Phil Collins has 'Tarzan' singing

By P ETER D. KRAMER
THE JOURNAL NEWS

What: "Tarzan the Broadway Musical"

Where: Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46th St., Manhattan.

When: Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m.; Sundays at 3 p.m.

Tickets: $51.25 to $111.25

Call: 212-307-4747

Web site: disney.go.com/ disneytheatrical/ tarzan/
(Original publication: May 7, 2006)

In "Tarzan, the Broadway Musical," opening Wednesday, the title character searches for a place to belong — either in the world of apes or the world of humans.

In Lionel Bart's musical "Oliver!," the title character faces a similar choice — either a life with Fagin and Sykes or in the rarefied world of Mr. Brownlow.

For Phil Collins, the comparison resonates.

The seven-time Grammy winner started his career at 14 in the original production of "Oliver!" in London. Now, Disney's "Tarzan," Collins — longtime drummer and lead singer of the band Genesis and an Oscar-winning songwriter — adds Broadway composer to his credits.

He considers himself at home.

"Whenever you do anything out of your world, in a new world, you can be made to feel uncomfortable or you can be made to feel welcome," Collins says. "And these guys have been fantastic."

The night before, he had taken "the band" out to dinner after the show — hoping to instill some of his rock 'n' roll work ethic in the 14-member orchestra.

"What we've done here is formed a band. The usual thing (on Broadway) is that people come in and they'll say 'Well, I'm doing something else tonight and they'll send in a sub.'

"I'm trying to tell them that it's their presence, they way we've rehearsed it, the way we've got to that makes it what it is. It's not just a job, it's a labor of love," he says.

Collins has labored for years to turn the 1999 animated feature film into a full-blown Broadway spectacular. The film had five Collins songs; the musical has 14.

"Tarzan" has kept him in New York for months at a time — away from his home in Switzerland — at every audition, at most rehearsals, writing, rewriting and taking suggestions.

"I'm usually first in, last out with anything I do, but these things — this show, the movie of 'Tarzan,' the movie of 'Brother Bear' — is a long-term commitment, and to drop the ball at the last minute and not being there when actually so much happens just seems to be the wrong way to do it."

That first-in-last-out approach was learned early, before rock 'n' roll, when theater was his first love.

Phil Collins started in show business on the legit stage, playing the Artful Dodger in the original production of "Oliver!" in London and, years later, returning to play Noah Claypoole, an older boy in the production.

(Theater fans note: His stand-by as Claypoole was a young assistant stage manager named Cameron Mackintosh, who would become a Broadway lion, producing "Les Miserables," "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera," among others.)

That brush with theater, which really ended before he was 20 and rock took over his life, whet his appetite for all kinds of music.

"That early experience kept me open and interested in listening to the scores of 'My Fair Lady,' the scores of 'West Side Story,' the scores of movie soundtracks, as well — 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' — and all kinds of things beyond pop music.

"It's always been running parallel, but I never dreamt that this would be given me."

Collins has always had a connection to Disney, beyond taking his kids to the movies.

"My sister was an ice-skater and she skated with Disney on Ice — 'Aladdin,' 'Snow White,' 'Sleeping Beauty,' 'Cinderella' — in London and on tour and we used to go see it at Christmas and we'd go on tour to see her when I was a kid so the songs are in my head.

"And my brother's a cartoonist, so the animators were his heroes. So really, Disney's been in my house all my life. To be asked to do the movie was like being asked to join a club you never thought you'd be a member of."

"Because of its size in my history, I was nervous about taking it on, because you know the musical heritage."

Knowing that heritage made him eager to learn.

"When I started acting I learned all the lines ahead of time. People said, 'What a waste of time, there'll be changes.'

"I guess if I did another dozen movies, that'd be my attitude," he says, "but at the moment I just feel like the process is something that I'm learning from so I immerse myself in it."

Part of the process of becoming a Broadway composer was meeting "Tarzan" director Bob Crowley, a longtime theatrical set designer.

Collins flew to London to meet him and they talked a bit of shop over lunch, about Crowley's concept, about Collins' work. Eventually, he and Crowley got to talking about how they got started in the business.

"I told him I was in 'Oliver!' and he said, 'My God! When I saw Sean Kenny's set design for 'Oliver!,' that's what made me want to be a set designer.' In a way, we bonded from that point on," he says.

Crowley's concept puts the focus on Tarzan finding himself. Set in a green box strung with vines, the actors take on the look of rock-climbers or bungee-jumpers, leaping from vine-covered nooks, sometimes flying over the audience and finding the nook again.

True to the Disney model perfected in Julie Taymor's "The Lion King," there are dazzling effects — the shipwreck that starts the show and the family's arrival in Africa is jaw-droppingly beautiful and effective.

A Broadway musical requires more music than a film — and not just catchy songs. Collins has also written the underscoring, the music that moves the action from scene to scene.

The drum-heavy "Jungle Funk" instrumental, where young Tarzan is watching and learning the apes, sounds a lot like "something you'd find on a Phil Collins record," the composer says.

He says the process of taking "Tarzan" to the stage was a matter of working within the film's sonic outline while filling in the gaps between the established songs. It meant expanding themes and finding more music, either at the piano at home in Switzerland or, interestingly, on the cutting-room floor.

"For the film and animation full-stop, everything has to shrink because of the attention span and also how long they can make it interesting to look at. With the show, everything went back in that was cut out and then expanded upon."

The impact on the audience is clear. When the familiar songs from the film begin — particularly the second-act curtain-riser "Trashin' the Camp" — the audience claps along.

It's gratifying, Collins says. "As soon as it starts, when they start clapping along, you've got Act Two, as opposed to it just sitting there. I sit here every night and I love it.

"The audience makes this thing come alive. You can rehearse and rehearse it and you know what is supposed to be funny. There are still a couple of things I laugh at every night that I'm the only one — nevertheless, I'm sure they'll catch up."

Now that he's a Broadway composer, Phil Collins wants to stay.

"I want to do this again. I've bought an apartment here so that I can be in this environment, so that I can capitalize on the friends I've met and find something more to do in the theater."