Mancs will soon be able watch the tales unfold within the Hundred Acre Wood as a musical performance of Disney’s Winnie the Pooh will be coming to the UK stage for the first time in 2023. Kicking off in London in March next year, the new musical adaptation will then tour the UK and Ireland until September 2023, with shows taking place at the Manchester Opera House.
Deep in the Hundred Acre Wood, a new adventure is about to happen. A.A. Milne’s beloved characters, Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit and Owl (and Tigger too!), will all arrive on stage in a beautifully-crafted musical stage adaptation.
In a new story, this fresh stage adaptation is told with impressive life-size puppetry, exciting new stories and featuring characters that have played iconic roles in the lives of children for generations. Accompanying the modern narrative is an original score by Nate Edmondson, featuring some of the Grammy award-winning songs written by the Sherman Brothers for the original animated features, including Winnie the Pooh, The Blustery Day, The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers and Whoop-De-Dooper Bounce, plus A.A. Milne’s The More It Snows (featuring music by Carly Simon) and Sing Ho in a new arrangement.
Inspired by the beloved books by A. A. Milne and the classic Disney featurettes, the production was welcomed in New York in 2021, where it broke theatre box office records for the largest advance, with many rave reviews. The UK premiere will be presented by Rockefeller Productions, in partnership with ROYO, and in association with Disney Theatrical Productions.
The role of Winnie the Pooh will be played by Jake Bazel, a puppeteer, voice actor, writer and coach with over a decade of experience working in children’s media, who originated the role on Broadway. Bazel has featured in the likes of Sesame Street, The 90th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with Disney’s Muppets, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, Paddington Gets in a Jam and Paddington Saves Christmas. As a writer, he helped to craft Disney’s Winnie the Pooh: The New Stage Adaptation.
Performances of Winnie The Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation will take place at Manchester Opera House from July 24-26, 2023. Book tickets to the show here.