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Wednesday, April 01, 2026
Michael Arden and Douglas Lyons to Develop Happy Feet Stage Musical
Playbill: Put on your best penguin outfit because Happy Feet is headed to the stage. Warner Bros. has announced that its 2006 animated musical about a tap-dancing penguin will be adapted into a live jukebox musical, with the hopes of eventually coming to Broadway.
2 comments:
Payton
said...
Oh my opinions on jukebox musicals… oh my opinions on all of these movies made into musicals… they are unpopular in this community so I’m sorry. I wish there were more original works in our musical world than these movies turned into a stage play. I think this will get a lot of attention because the movie is already so popular, so sure there’s profit, but this show is only taking place for profit. I’m not a fan of this highly commercialized realm of production because it takes so much of what I love about theater and turns it into a money making machine instead of prioritising new, relevant storytelling. There are so many performances that deserve attention that are being produced on a smaller scale, with tighter communities, that mean something to those involved. I am a part of this industry for those kinds of production. For the shows that are spreading a message that is vital to the current state of the world, prioritising that over profit. I love happy feet as much as anyone else, I just think I’ve seen the movie already… I don’t need to see a musical about it…
While I love the movie “Happy Feet” and think that there is a chance it could create a fun live action musical, I am done with the remakes of movies into stage musicals. I think that it is honestly uncreative at this point, especially making them into jukebox musicals. I know that “Happy Feet” was already a jukebox musical, but my feelings about it still stand. That aside, I am curious about how they will pull this off. Will the actors be dressed as large penguins? Will they be puppets? Will they have a child actor play the younger version of Mumble and then do the typical changing of actors as he grows up? Or will they only have one adult actor play him and just do costume/puppet changes? I have a lot of questions about how they plan to create this musical. Even though I dislike musical remakes of movies, there are plenty of ways to make them fun.
2 comments:
Oh my opinions on jukebox musicals… oh my opinions on all of these movies made into musicals… they are unpopular in this community so I’m sorry. I wish there were more original works in our musical world than these movies turned into a stage play. I think this will get a lot of attention because the movie is already so popular, so sure there’s profit, but this show is only taking place for profit. I’m not a fan of this highly commercialized realm of production because it takes so much of what I love about theater and turns it into a money making machine instead of prioritising new, relevant storytelling. There are so many performances that deserve attention that are being produced on a smaller scale, with tighter communities, that mean something to those involved. I am a part of this industry for those kinds of production. For the shows that are spreading a message that is vital to the current state of the world, prioritising that over profit. I love happy feet as much as anyone else, I just think I’ve seen the movie already… I don’t need to see a musical about it…
While I love the movie “Happy Feet” and think that there is a chance it could create a fun live action musical, I am done with the remakes of movies into stage musicals. I think that it is honestly uncreative at this point, especially making them into jukebox musicals. I know that “Happy Feet” was already a jukebox musical, but my feelings about it still stand. That aside, I am curious about how they will pull this off. Will the actors be dressed as large penguins? Will they be puppets? Will they have a child actor play the younger version of Mumble and then do the typical changing of actors as he grows up? Or will they only have one adult actor play him and just do costume/puppet changes? I have a lot of questions about how they plan to create this musical. Even though I dislike musical remakes of movies, there are plenty of ways to make them fun.
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