Do you know the way to San Jose?

Well, I do, and not just because I was there for almost 24 hours last year. But, I'll be heading back to San Jose in February of 2009. According to this Playbill article, a revised version of the Broadway musical "Tarzan" will be making its way to the American Musical Theatre of San Jose at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts next February.

"Tarzan" originally played on Broadway for a little over a year in 2006/2007. I am a huge Phil Collins fan in general, and I also happened to love the animated Disney film of "Tarzan", so when I heard about the musical, I eventually decided that I wasn't going to wait for it to make the rounds - New York wasn't that far away and there was no reason I couldn't go there. So I went.




I saw the show twice, once from the orchestra and once from the balcony. From what I knew of the show and its staging and from having seen "The Lion King" from both the orchestra and balcony, I knew that the experience was different from each of those two vantage points. It wasn't like I could see "Tarzan" any time I wanted to and seeing something once wasn't going to be enough for me to remember as much as I wanted to, so I decided to go twice to see it from different locations.

Generally, I liked the show. There were a few elements that I wasn't crazy about and one particular element that I thought was pretty stupid and completely unworthy of being in a professional production much less on Broadway proper. However, there were other elements that I really liked and a couple specific things that really just blew me away. I was very impressed with Josh Strickland, who played Tarzan, and Jenn Gambatese, who played Jane. I liked some of the new songs written for the show and some not so much, but the love ballad, "For the First Time", was incredible. I've still got my notes from having seen the shows, but I could never figure out a proper way to organize all my comments. Maybe someday, I'll be able to fashion a coherent review out of them.




In any case, I'm interested in seeing the show again, and San Jose is only a short Southwest hop away. I might be going to see the show twice again, depending on the configuration of the theatre. I figure I'll decide when tickets become available. I'm interested in seeing what elements they're going to change as well as to see what new people will be like in the show.