Dancap Productions Inc. announced today that it has joined ELEPHANT EYE THEATRICAL in an initiative to create new book musicals for Broadway.  Formed in late 2005 by producers Stuart Oken, Michael Leavitt and Five Cent Productions, ELEPHANT EYE is capitalized at $8,000,000 USD and has three projects in advanced stages of development, including the recently announced The Addams Family.

Aubrey Dan, President of Dancap Productions Inc. stated, “We’re very pleased to be joining Stuart Oken, Michael Leavitt and 14 other prominent performing arts organizations and presenters as a strategic member of ELEPHANT EYE.  By doing so, Dancap Productions Inc. will take a pro-active role in the creation of exciting new musicals that will play Broadway and stages around the world, including Toronto.”  

Dancap Productions Inc. joins the following other members of ELEPHANT EYE:  New non-profit members are The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, FL; The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, FL; The Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, FL; Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, NY; The Victoria Theatre Association in Dayton, OH; The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ; Theater of the Stars and The Fox Theatre (shared) in Atlanta. 

New commercial presenters are Broadway In Chicago, a Nederlander/Live Nation partnership in Chicago, IL; Dancap Productions Inc., producer Aubrey Dan’s new initiative in Toronto, Canada; and Starmax, a leading entertainment organization in Seoul, Korea.

Along with the original five non-profit performing arts organizations that, as Five Cent Productions, formed ELEPHANT EYE with Oken and Leavitt, the company now has a total of 15 strategic partners.  Five Cent partners include: The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts of Hartford, CT; The Citi Performing Arts Center (formally the Wang Center) of Boston, MA; The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts of St. Paul, MN; The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts of Philadelphia, PA; and The Pittsburgh CLO and The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (shared) of Pittsburgh, PA.  

In a statement, producer Stuart Oken said “Three years ago, Mick Leavitt, David Fay (President and CEO of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, CT and Managing Member of Five Cent) and I began conversations about a creatively ambitious content company that would be owned jointly by a group of non-profit performing arts centers and passionate commercial entrepreneurs.   Today, we’ve concluded phase one of that initiative and now it’s on to the work at hand - getting in the trenches and attempting to contribute to Broadway’s rich legacy of musical theater.”  

ELEPHANT EYE has a current slate of projects including: 

The Addams Family.   A new musical based on characters, cartoons and sketches by the legendary cartoonist Charles Addams.  Rights were granted by the Tee and Charles Addams Foundation and marks the first time Addams’ work will serve as the basis for a stage production.  Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, writers of the 2006 Tony Award-winning Best Musical, Jersey Boys, are the librettists for The Addams Family, Drama Desk Award-winning composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa (The Wild Party) is writing the score, and Improbable Theater founders Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (Shockheaded Peter) will direct and design.  ELEPHANT EYE plans to premiere The Addams Family in the 2009-2010 Broadway season, preceded by an out-of-town tryout. 

Bruce Lee: Journey to the West.  A musical that follows the mythic journey of two Chinese legends: martial arts star Bruce Lee and the beloved Chinese warrior god, The Monkey King.  The book is by Tony Award winner David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) and the music and lyrics by Tony nominee David Yazbek (The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) Bruce Lee: Journey to the West will be directed by Tony nominee Bartlett Sher (The Light in the Piazza, Awake and Sing.)  ELEPHANT EYE is targeting Bruce Lee: Journey to the West for the 2010-2011 Broadway season preceded by one or more out-of-town tryouts.

Saved.  ELEPHANT EYE shares creative leadership with PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS (Tim Sanford, Artistic Director) on this new musical based on the acclaimed UA film.   Saved is set at a Christian high school where students, teachers and parents find faith in unexpected

places.  With music & lyrics by Obie winner Michael Friedman (Gone Missing, Romeo & Juliet for Shakespeare in the Park this summer) and book & lyrics by Olivier Award nominee John Dempsey (The Witches of Eastwick) & Obie Award winner Rinne Groff (The Ruby Sunrise, “Weeds”), Saved will be directed by Gary Griffin (The Color Purple) and will open in Spring 2008 at Playwrights Horizons.   

PRODUCER BIOGRAPHIES

Stuart Oken  (CEO and Producer).  In addition to his role as CEO and producer of Elephant Eye, he also founded and currently serves as Artistic Director of The American Music Theater Project at Northwestern University.  He previously spent 9 years at Disney Theatrical where he served as Executive Vice-President and co-head of the division.  He was responsible for the rollout of Beauty and the Beast, the creative development, production and rollout of The Lion King (6 Tony Awards including best Musical), Der Glockner Von Notre Dame (a German language world premiere of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Berlin, 1999) and Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida (4 Tony Awards.)

Mr. Oken began his career in Chicago as Managing Director of the Organic Theater Company before producing his first solo production, Michael Weller's Moonchildren, which won 3 Jeff Awards and marked the professional directing debut of Robert Falls.  From 1978-1985, he was founder and producer of Chicago’s Apollo Theater Center where he produced works including David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Albert Innaurato’s Gemini, Jules Feiffer’s Hold Me and the Steppenwolf Theatre Company productions of Sam Shepard’s True West and Lanford Wilson’s Balm in Gilead.

Relocating to Los Angeles in the mid 1980’s, Mr. Oken entered the film business and produced feature films including:  About Last Night, Impromptu and Queens Logic and served for three years as President of Witt-Thomas Films at Warner Brothers.  

Michael Leavitt  (President and Producer). A multi-Tony Award winning producer with productions including Thoroughly Modern Millie (six Tony Awards including Best Musical,) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Tony Award – Best Revival); Death of a Salesman (Four Tony Awards - Best Revival) You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Winner of Best Musical-Outer Critics Circle Award); Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Winner: Best Play- Outer Critics Circle Award); & Edward Albee's Three Tall Women (Winner: Pulitzer Prize.) 

Michael began his career in Chicago, where he started his first theatrical company, the Payne Leavitt Group, which he operated for almost a decade before accepting a bid from Fox Associates to buy his company.  He became President of Fox Theatrical, their new theatrical production company, and for the next decade produced numerous shows on and off Broadway, as well as regionally.

In addition to producing theatre, Leavitt has operated numerous venues, including overseeing the $25 million redevelopment of the 1926 Palace Theatre. As President of the theatre, Leavitt created a naming rights deal with Cadillac. The Cadillac Palace Theatre opened in 1999 with the pre-Broadway opening of the Walt Disney production of the Elton John musical, Aida and has subsequently been sold to Broadway in Chicago.

Five Cent Productions  (Producing Partner) is a consortium of five nationally renowned performing arts centers that have joined forces to take a proactive role in the development of new theatrical material.  Although Five Cent Productions’ inception and initial investment is as a partner in the creation of Elephant Eye Theatricals, its on-going activity and scope will encompass a variety of endeavors, all with the goal of generating new theatrical material, both for the five theaters and for stages around the world.  The five performing arts centers of Five Cent are The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts of Hartford, CT; The Citi Performing Arts Center (formerly the Wang Center) of Boston, MA; The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts of St. Paul, MN; The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts of Philadelphia, PA; and The Pittsburgh CLO and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (shared) of Pittsburgh, PA.  

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