DVDizzy Forum

It's not easy being green, but Disney may be seeing green if the studio brings the beloved characters from 1984's THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN to the Great White Way.

The New York Post's Michael Riedel reports that the Walt Disney Company, which has had the rights to the Muppets since 2004, is "exploring the possibility" of a Muppet musical coming to one of Jujamcyn's five theaters. With the recent successes of kid-friendly musicals "Cinderella," "Aladdin", "The Lion King" and "Mary Poppins," it seems to be only a matter of time before the iconic Henson creations have a show of their own. While the project make take a while to come to fruition, as one source says, "Who doesn't love Muppets?"

It remains unclear how Disney would go about adapting a movie starring an ecclectic group of puppets to the stage. Will they emulate the success of Julie Taymor's "Lion King," in which the actors who man the life-size puppets remain somewhat camouflaged in the background, or perhaps use the "Avenue Q" model, in which both puppets and their 'handlers' are clearly visible to the audience.

blackcauldron85 wrote:I wonder, would it be purely based on The Muppets Take Manhattan (I know that Disney owns The Muppets, but did they ever release that film on DVD/Blu-ray, or has only Jim Henson Entertainment?), or would they have elements of different films/tv shows/new stuff...? This idea totally excites me, though, but I'd worry about the voices, too.

blackcauldron85 wrote:^ Thank you! So, could Disney even develop a Broadway show based on The Muppets Take Manhattan?

blackcauldron85 wrote:^ Thank you! So, could Disney even develop a Broadway show based on The Muppets Take Manhattan?

UmbrellaFish wrote:If they consistently get great soundalikes for the roles, I think this could be a huge smash. It would be the only Broadway show that could forever with the same bonafide marquee stars, Kermit, Miss Piggy, etc. as the day it opened.

Avaitor wrote:It would make sense to adapt Muppets Take Manhattan, since that's about bringing the characters to a Broadway show. Meta!

Although, I think it would be just as fun to see something like what they were doing in Muppets Most Wanted, and make an actual stage-length production of The Muppet Show, with a rotating guest star that they retheme to their talents as they come and go. Imagine, Idina Menzel could do it a couple of nights, while Josh Groban will come in later. Them perhaps Hugh Jackman or Scarlett Johansson or who knows!

Is 'The Muppets Christmas Carol' finally coming to Broadway? According to sources, thanks in large part to the interest in off-Broadway ‘Sesame Street: The Musical’, discussions surrounding the possibility of bringing the Muppets holiday classic to the stage have intensified.

According to my sources, discussion about this seems to happen every year but talks between decision-makers have intensified to the level that we may see this happen within the next couple of years. And we have Sesame Street to thank for it. ‘Sesame Street: The Musical’, which is currently running off-Broadway for a limited engagement in Theatre Row, has sparked discussion and solved some questions about how to bring a Muppet show to a live stage. While we’ve had shows in the past such as ‘Avenue Q’, the puppeteers were in full view of the audience which is not how Sesame Workshop or The Jim Henson Company operate.

So the question remained, how could you stage something like ‘The Muppets Christmas Carol’ in a Broadway theatre? While I’m told ‘Sesame Street: The Musical’ doesn’t provide all the answers, it does offer some possibilities. I’m also told that the big reason for the intensified discussion is due to the lack of family-friendly holiday engagements on and around Broadway during the holiday season.