Disney, Warner battle for Broadway bucks

NEW YORK, June 2 (UPI) -- A tug-of-war for Broadway dollars is shaping up between Disney and Warner Brothers Entertainment that may write a new chapter in the 125-year history of the Great White Way.

The Disney organization has proved there are more ways for it to profit than by making films, owning its own cable television channel and operating amusement parks and studio stores. For more than a decade it has been presenting musical versions of some of its best-known animated films on Broadway, some of them at its own theater, the New Amsterdam, on 42nd Street.

Now Warner, Disney's chief competitor in the animated film field, wants to get in on the action. A subsidiary, Warner Theater Ventures, has commissioned Elton John - Sir Elton, that is - to write a musical based on three of Anne Rice's best-selling novels about a vampire named Lestat. Warner is planning to open the show at a Broadway theater in the fall of 2005.

John is no newcomer to the Broadway scene, having composed the music for two Disney-produced hits, "Aida," based on a Camille du Locle story that was made into an opera by Giuseppe Verdi, and "The Lion King," a musical adaptation of a Disney animation. Both are enjoying long runs on Broadway along with another Disney show, "Beauty and the Beast."

At a press conference announcing Warner's plans, Theater Ventures' executive vice president Gregg Maday said that he felt his company's choice of material was stronger in dramatic possibilities than the shows presented so far by Disney. In addition to the Lestat musical, he said, Warner is considering a musical version of "Batman" based on Bob Kane's comic book creation.

"It's impossible not to be aware of what Disney has done and not take your hat off to them," he said. "But I think we'll be different in the material we choose. In adapting the 'Lestat' novels we have no intention of moving toward the satirical. There's no garlic, no crosses, no coffins."

He said John and his longtime collaborator, lyricist Bernie Taupin, already were at work on "Lestat" and have delivered a CD with songs titled "The Thirst" and "The Swoon" and three others. He added that enough of the show would be completed by the end of the year for a first reading. Maday said no casting decisions have been made yet.

"Lestat" will have Linda Woolverton, who wrote the book for "Beauty and the Beast," as its librettist; Robert Jesse Ross, who directed "Beauty and the Beast" as its director; and Emanuel Azenberg, a Broadway veteran with 60 shows to his credit, as the producer. Azenberg is currently represented on Broadway by the Billy Joel-Tywla Tharp musical hit "Movin' Out."

There is some risk involved in Warner's decision to go with vampires. The last vampire show on Broadway, "Dance of the Vampires" starring Michael Crawford of "Phantom of the Opera" fame, closed after two months earlier this season, a $12 million turkey that died of high camp.

A vampire's last successful appearance on Broadway was in a 1977 play, "Dracula," starring Frank Langella and featuring sets and costumes by Edward Gorey.

Waiting in the wings is another vampire musical, "Dracula," composed by Frank Wildhorn who found success on Broadway with "Jekyll and Hyde." It premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in California in 2001 and was reported headed for Broadway, but announcement of John's "Lestat" probably will dampen any such plan.