The acclaimed, record-breaking run of Jonathan Rockefeller’s Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation recently celebrated its 100th performance and will be celebrating National Winnie the Pooh Day on January 18, 2022, with a performance on ABC.
Inspired by the beloved books by A. A. Milne and the classic Disney featurettes, Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation was welcomed in New York beginning in October 2021 with rave reviews.
“Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation is magical, sweet as honey, and full of humor. It’s a wholesome, delightful, enchanting piece of theatre.” BroadwayWorld
In its many reviews it was called “A perfect reintroduction to live theater. It’s a captivating adventure with spectacular puppetry,” (Mommy Poppins); “Charming and whimsical stage show that Pooh surpasses every expectation I had for it,” (The Laughing Place); “Winnie the Pooh is delightfully first-rate,” (Theatre Pizzazz); “Irresistible. ‘Winnie the Pooh’ is sweeter than honey,” (DC Metro Arts); “An hour of bountiful joy,” (New York Theatre Guide); “Mesmerizing life-size puppets and original Sherman Brothers tunes, the beautiful new Winnie the Pooh musical is must-see,” (Theatrely); and “The wonderful thing about musicals is that musicals are wonderful things. The New ‘Winnie the Pooh’ Musical Is Sweeter than Honey” (Toy Insider.)
In addition to its overwhelmingly positive reviews for this magical production, it was also celebrated for its advanced safety measures, including being the first production to partner with a mobile testing facility to provide free rapid testing to those not able to be vaccinated, making it simple for families to return to the live theatre with confidence and ease.
In a new story from the Hundred Acre Wood, this fresh stage adaptation is told with impressive life-size puppetry, telling exciting new stories featuring characters that have played iconic roles in the lives of children for generations. Accompanying the magical, modern narrative is an original score from Nate Edmondson, which features some of the songs written for the animated feature from The Sherman Brothers’, including Winnie the Pooh, The Blustery Day, The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and Whoop-De-Dooper Bounce, and A.A. Milne‘s The More It Snows (featuring music by Carly Simon) and Sing Ho, a new arrangement.
The New York cast and creative team include Jake Bazel (TV: “Sesame Street,” Off-Broadway: Paddington Gets in a Jam ) as Pooh, Chris Palmieri (TV: Emmy nominated “Snug’s House”) as Tigger, Kirsty Moon (Rockefeller Productions’ The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, Paddington Gets in a Jam) and Kristina Dizon (National Tour: Sesame Street) alternating the roles of Piglet/Roo and Kanga, Emmanuel Elpenord (Rockefeller Productions’ The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show) as Eeyore, Rabbit & Owl, Kaydn Kuioka, Max Lamberg, and Cooper Lantz share the role of Christopher Robin and Sebastiano Ricci is the understudy. The creative team includes Jamie Roderick (Lighting Design), Lindsay McWilliams (Costume Designer), Nate Edmondson (Original Music and Orchestrations), Matthew Lish (Lead Puppet Builder), David Goldstein (Set Designer), and Hannah Delmore (Production Stage Manager).
Winnie the Pooh broke theatre box office records during its New York premiere for largest advance and is developed and presented by renowned family entertainment creator Jonathan Rockefeller (whose spectacular puppetry is omnipresent in the acclaimed productions of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, Paddington Gets in a Jam and the recently released streaming film, Paddington Saves Christmas).
A leader in family entertainment, Rockefeller Productions values the safety of its patrons and its staff and will enforce current CDC and industry safety standards, all patrons will be required to wear a mask inside the theatre, and every person 12 + will be required to show proof of vaccine before entering the theatre. Those under 12 years old will be required to show evidence of a negative PCR COVID test within three days of the Performance or a negative COVID rapid antigen test from a doctor or testing site within 6 hours of Performance.
You can view the special live preview on ABC’s ’s GMA3 which begins at 1PM Eastern on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 (12 PM Central and Pacific).
Winnie the Pooh will continue its run in New York City through January 30 before bringing The Hundred Acre Wood to Chicago’s Mercury Theater on March 15, 2022. For tickets and more information, visit winniethepoohshow.com.
New York:
Through Sunday, January 30, 2022
Hundred Acre Theatre at Theatre Row is located at 410 West 42nd Street, New York
Chicago:
March 15 – June 12, 2022
Mercury Theater Chicago is located at 3745 N. Southport Ave., Chicago
For tickets and information, visit www.WinnieThePoohShow.com
ABOUT THE SHOW
Winnie the Pooh has been enjoyed by millions of readers and viewers ever since English author A.A. Milne first chronicled the adventures of Christopher Robin’s friends in the Hundred Acre Wood in 1926. The books, featuring illustrations by English illustrator E.H. Shephard, have sold over 50 million copies worldwide. The theatrical rights to the Pooh stories were acquired by Disney in 1961, with an original intent to produce a feature film, but after production began, Walt Disney decided to make short featurettes instead. The three featurettes were subsequently incorporated into the feature The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This was the last film in the Disney canon in which Walt Disney had personal involvement. The first featurette, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree was released during his lifetime, while Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day was still in development. Disney’s Winnie the Pooh has since become one of the best-loved and most successful franchises in history.
The Sherman Brothers are the multi-talented Oscar® and Grammy® Award-winning American songwriting duo of Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The Sherman Brothers wrote more motion-picture musical scores than any other songwriting team in film history. Among these are the Disney classics Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and The Aristocats. The Sherman Brothers worked directly with Walt Disney on the first two Winnie the Pooh featurettes: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (which garnered a Grammy Award nomination) and Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. The brothers won a Grammy Award for the third featurette: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. All three featurettes were incorporated into the 1977 musical film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The duo also wrote songs for Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore and The Tigger Movie, with their music also featured in the movie Christopher Robin.
Jonathan Rockefeller and Rockefeller Productions embraced the challenge of re-imaging Disney’s Winnie the Pooh for a new audience by bringing it to life on stage in puppet form. The company has garnered global accolades, from critics and audiences alike, for their production of The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, with 14 productions playing on four continents. An extended run of the show in New York City culminated in Drama Desk and Off-Broadway Alliance nominations, as did Paddington Gets in a Jam, which tours China and the US in 2022. Other projects include the award-winning short film, 10 Little Rubber Ducks, written by preeminent author/illustrator Eric Carle and the recently released Christmas special Paddington Saves Christmas.
Produced in association with Disney Theatrical Productions
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