When the musical Tarzan, based on the Disney movie, opened on Broadway in 2006, critics were merciless and the show closed after little more than a year. Then the musical moved to Europe and everything changed. Ten percent of the Dutch population, or about 1.6 million people, saw Tarzan over its two-year run, according to Disney. Today in Hamburg, German audiences erupt in applause after numbers like ‘Gar keine Wahl’ ("No Other Way"). Disney executives now joke that Broadway was the musical's ‘out-of-town tryout.’

Ellen Gamerman
The Wall Street Journal
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