Disney Theatrical Productions was formed in 1994 and operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher. In November 1997, Disney opened The Lion King which received six 1998 Tony® Awards including Best Musical, and the 1998 GRAMMY® Award for Best Musical Show Album. The show opened at London’s Lyceum Theatre in October 1999 and in addition to the London and Broadway productions, The Lion King can currently be seen onstage in Hamburg, Tokyo, Paris, Fukuoka and on tour in the US, in addition to a Las Vegas production which opened in May 2009. The company’s inaugural production, Beauty and the Beast, played its final Broadway performance in July 2007 and is currently performing in São Paulo and Russia. Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida opened on Broadway in March 2000, received four 2000 Tony® Awards and the 2000 GRAMMY® Award for Best Musical Show Album, and ran for four-and-a-half years. In 2009, Aida will re-open in Tokyo. Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh, opened in December 2004 in London, completed its successful run in January 2008 and recently finished a UK tour. The Tony Award®-winning Broadway production opened in November 2006 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, where it continues to play, and the first US tour recently began in Chicago. Tarzan®, which opened on Broadway in the 2006-2007 season, is now an international hit with award-winning productions in Holland and Germany. In January 2008, The Little Mermaid opened on Broadway with a score composed by eight-time Academy Award® winner Alan Menken and the legendary Howard Ashman, with new lyrics by Glenn Slater. In addition to producing musicals, DTP licenses stage performance rights to more than a dozen Disney musicals to schools, community groups and professional theatres around the world through Music Theatre International.
