Latest in Tom Schumacher

UPDATE Tuesday afternoon: Adds further comment from Disney’s Tom Schumacher, below. EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s blockbuster The Lion King passed Cats last week to become the third-longest-running show in Broadway history. But Disney’s claim that a new ad for the show represented a first in 360-degree promotion had Cats master…

UPDATE, 12:30 PM with Sydney info: The last of Alan Menken’s Disney collaborations with the late Howard Ashman (and with additional work from Tim Rice), the Genie tuner Aladdin has been a sell-out at Mickey’s Broadway showcase, the New Amsterdam Theatre, since previews began in February 2014. As it closes in on 700…

Disney Theatrical Productions’ Thomas Schumacher says the second stand-alone export of Aladdin will open in fall 2015 at the Stage Theatre Neue Flora in Hamburg, Germany. That will follow the May opening of the Casey Nicholaw production at the Dentsu Shiki Theatre Umi in Tokyo. The Alan Menken-Howard Ashman-Tim…

Disney, which has been quick to drop the axe on its Broadway flops, including Tarzan and The Little Mermaid, announced today that its accidental hit, Newsies, will close on August 24 at the Nederlander Theatre, while still earning respectable money at the box office after a run of more than two years and grosses of…

I spoke separately with Tom Schumacher, head of Disney Theatricals, and composer Alan Menken about Tony best-musical nominee Aladdin, which has taken over the company's Times Square flagship, the New Amsterdam Theatre. Back in the day, the New Amsterdam was home to the Ziegfeld Follies, and there's more than a dash of…