diverse array of puppetry styles, including rod, bunraku and shadow."
Finding Nemo — The Musical is the first major musical produced for the Walt Disney World Resort by Disney Creative Entertainment — the creators behind Disney's Aladdin (at Disneyland Resort in California), The Lion King (at Hong Kong Disneyland), Twice Charmed (on the Disney Cruise Line) and The Golden Mickeys (at Hong Kong Disneyland and on the Disney Cruise Line).
Finding Nemo — The Musical is performed at Theater in the Wild. Admission to the show is included with entry to Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. Guest information is available by calling (407) 824-4321 or online at disneyworld.com.
