''Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond!'' is a

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film * ''Live'' (2023 film), a Malayalam-language film *'' Live: Phát Trực Tiếp'', a Vietnamese-langua ...

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in anci ...

and musical stage show based on

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

Pixar Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney ...

's 2003 film ''

Finding Nemo ''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Lee Unkrich, and produced by Graham Walters, from ...

'', located at the Theater in the Wild in DinoLand U.S.A at

Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park is a zoological theme park at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by the Walt Disney Company through its Experiences division, it is the largest theme park in the worl ...

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort is an destination resort, entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Wa ...

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The original 40-minute show titled ''Finding Nemo – The Musical'' started holding previews on November 5, 2006, officially opening on January 24, 2007. The music is composed by

Kristen Anderson-Lopez Kristen Anderson-Lopez (born March 21, 1972) is an American songwriter. She is known for co-writing the songs for the 2013 animated musical film '' Frozen'' and its 2019 sequel '' Frozen II'' with her husband Robert Lopez. The couple won the Aca ...

and

Robert Lopez Robert “Bobby” Lopez (born February 23, 1975) is an American songwriter for musicals and playwright, best known for co-creating '' The Book of Mormon'' and '' Avenue Q'', and for co-writing the songs featured in the Disney animated films '' ...

, who also composed the music for '' Frozen'', using direct lines from the film. On March 15, 2020, the original show had its final performance before the Walt Disney World Resort closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak's impact on Florida. A new reimagined and revamped version of the show entitled ''Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond!'' premiered on June 13, 2022, as part of Walt Disney World Resort's 50th Anniversary celebration.

History

The stage musicals ''Journey into the Jungle Book'' and ''Tarzan Rocks!'' occupied the Theater in the Wild at DinoLand USA in Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida from 1998 to 2006. These were themed to the

animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...

films ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...

'' and ''

Tarzan Tarzan (John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke) is a fictional character, a feral child raised in the African jungle by the Mangani great apes; he later experiences civilization, only to reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer. Creat ...

''. After the closure of ''Tarzan Rocks!'' in January 2006, rumors began spreading that it would be replaced by a musical adaptation of ''

''. This was confirmed on April 7, 2006, when Disney announced that the musical adaptation of ''Finding Nemo'', with new songs written by

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

-winning ''

Avenue Q '' Avenue Q'' is a musical comedy featuring puppets and human actors with music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx and a book by Jeff Whitty. It won Best Musical, Book, and Score at the 2004 Tony Awards. The show's format is a parody ...

'' composer

and his wife,

, would "combine puppets, dancers, acrobats and animated backdrops" and open in late 2006. Years later, Anderson-Lopez explained that she had written a compact 15-minute ''

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

'' version of the story of

Oedipus Oedipus (, ; "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. ...

; someone at Disney read it and recognized her talent for condensing material, and offered her the opportunity to make a pitch for the ''Finding Nemo'' project. Tony Award-winning director Peter Brosius signed on to direct the show, with Michael Curry, who designed puppets for Disney's successful stage version of ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. Produced by Walt Disney ...

'', serving as leading puppet and production designer. Anderson-Lopez said that the couple agreed to write the adaptation of "one of their favorite movies of all time" after considering "the idea of people coming in

o see the musical O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), p ...

at 4, 5 or 6 and saying, 'I want to do that'....So we want to take it as seriously as we would a Broadway show". To condense the feature-length film to 30 minutes, she and Lopez focused on a single theme from the movie, the idea that "the world's dangerous and beautiful". The show started holding previews on November 5, 2006, officially opening on January 24, 2007. That same month, a New York studio recording of the show was released on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

, with Lopez and Anderson-Lopez providing the voices for Marlin and Dory, respectively. ''Avenue Q'' star

Stephanie D'Abruzzo Stephanie Ann D'Abruzzo (; born December 7, 1971) is an American actress and puppeteer. She has performed various Muppets in the television program ''Sesame Street''. She held starring roles on the children's TV shows '' Oobi'' and ''The Book o ...

also appeared on the recording, as Sheldon/Deb. ''Finding Nemo'' was the first non-musical animated film to which Disney added songs to produce a stage musical. In 2009, ''Finding Nemo – The Musical'' was honored with a Thea Award for Best Live Show from the

Themed Entertainment Association The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) is an international non-profit association that represents creators, developers, designers and producers of themed entertainment. It is also noted for its Thea Awards, which were founded in 1995 and a ...

. When Walt Disney World reopened in July 2020 following the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

, all stage shows remained closed due to a dispute between the

Actors' Equity Association The Actors' Equity Association (AEA), commonly called Actors' Equity or simply Equity, is an American trade union, labor union representing those who work in Theatre, live theatrical performance. Performers appearing in live stage productions w ...

and Walt Disney World over allowing performers to wear face masks and providing regular testing. On September 14, 2021, it was announced that a "reimagined" version of the show would open in 2022. However, on November 19, 2021, it was announced that the show would be replaced by a new show entitled ''Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond!''.

Plot

The musical is based on the plot of the film ''

'', with characters performed in large

puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – wikt:inanimate, inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. S ...

by live actors and dancers on stage. It revolves around Marlin, a widowed

clownfish Clownfishes or anemonefishes (genus ''Amphiprion'') are saltwater fishes found in the warm and tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific. They inhabit mainly coral reefs and have a distinctive colouration typically consisting of white vertical bars on ...

who is desperate to find his son Nemo, who was snatched away by a diver in the ocean. Along the way, Marlin meets Dory, a

regal blue tang ''Paracanthurus hepatus'' is a species of Indo-Pacific surgeonfish. A popular fish in marine aquaria, it is the only member of the genus ''Paracanthurus''. A number of common names are attributed to the species, including regal tang, palette ...

with short-term memory loss, who ends up accompanying him on his journey. Meanwhile, Nemo ends up in a fish aquarium at a dentist office in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and meets Gill, a

moorish idol The Moorish idol (''Zanclus cornutus'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Zanclidae. It is the only member of the monospecific genus ''Zanclus'' and the only extant species within the Zanclidae. This species is found ...

living in the dentist's aquarium, and the leader of the Tank Gang, who also live in the aquarium. In the revamped version, a framing device is added in which the Tank Gang narrate the story before being released from the Marine Life Institute (depicted in ''

Finding Dory ''Finding Dory'' is a 2016 American animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Andrew Stanton, co-directed by Angus MacLane, produced by Lindsey Collins, and written b ...

'').

Musical numbers

Musicals numbers for Finding Nemo Jr. * "Prologue" - Marlin, Coral & Sea Chorus * "Big Blue World (Part 1)" - Marlin & Nemo * "Big Blue World (Part 2)" - Nemo, Marlin, Professor Ray, Pearl, Sheldon, Tad & Sea Chorus * "The Drop-Off" - Professor Ray & Reef Kids * "Abduction/Big Blue World (Reprise)" - Nemo, Marlin, Sheldon, Pearl & Tad * "Dory's Ditty" - Dory & Marlin * "Fish Are Friends Not Food" - Bruce, Chum, Anchor, Marlin, Dory & Sharks * "Where's My Dad?" - Nemo * "We Swim Together" - Gill, Gurgle, Peach, Bubbles, Bloat & Nemo * "Just Keep Swimming (Part 1)" - Dory, Marlin & Sea Chorus * "Just Keep Swimming (Part 2)" - Marlin, Dory, Moonfish & Jellyfish * "Not My Dad" - Nemo * "Go With The Flow" - Crush, Marlin, Dory, Breeze, Kai, Squirt & Sea Turtles * "One Dedicated Father" - Sea Turtles * "That's My Dad" - Nemo * "We Swim Together (Reprise)" - Nemo, Gill, Gurgle, Peach, Bubbles & Bloat * "Just Keep Swimming Together" - Nemo, Marlin, Dory & Moonfish * "Finale (Part 1)" - Nemo & Marlin * "Finale (Part 2)" - Nemo, Marlin, Dory, Professor Ray & Sea Chorus

Soundtrack

All songs featured in the show were written by

and

. A soundtrack album was released a day prior to the original show's opening date in 2007, with Anderson-Lopez and Lopez providing the voices of Dory and Marlin, respectively. Other cast members include Victor E. Chan as Crush, Alison Cimmet as Coral/Peach,

as Sheldon/Deb,

Jordan Gelber Jordan Gelber (born 1975) is an American actor and singer. He has performed on Broadway in the musical '' Avenue Q'', in ''All My Sons'' and in '' Elf the Musical'', among other shows. He has also performed in many off-Broadway productions. He ha ...

as Chum/Nigel, Victor Hawks as Mr. Ray/Gill, Karla Mosley as Tad/Squirt, Graham Stevens as Bruce, Kate Wetherhead as Nemo, and

Michael-Leon Wooley Michael-Leon Wooley (born March 29, 1971) is an American actor. He was the voice of Louis the Alligator in Disney's Oscar-nominated animated feature film, ''The Princess and the Frog'' and played Judge Grady on the radio station WKTT in Rockst ...

as Bloat.

References

External links

*
Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finding Nemo - The Musical Amusement park attractions introduced in 2007 Amusement park attractions that closed in 2020 Amusement park attractions introduced in 2022 Walt Disney Parks and Resorts entertainment Disney's Animal Kingdom DinoLand U.S.A. Tropical America Finding Nemo Musicals based on animated films 2006 musicals