For production designer John Arnone it's a pretty big leap from such Broadway shows as "The Full Monty" and "The Who's Tommy" (for which he won a Tony Award) to the much different canvas of Feld Entertainment's Disney on Ice edition of Disney-Pixar's "Finding Nemo" — opening a 10-performance run in the Delta Center on Wednesday.
Maybe Arnone's work on the 1998 revival of the drama "The Deep Blue Sea" might have provided some inspiration, but during a telephone interview from his design studio in Manhattan, Arnone (pronounced Arn-own) noted that working with Feld Entertainment's design team was quite an experience.
He feels there are some similarities between the blue-collar sensibility of "The Full Monty" and the coming-of-age storyline of "Finding Nemo." "It has strong community values. It's all about — to some extent — the individual in relationship to the community and the necessity for the young, adolescents, to break away and find their own definity, then come back into the adult community."
Not having seen "Finding Nemo" before he began working on the Disney on Ice production two years ago, his research included seeing several Disney and Pixar films. "I struck up a conversation with a woman sitting next to me in 'Monsters, Inc.' and she saw that I had a notebook. I told her I was designing 'Finding Nemo' and had already seen it six times. Then she said 'try six times a day' . . . with my children.'
"Kids in the audience know all the lines. If one of the skaters got sick, one of the kids could coach the skaters along from the sidelines."
Arnone is excited about what he and the creative team — lighting designer Peter Morse, costumer Scott Lane and choreographer Cindy Stuart — developed, under the nurturing hand of producer Kenneth Feld. "Feld always has the vision as to where the event can land in terms of telling the story, but he is also very wise in that he allows the artists that he hires a free hand to enhance and extend his particular vision. He is very hands-on."
Due largely to Morse's high-tech lighting, Arnone said, "The ice is literally moving in front of your eyes. It's tinted all the appropriate colors — aquamarines and deep sea blues — and he manages to make that solid, white block of ice look like it ebbs and flows with the waves of the ocean. He's a genius, and we were very fortunate to have him on board."
Morse has handled the lighting for such big acts as Prince and Madonna. "We could all use a little bit of Peter Morse's lighting in our lives," said Arnone, adding that the members of the creative team have been in the business for many, many years. "But Peter, especially, had the hardest task in getting Lane's work and my work pulled together to look like it all came from one single brush stroke."
Arnone is working on designing scenery for a new musical version of "Vanities," which will open in one of the Guthrie Theatre's new venues in Minneapolis.
If you go . . .
What: "Disney on Ice: Finding Nemo"
Where: Delta Center
When: Wednesday through March 19
How much: $13-$48
Phone: 325-7328
Web site: www.disneyonice.com
E-mail: ivan@desnews.com