The undersea musical is bigger ( and bluer ) than ever .
Story by Matt Kirouac Photos by Laurie Sapp
From Festival of the Lion King to Fantasmic !, larger-than-life stage shows are as requisite at Walt Disney World as Mickey-shaped Waffles and the mouse himself . But few productions can scratch the surface — and the oceanic depth — of the undersea adventure crafted for Disney ’ s first Finding Nemo musical at Disney ’ s Animal Kingdom .
Opening with a splash in January 2007 , the same day The Seas with Nemo & Friends premiered at EPCOT , Finding Nemo — The Musical marked the first time that a non-musical Disney animated film was adapted into a full-blown musical stage production , complete with original songs , choreography , costumes , and elaborate puppetry , all in a theater designed to transport guests into the deep blue sea . From its earliest iteration , to its recent reimagining as Finding Nemo : The Big Blue … and Beyond !, the musical journey is , aptly , as grand as Nemo ’ s seafaring voyage .
BEFORE THE BIG BLUE When Animal Kingdom opened , the Theater in the Wild was an open-air venue that first featured the Journey Into the Jungle Book , and a unique blend of puppetry , choreography , immersive set design , and camouflaged costuming that was — at the time — quite novel for Disney Parks . After its closure in
1999 , it set the stage , literally , for productions to follow , including the thrilling acrobatics of Tarzan Rocks !, from 1999 to 2006 , and eventually , Finding Nemo — The Musical , which held its grand opening in 2007 following renovations to the theater that saw it now fully enclosed , so as to best immerse guests into the seas ahead .
Unlike its predecessors , Finding Nemo didn ’ t have an iconic soundtrack to pull from to bring the musical to life . It marked a firstof-its-kind challenge for Imagineers , tasked with bringing a Pacific-sized story to the stage , with the help of all-new musical medleys . The composers for the job ? Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez , the married , Tony Award-winning duo who worked on the likes of Coco and Frozen , joined by director Peter Brosius and puppet designer Michael Curry , fresh off his