Ok for all of you ppl who were happy that TARZAN closed......---- you, I was very personal with the cast, so they told me some reasons why it closeds, Mary Poppins and Little mermaid were overbugeting, there were some other ones but i forgot what they were. Ok how could you not like TARZAN??? it was amazing. You guys must not know what broadway is since you thought TARZAN was horrible, for the time that it was on Broadway all the ppl that i knew that saw it LOVED it.

You have got to be kidding me.
"F*** you to all of the people who didn't like Tarzan??" Are you out of your mind?? I'm not even talking about the quality of the show here. I'm talking about the language you are using towards other users because they don't share your opinion. That is an extremely rediculous thing to say, and an apology is definitely in order. GROW UP.

I don't usually bring threads back from the dead, but somehow this morning, I felt compelled to read this thread, and I got a good laugh.

And if broadway_girl_for_life or Jade ever comes back to see this:

Jade, talking to Josh Strickland and knowing people who are close to him doesn't make you special. I've met and talked to bigger stars and their friends.

Knowing Disney, I'm pretty sure Mary Poppins and Little Mermaid weren't overbudgeting because a) it's Disney b) most of Mary Poppins probably came out of CamMack's endless pockets. If Disney or the cast ever said that, it's probably just a cover for horrible ticket sales. Just like Mandy Bruno of Les Mis said that playing the role of Eponine stressed out her voice and tired her when in reality, she got fired cuz she sucked. And why would you cuss someone out for not liking the show? Do you think that makes you cool and mature and classy? I can't tell you what I think that makes you b/c that'll get me banned. kthxbii


I want to add that I never knew why Tarzan was made into a stage show. I found the movie deathly boring, and I'm not surprised that it did not get nominated for any Tonys.

I still love the cast recording, pitty it didn't look too good on stage.

I saw a clip on youtube of the opening and I thought it was DREADFUL!

The show is not "crap", nor is it as brilliant as its most hardcore fans would argue. To label the show a complete failure reveals a fairly superficial engagement with the work, as some elements of the show are successful, even if some elements aren't. While the design and staging certainly failed the show, the score certainly is serviceable. Although the lyrics could use some work, not only for the more obvious problems but also many little changes that would add a meticulousness to the lyrics that they lack in their present state, the score does what it needs to dramatically within the conventions established by the show for telling the story musically. So while it may not be a so-called "great" score, it is not a terrible one either - it's not even the worst score for a Disney Theatricals presentation - and other musical with scores of a similar quality have gone on to great success thanks to a staging that helped the show transcend its text. Tarzan had no such help from its director-designer - and, indeed, therein lies the answer to why the show didn't work out as well as it could have.

Bob Crowley, who is ironically first and foremost a designer, should never have been hired to helm Tarzan. In the past, he has been responsible for some wonderful design work, but Tarzan falls far short of even his next worst design. Perhaps, because he was directing the show and because of his directorial inexperience, there was no outside eye to guide his vision as a designer, which it seems is something he needs. This challenge was one that was insurmountable for Tarzan and was compounded even further because he was unable, surely due to his own uncertainty in the role, to push Phil Collins and David Henry Hwang towards a better final product when it came to the score and book of the show respectively. This left Tarzan, in its original Broadway production, as an average show let down even further by poor design and staging.

Finally, regarding your comment about Disney in general, I'm certain they are capable of producing better work on Broadway. However, to do this they need to weigh up very carefully who they hire to bring these shows to life. Furthermore, it's not as if any of their other shows is perfect. Hiring the wrong directors and designers certainly didn't help either Tarzan or The Little Mermaid; The Lion King and The Little Mermaid both have less than satisfying books; Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast both have fat in the score and the latter has some dismal additions when it comes to the lyrics. So what makes, say Beauty and the Beast or The Lion King such a big hit? The staging of each elevates the material beyond its limitations - but limitation, as noted above, are very much present in all of them.


Oh, nonsense. There's nothing wrong with the cast recording except that it might lead someone to believe that the show on Broadway was better than it was. Certainly, it reveals that the production had more potential that its original production realised.



I've yet to see any kind of confirmation that the spider scene was actually cut. For every person who says it was cut, there seems to be a person who says it wasn't, and none of the people who say it was cut seem to offer any explanation when asked how the sequence was replaced and the show reworked as a result of the alleged cut. These latter points offers credence to the claim that it was indeed not cut.



You two are honestly the only people I've encountered who who didn't like the opening. Even the most hardcore haters of the show's Broadway design seem to have praise for the opening sequence and say that they staging only went downhill from that point onwards. However, I suppose it's easier to get your kicks out of randomly bitching about the show than it is to look at it in a way that has even any vague sense of proportion and out of being blatantly provocative without any solid reasoning to back up your opinions.



I can't believe you're genuinely surprised that you eventually got a reaction like this considering the deliberately inciting tone that runs through almost all of your posts in the threads on the Tarzan board. Having read every single post on this section of the website, it almost seems as if this is precisely what you were trying to achieve: to annoy the hardcore fans and provoke them into reacting towards you in this manner at some point. So maybe if you are going to trash a show, you should spend a little more time (a) checking your facts; (b) justifying your opinions; and (c) looking at a show with a more balanced and holistic perspective. Believe it or not, your posts on Tarzan aren't much more articulate than those written Jade or Broadway_Girl, even if you do use full words and don't curse.

Also, Broadway_Girl's post was not aimed at all people who didn't like Tarzan. It is clearly directed at those who rejoiced uninhibitedly at the closing announcement for the show on the first page of this thread. While I don't agree with the way that she expressed herself, it is a bit tacky to be so completely joyous when a show closes even if you're not a big fan of it.


Tarzan is perhaps not Disney's greatest animated feature, but it's not awful either. As mid-range Disney, it's still better than most Western animation. Although it still has some flaws, the film actually has a great deal counting in its favour: it's a pity you could not engage with its fine storytelling, generally strong characterisation, good voice work and groundbreaking animation, which certainly offered some amazing sequences even when it wasn't groundbreaking. Perhaps you should give it another chance.

Later days
David