Theater Team of Zambello & Tsypin to Bring Mermaid to B'way

Disney Theatricals has chosen the director for its in-development stage musical of The Little Mermaid. Broadway neophyte Francesca Zambello will helm the production, which will feature scenic design by George Tsypin, according to a production spokesperson.

Zambello previously worked with Disney on Aladdin, which plays in the company's theme parks. She is well known in Europe for her work in both the opera and theater worlds. Her productions of Khovanshchina, Billy Budd and Paul Bunyan all won Olivier Awards for Best New Opera Production. Her production of 1997 production of Lady in the Dark at the National Theatre received the Evening Standard Award for Best Musical. Her other credits include mountings of War and Peace, Street Scene, Lady Macbeth of Mtzensk, La Bohème, Fiery Angel, Don Giovanni, Tibet Through the Red Box, The Little Prince, Napoleon, West Side Story, Cyrano, The Little Prince, Showboat and Porgy and Bess at the Kennedy Center.

Tsypin has worked with Zambello in the past, with their collaborations including Fiery Angel at the Bolshoi Theatre and West Side Story at the Bregenz Festival. He recently worked with another Disney director-he designed Julie Taymor's production of The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera. Tsypin designed the sets for the Broadway production of In the Summer House in 1993. Well known internationally, his work is also known for Americans from the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards at the Metropolitan Opera House for which he designed the set.

The Little Mermaid, based on a Hans Christian Anderson fairytale, centers on a mermaid, Ariel, who longs to meet a human prince. The popular 1989 Disney movie featured songs by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Howard Ashman. The stage version of the animated film has been in development for years. Innovative director/choreographer Matthew Bourne was originally supposed to be in charge, but left the project because of creative differences with Disney. In 2003 a reading of the piece, starring Kerry Butler as Ariel and Emily Skinner as the evil Ursula, occurred without a director in place for the full-scale production.

No timetable was given for when The Little Mermaid would be swimming onto a Broadway stage.