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DISNEY'S THE JUNGLE BOOK Kids: THE AUTHORS MARCY HEISLER (Book adaptation & additional lyrics): Bookwriter/Lyricist Marcy Heisler and Composer Zina Goldrich have been collaborating since 1993. They were recently voted "Best Knocking on Broadway's Door Songwriting Team" in the Village Voice Best of NYC edition, and were the 2002 recipients of ASCAP's Richard Rodgers New Horizons Theatre Award. For Theatreworks USA, they have just completed Top Secret Personal Beeswax: The Life and Times of Junie B Jones, which will begin 2 national tours, and be featured Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel in July 2004. They are also the authors of Dear Edwina and Dear Edwina Junior, which have been performed around the world, and are set to be featured in the Chicago Humanities Festival later this year. In April 2000, they teamed with bookwriters Charlie Shanian and Shari Simpson to premiere their full-length musical Adventures in Love at St. Paul's Ordway Music Theatre. In 1998 they joined Off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre as Joseph Papp Artists-in-Residence, where they workshopped Allison Under The Stars with bookwriter Susan Kim. Together and apart, they have provided original songs for CBS Television's Murphy Brown, NBC's Three Sisters, Disney, PBS and others.
As performer/writers, Goldrich and Heisler have appeared at Carnegie Recital Hall, The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage, and The Ford Center of the Performing Arts, and are veterans of the Toyota Comedy Festival, Chicago Humanities Festival, and Montreal's prestigious "Just Pour Rire" Comedy Festival, and New York’s 24-hour A Train Musicals. They are MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) and Bistro Award winners in the categories of Outstanding Special Material, Outstanding Songwriters, and Song of The Year. Heisler is currently working with Disney Theatricals, penning new adaptations of 101 Dalmatians, Cinderella, and The Jungle Book for young audiences. Goldrich can be found on Broadway playing keyboards for productions including the current Avenue Q. Their new songbook is available for purchase at www.goldrichandheisler.com.  ROBERT B. SHERMAN and RICHARD M. SHERMAN (Music & lyrics): Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman were born in the late 1920’s in New York City. Following the musical career of their father, Al Sherman, the family moved to Beverly Hills, California, in 1937. Graduates of Beverly Hills High School and Bard College in New York, Robert and Richard collaborated on many projects. The brothers’ first musical collaboration took place in 1950, and during that decade they wrote hit rock songs including Kitty Wells’ “Things I Might Have Been,” Johnny Burnette’s “You’re Sixteen,” and ex-Mouseketeer Annett Funicello’s “Tall Paul.” The latter garnered the attention of Walt Disney, who invited both Robert and Richard to be the exclusive staff writers for the Disney studios.
During the next decade they composed over 150 songs that were featured in 27 films and two dozen television productions. Theme songs like “The Wonderful World Of Color,” “The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room,” “Winnie The Pooh,” “A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” and “It’s A Small World” are recognized as Disney standards, along with “ A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” and “Feed The Birds” (Walt Disney’s personal favorite.)
In 1965, the Sherman brothers won Oscars® for their MARY POPPINS score and the song “Chim-Chim-Cher-ee.” Other Disney film scores include THE PARENT TRAP (1961, which included Hayley Mills’ chart-topping “Let’s Get Together”), SUMMER MAGIC (1963), THE JUNGLE BOOK (1966), THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE (1967), THE ARISTOCATS (1970), BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (1971), THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH (1977) and THE TIGGER MOVIE (2003).
Additionally, they have composed witty and melodious song scores for such films as SNOOPY COME HOME, CHARLOTTE’S WEB and CHITTY BANG BANG, which has recently been adapted to the stage. They also wrote scores for the stage musicals VICTORY CANTEEN (1971), 1974’s Broadway hit OVER HERE! (starring the Andrews Sisters) and BUSKER ALLEY (1995). The Sherman brothers wrote screenplays and song scores for TOM SAWYER (their music won first prize at the Moscow film Festival), HUCKLEBERRY FINN, THE SLIPPER AND THE ROSE (Royal Film Performance of 1976) and THE MAGIC OF LASSIE, from which “When You’re Loved” earned an Academy Award® nomination for Best Song.
To date, the Sherman brothers have earned 2 Academy Awards®, 9 Academy Award® nominations, 2 GRAMMY® Awards, 4 GRAMMY® nominations, 23 gold and platinum albums, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1990, the brothers were named “Disney Legends” by The Walt Disney Company, an honor they prize. Their autobiographical coffee-table scrapbook WALT’S TIME: FROM BEFORE TO BEYOND was published in 1999.
MARY POPPINS produced by Cameron Mackintosh and Disney Theatrical Productions, became a hit stage musical in 2004.  TERRY GILKYSON (Music & lyrics): Hamilton "Terry" Gilkyson (1916 - 1999) composer and lyricist born in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania.
In his early twenties, Gilkyson worked on a ranch in Tucson, Arizona, before joining the military during World War II. He married in 1947 and moved to California to pursue a career as a folk singer. In the 1950's he joined Rich Dehr and Frank Miller to form the folk group THE EASY RIDERS, whose song "Marianne" became an instant hit.
Gilkyson left the group in the 1960's to work on movies for Walt Disney Studios. He wrote music for SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1960) and THE ARISTOCATS (1970), and wrote a song a week for the television program, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY. In 1968, he received an Academy Award® nomination for "The Bare Necessities" from THE JUNGLE BOOK. BRYAN LOUISELLE (Music Adaptation and Arrangement): Bryan Louiselle has composed scores for the documentaries SAINT AND STRANGERS and PRISONERS OF HOPE, THE LATE MIDDLE CLASSES for Williamstown Theatre Festival, RED MEMORIES for Stage and Film, and PEARL PASSION for the Pearl Theatre Company. He has arranged/orchestrated for: BROADWAY'S BEST FROM BRAVO, The Yale Tercentennial, Radio City Music Hall, Cole Porter's 100th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION at Carnegie hall, two Presidential Inaugural Galas, the Super Bowl half time Show, and the Miss America Pageant. Louiselle conducted DREAM, BUTTONS ON BROADWAY the RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR and EASTER EXTRAVAGANZA. In addition, he is a composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, producer, conductor and vocalist for the 2002 and 2005 editions of Silver Burdett Ginn's MAKING MUSIC CD series. Louiselle is the resident music adapter, orchestrator and recordings producer for Disney's Broadway JR and KIDS Collections. |
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