Behind the Green Room
Page 3 of 4

(c) Disney
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The movie screenplay by Tab Murphy (Atlantis – The Lost Empire & Brother Bear), Bob Tzudiker and Noni White (both wrote Hunchback of Notre Dame & The Lion King) was the initial jumping-off point for David. In fact the first draft of the libretto remained remarkably true to the screenplay’s story and themes. “I wasn’t sure what leeway I had to expand or alter the animated feature script,�? David admits. “However Bob and Tom encouraged me to use my own vision and explore the themes to the depth that I wanted to. I hoped to evade the cartoony aspects of the screenplay for something more real and stage worthy. There was an inherent need to touch certain specific plot points of the same story but reconstruct it to make sense on stage and be sustained and satisfying for two hours. A movie can cut from one location to another which is a liberty we are not afforded in musical theater.�?

To assist with the aerial work Tom called on the famed co-founder of the Argentinean De La Guarda Pichon Baldinu. “Tom approached me to see if there was any relationship between what I used to do with De La Guarda and what they wanted to achieve with Tarzan,�? Pichon said. “We talked about the movement and spirit in the air that was the cornerstone of our company. It wasn’t a technical thing that they were looking for. I kept thinking why Disney would want me to do this as there are better technicians than me out there. However Tom stressed that they wanted artistic input to create a language of movement up in the air.�?

“Disney gave me room and space to create from the very beginning. I didn’t want circus or orthodox choreography. The apes needed to be raw so the choreography shouldn’t be clean,�? Pichon surmised. “I was fascinated to be given so much space to work with and I knew that we needed to start building something. Tom suggested that we try a workshop in Argentina which was also my proposal as it is my home country and I know the people down there. It gave us more resources than we could have ever got in New York.�?

New York also didn’t offer the space that the Tarzan creative team needed to be able to experiment. However Buenos Aires offered up a whole set of difference challenges. Pichon began to investigate potential staging sites in his hometown but couldn’t find the space that met his requirements. Fortuitously the owner of a rock club in the city called Pichon with a proposal. The individual had been responsible for providing De La Guarda with their start and he had found an old theater in the rundown LA Boca neighborhood. The Art Deco structure appeared stuck in time but had been converted into a parking garage. There was even a ramp up through the lobby and the seats had been removed to accommodate the vehicles! Another complication was that families were actually residing within the aging structure. Although there was no longer a stage Pichon knew he had found his workshop location due to the space itself. The roof could be moved by pulling it aside revealing the sky above revealing an 18-meter high height with which to carry out the aerial experiment. At the same time Pichon was contracted to shoot a commercial for television and he was running out of time. He needed a tall wall to shoot aerialists running down it and the theater provided the solution. Pichon knew it was fate when the wall was painted a luminescent green for the chroma and the color scheme remained for the workshop (and is actually a close match to the green used in the show itself).

“I saw the workshop as a big step to build up confidence,�? Pichon said. “We presented five or six key scenes from the book in a simple and basic way to show an essence of what the aerial work could be. I never work in traditional theater as we usually stage our shows in warehouses. I tend to break the rules of conventional theater and never go behind the proscenium! I like the physical presence of the performers in the same space as the audience. Be able to actually touch them. The theater in Buenos Aires proved that we could mount Tarzan in a traditional theater but stage events beyond the proscenium at times.�?

As the creative team were packing up in Argentina Tom dropped a bombshell. “On the last day Tom said we must open in a year!�? Pichon recalled. “I said “No way!�? I needed time to develop the aerial moves and we had so many different disciplines in this one show. After Buenos Aires we found out how things could happen in the air. The Purchase workshop was helpful as we had an elastic roof that allowed us to try different points on the roof. On the ground it is easier to explain how things should be placed but it is difficult in the air. So we created a matrix so we would know exactly where the movement would be.�?

The musical unfolds in a unique way. There is no overture. Not a single note. “I thought it would be quite controversial but no-one seems to have noticed it,�? Bob admits. “We did originally have a score over the shipwreck scene and in fact we rehearsed the sequence with a score based on an edited version of the movie soundtrack that Phil had put together. I suddenly thought that I didn’t want to start the play with music and just have the noise of the storm. We designed the opening to almost be a pre-show. As the audience is settling in they have all this information on the scrim as to the fact that we are at sea, off the coast of Africa, read the passenger list and know the date. All before the show begins.�?

Our first glimpse of Tarzan is as a baby when Kala rescues him after Sabor’s murderous assault on the tree house. As Kala pulls the infant from the trunk by his leg Tarzan’s entire body shakes. Baby Tarzan was a Special Creature. “One of the things that drive me crazy about other shows is that they use a doll to represent babies,�? Ivo said. “Now our infant also needed to pee on demand. I sculpted the child out of silicon from a clay mould. A funny consequence of the baby being constructed of silicon is that he wobbles when Kala picks him up by his leg. It always gets an “Ahhhh�? from the audience as they identify with the kid. Bob wanted the baby to pee over Kala when she lofts him above her head so I had to put a bladder inside the prop. We literally have to put a syringe up the penis to fill the bladder every night!�?

A key early scene shows Young Tarzan trying to keep up with his adopted family. He is self-consciously aware that he is different to his mother but cannot articulate it. Alone with Terk in the jungle Young Tarzan tries to reach the low-hanging fruit with a self-fashioned spear. The adolescent discovers a form of locomotion that is critical to his survival in the jungle at that point. “We had considered rock climbing in our early discussions,�? Bob explains. “Tarzan doesn’t fly like Peter Pan. He pendulates using the vines as a mode of transport. There was no point trying to hide the wires and harnesses as we couldn’t disguise them sufficiently. Little Tarzan invents this process for himself as he is so bright. I watched climbers at Lincoln Center and thought that apes actually climb, jump and swing. Tarzan could be the same.�? However seeing Tarzan with the hand-made spear convinces Kerchak that the youth possesses a threat to the troop.