In partnership with UCF, Orlando Family Stage houses the university’s MFA program in Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). The TYA version of Finding Nemo was adapted with music by the award-winning duo of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. The production will be directed by Eric Quang Gelb, with live actors and puppets by Nic Parks of MicheLee Puppets. | Courtesy Orlando Family Stage
Eric Quang Gelb has long been interested in working with Orlando Family Stage. He applied for internships there and even wrote an academic paper about the operation when he studied Theater for Young Audiences (TYA) at New York University.
Subsequently, Gelb directed productions in New York; Roanoke, Virginia; Serenbe, Georgia; and more recently even helmed several popular musicals at Dr. Phillips Center’s AdventHealth School of the Arts—including last year’s record-breaking pre-professional summer intensive production of Hairspray.
Soon, a directorial collaboration with Orlando Family Stage—“it’s been 10 years in the making,” says Gelb—will come to pass when the theater presents 20 performances of Finding Nemo from April 11 to May 10 at the multivenue complex’s Universal Orlando Foundation Theatre.
All the dates are Saturdays and Sundays, with shows usually at 2:30 and 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sundays. There’ll be an ASL-interpreted performance on Saturday, April 18, at 2 p.m., as well as an audio-described performance on Saturday, April 25, at 2 p.m.
This TYA adaption of Finding Nemo—which will serve as the theater’s 100th anniversary season finale—is a musical version of the beloved 2003 Pixar film, which won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature the following year.
It’s not the same musical version that ran at Disney’s Animal Kingdom for 13 years before it closed in 2020 and was later replaced by the shorter Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!. But all the shows share the same DNA.
The action-packed plot still follows the epic journey of Marlin, an overprotective clownfish who travels across the ocean to rescue his son, Nemo, who has been captured by a scuba diver in the Great Barrier Reef.
Bringing familiar productions to children’s venues, notes Gelb, makes it possible “to leverage the title as well as the characters, stories and songs that they’re familiar with to get them to engage and participate in live theater.”
Still, even Finding Nemo fans will make new discoveries in this splashy, song-filled adaptation with stunning visuals and additional music by the award-winning duo of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who also scored the version in Animal Kingdom.
And the revamped musical—which lasts about 60 minutes—will be staged in a terrific space. The Universal Orlando Foundation Theatre, which was significantly upgraded last year, is a 340-seat, thrust-stage venue that allows audiences to become more immersed than ever.
“The actors will appear on different sides of the stage and perform different songs to different sections of the audience,” says Gelb. “Dory [a memory-challenged blue tang fish] is a big favorite, so kids get excited to be close to her.”
Another eye-popping part of the show is its use of MicheLee Puppets, previously a separate organization that was absorbed by the theater when founder Tracey Conner died in 2023. Today Nic Parks—the long-time creative director of MicheLee Puppets—runs the operation. Gelb describes the puppets as “the stars of the show.”
Which isn’t to say that the human cast isn’t terrific as well. The group, he adds, is notably diverse and “representative of the themes of the show—one of which is that the things that make us strange and different are what make us powerful.”
Choosing to throw traditional considerations—like height and gender—out the door when casting the show has allowed Gelb to assemble an ensemble that mirrors what Nemo encounters in the fish tank: an array of characters who, despite their outward differences, contribute to the betterment of everyone involved.
Orlando Family Stage is located at 1001 East Princeton Street, Orlando, in Loch Haven Cultural Park. For more information, call 407.896.7365 or visit orlandofamilystage.com.
