The End of the World as we Know it

Did anybody else's plunge at the news that Disney Theatricals is on the threshold of creating a touring live stage version of "High School Musical: the Musical"? It's launching in Chicago, probably around June, its director informs me.

Now I know the thing's a cash cow _ both the Disney Channel movie and the concert version _ but did we really NEED this as a live show? C'mon guys! Doesn't assembling "Tarzan," "The Little Mermaid" "Mary Poppins" et al keep the Mouse's legit arm busy?

Apparently not. And I shouldn't be surprised.

The one bright spot of all this is that the director is Jeff Calhoun, the quite inventive director/choreographer who is smart enough to drop everything and anything (or at least to create a few extra windows) whenever Deaf West Theatre comes knocking. He's helming the company's current offering "Sleeping Beauty Wakes" opening April 7 at the Kirk Douglas in Culver City, and will be reuniting with Deaf West for yet another new musical, an adaptation of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper" at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre sometime in 08.

Spent a while on the phone with Calhoun (who directed Deaf West's last two musicals, "Big River" and "Oliver!). He described himself as "an incredibly fortunate" guy right now. Given the heat (blech!) of "HSM," well might he say that.

His "Musical the Musical" assignment also includes _ get this! _ staging the ICE SHOW!

"It's sort of surreal," says the New York based director. "I'm working with ice skaters one week, deaf actors the next and teen agers on stages all over world."