Theater: Can You Feel a Hit Tonight?

It was a long haul up the pyramid, but Disney's Aida is set to wow Broadway

In the fall of 1998, all anyone wanted to talk about was the pyramid. It was a giant motorized contraption that dominated the stage during the Atlanta pre-Broadway tryout of Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Disney's musical retelling of the tale of ancient Egypt that was the basis for Verdi's famous opera. The pyramid opened, it closed, it transformed itself into different sets. It seemed a suitably dazzling follow-up to Julie Taymor's innovative production of The Lion King, Disney's Broadway hit. The trouble was it didn't work, at least not very often. "Every time I saw the show, it broke...

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