MTI and Disney Theatrical Productions have made two long-term agreements to bring classic Disney titles to professional and amateur theatre companies around the world.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and AIDA

For the first time, performance rights to Disney’s blockbuster Tony® Award-winning musicals BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and Elton John & Tim Rice’s AIDA will be available for licensing.

MTI is now licensing Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST to professional theatres for productions during Summer, 2004. We will begin to license amateur productions for performances beginning in the 2004/2005 school year. Perusal copies of the script and score will be available early next year. There are certain geographical restrictions so be sure to obtain a license from MTI before announcing or planning your production!

If you would like to be kept informed about the availability of AIDA and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, please indicate your interest to us by becoming an MTI THEATRELAND CLUB member.

MTI selections from the Disney Collection

As recently announced, Disney and MTI will develop and license adaptations of classic titles from the Disney animated and live-action feature film library! The development of new titles strictly for regional professional and amateur theatres signals a remarkable collaboration between MTI and Disney.

Following the worldwide success of MTI’s Broadway Junior Collection®, part of the Disney/MTI collaboration will be to create thirty-minute stage versions of classic Disney films aimed to introduce elementary school children to the joys of putting on a musical show. By enabling students to perform roles with which they are likely to be familiar, Disney and MTI hope to encourage future generations of theatre artists and audiences. The first titles in development are Cinderella and The Jungle Book.

Sixty-minute stage versions of other titles will be adapted to be performed by Junior/Middle School-aged children, following the successful Broadway Junior Collection® formula. Currently being adapted to launch this series is Aladdin.

Plans are also laid to adapt full-length stage versions of Disney titles for performance in the High School and Community Theatre Markets. This second phase will most likely include titles such as Newsies and Mulan.

This “1-2-3 Development Approach” is extraordinary in its scope and is being heralded by MTI and Disney Theatricals as a groundbreaking step in theatrical rights licensing and theatre education.

“Our team is enthusiastically embracing this unique collaborative venture with Disney,” Freddie Gershon, Chairman, MTI, said. “Our companies share a common vision to bring all of the arts to a new generation through active participation in musical theatre, and more specifically, with this delightful ‘new’ collection of stage musicals from Disney.”

Thomas Schumacher, President, Disney Theatrical Productions, added “MTI’s reputation with both educators and local theatre companies provides an ideal match for Disney Theatricals’ mission to bring exceptional live theatre to a wider audience of families and new theatergoers.”

After an initial period of development in which the new shows will be performed by children at selected “test sites,” they will be made generally available for production at schools, camps, and children’s theatres. We anticipate a general release of the first titles in the new Disney collection for performance in 2005.

If you are interested in being considered as a “test site” for a show in development, please register to become an MTI THEATRELAND CLUB member and indicate your desire by checking the appropriate boxes.

For more information about this exciting new venture, please click here to read the official Press Release.