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	Now playing : 'No Other Way' Previews began 24 March 2006 Show opened 10 May 2006 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre 226 West 46th Street New York
	Credit : Bruce Glikas for Broadway.com More photos
Fabulous shot of Shuler, Josh and Jenn taken at Broadway Barks Saturday 8 July, 2006  © Mark Rupp

Josh Strickland	Tarzan
Jenn Gambatese	Jane
Shuler Hensley	Kerchak
(father figure to Tarzan and one of the leaders of the jungle creatures)
Merle Dandridge	Kala
Chester Gregory II	Terk
Timothy Jerome	Professor Porter
Donnie Keshawarz	Clayton
Daniel Manche/Alex Rutherford	Young Tarzan
Ensemble : Darrin Baker, Marcus Bellamy, Celina Carvajal, Dwayne Clark, Veronica deSoyza, Kearran Giovanni, Michael Hollick, Joshua Kobak, Kara Madrid, Kevin Massey, Anastasia McCleskey, Rika Okamoto, Marlyn Ortiz, Whitney Ostenoski, John Oyzon, Andy Pellick, Angela Phillips, Stefan Raulston, Horace V. Rogers, Sean Samuels, Nick Sanchez, Niki Scalera, Natalie Silverlieb, J.D. Aubrey Smith and Rachel Stern.

The creative team for Tarzan has re-imagined and, in some cases, reinvented characters from the original Edgar Rice Burroughs novel and Disney’s animated film. We hope to bring a fresh perspective to the Tarzan legend, and we think that we have found a wonderful cast to make these roles their own. - Thomas Schumacher, President of Disney Theatrical Productions.

The role of Kerchak posed challenges to both David Henry Hwang and Phil Collins, as they had to expand on a character who was simply a monolithic alpha male in the movie. In Act I the silverback has two numbers: No Other Way, which demonstrates that Kerchak is only thinking of the safety and well-being of the troop, and Sure As Sun Turns to Moon, which is a tender scene revealing Kala’s fondness for the father of her dead infant. “The overriding goal was to humanize Kerchak,” David admits. “Tom had said that during production of the movie they kept trying to put material in the story for him, but it was better for him to be two-dimensional. It would have been futile to try and accomplish the same characterization for the play. Ultimately, Kerchak is right about everything he feels. One thing he is wrong about is an inability to distinguish individual members of a species. He is a good person who has suffered great harm at the hands of humans. That gets us a certain way towards making Kerchak more appealing. Having Shuler Hensley in the role adds weight too, as he had such great ideas about the character. Sure As Sun Turns to Moon only happened during rehearsals by observing the relationship between Shuler and Merle Dandridge (Kala).”   www.laughingplace.com

Two lovely shots taken from behind-the-scenes book
Tarzan - The Broadway Adventure (Michael Lassell, Disney Editions)
showing (above) Shuler in rehearsal with stage wife Merle Dandridge
and (below) how their characters looked on stage.

Bob Crowley (Direction/Scenic and Costume Design) Meryl Tankard (Choreography) Pichón Baldinu (Aerial Movement) Natasha Katz (Lighting Design) John Shivers (Sound Design) David Henry Hwang (Book) Phil Collins (Music & Lyrics) Paul Bogaev (Music Production/Vocal Arrangements) Doug Besterman (Orchestrations)

Phil Collins composed five songs for the 1999 film of 'Tarzan', including 'You'll Be In My Heart' which won the 2000 Oscar for Song of the Year and spent 10 weeks at #1 on the Billboard charts. He has written an additional nine new songs for this production ~ his Broadway songwriting debut. 

  19 track CD available  ~ see Media page for more details and Audio clips.

Josh Strickland Online www.merledandridge.com www.chestergregory.com www.joshuakobak.com www.kevinmassey.com	Tarzan, Lord of the Bungee-Jumping Apes The Call of the Jungle
Screenshots from BroadwayWorld.TV's Video Preview edited by Craig Brockman
Tarzan Gallery Broadway World : Opening Night at Tarzan Broadway World : Tarzan Gypsy Robe Ceremony