Musical theater project launched

Stuart Oken, who spent nine years developing new musicals for Disney such as “Aida” and “The Lion King,” has left the company, moved to Chicago and come up with a new way of developing stage musicals.

Oken’s new program, created in partnership with Northwestern University faculty member Dominic Missimi, is called the American Music Theatre Project. Including in-kind support from Northwestern, it is a $2-million, multiyear endeavor designed to turn Northwestern into the leading collegiate incubator of new works of musical theater. Garry Marshall, a well-known Hollywood producer and Northwestern alumnus, is one of the major funders of the program.

Initially, the project will sponsor four musicals in the development stage: “Was,” an adaptation of the Geoff Ryman novel riffing on the life and work of L. Frank Baum, which will be staged later this year; “The Boys Are Coming Home,” loosely based on the Shakespeare comedy “Much Ado About Nothing”; an adaptation of the John Steinbeck novel “The Pearl”; and a conceptual piece called “States of Independence,” about a college student who travels from the 21st century back to the era of the American Revolution.

Oken founded the Apollo Theatre in Chicago before leaving for Hollywood.