Dutch Tarzan

Last night David and I traveled to Hague after auditions to see the Dutch version of Tarzan. The show is a Stage Entertainment production (same as us), so our casting director was able to organize the whole evening for us. We were very well taken care of: A car drove us from Amsterdam to Hague, an hour's car ride. Once at the theater, we were met by someone from the production staff, who gave us food at the cafeteria (not great, but we were happy to get some hot food) and then escorted us to our seats. We had great house seats, and after the performance, we were escorted out again through back stage, given the show CD and photo programme, taken to our car, and were driven back to Amsterdam.

Not bad.

We had been interested in seeing the Dutch production of Tarzan, because we'd heard that the choreography had been changed from the original Broadway version. This decision was an unfortunate one, as we felt that the Dutch production lacked the magical, wonderful gorilla movements and choreography that made the show special for us. While some scene transitions were cleaner and the theater space was used well for the production, all in all, this version of Tarzan made us want to go back to New York and see the original one again. Because of the less than wild reviews that the show received when it opened on Broadway, Stage Entertainment and Disney decided to bring in a different choreographer to try to make it more widely appealing. I think this was a mistake. The show now seems more like Lion King -- big, beautiful and spectacular, but not as innovative. (We find Lion King sort of dated now...)

The actor who plays Tarzan is wonderful, however, as was Jane. We did not like the father gorilla at all -- the actor had very sloppy gorilla movements. Some of the dancers were nice, but not nearly as fierce as those in the New York production. Despite not understanding Dutch, I think that this production was not as fabulous as the one we saw in New York.

But! It was great to get out of Amsterdam and take in a different show, in Dutch, for a change. We also got to see several tulip fields along the car ride, so it was a terrific evening.

TM