Evanston native and out musician Doug Peck is probably working on his highest-profile gig to date. He's music director to The Jungle Book at the Goodman Theatre, a much-anticipated stage musical directed by Tony Award-winning director Mary Zimmerman (Metamorphoses, Argonautica) based upon the classic 1967 Disney animated film version of Rudyard Kipling's famous tales.
Zimmerman was given access to the Disney screenplay and film songs by Richard M. and the late Robert B. Sherman (a.k.a. "The Sherman Brothers"). And no doubt that Disney Theatrical Productions is keenly eyeing Zimmerman's work at the Goodman to see if they might have a potential hit on their hands.
By now, most of Chicago's theater critics will have passed judgment on the show, opining whether or not The Jungle Book should have a future life. Of course Broadway would be a dream come true for Beck, but he's practical when he points out that New York isn't always the ultimate goal for certain properties.
Either way, Peck is with The Jungle Book in Chicago through Sunday, Aug. 11, and then onto the Huntington Theatre Company for a Boston run Sept. 7-Oct. 6.
Zimmerman invited Peck to come aboard The Jungle Book practically from the outset, thanks to their time collaborating on the Goodman Theatre's 2010 production of the Leonard Bernstein musical Candide.
"We just really absolutely hit it off during Candide," Peck said in an interview following a Jungle Book preview. Since that same production of Candide also played in Washington, D.C., and in Boston, Peck said, "It felt like we did three shows together."
Now Peck, a five-time Jeff Award winner for music direction, had to alter his working style to suit Zimmerman's workshop creation method of improvising with the cast and constructing the show script on a nearly daily basis.
"It's been a great challenge for me because I come from a classical background and I'm used to being the kind of person who prepares everything in advance," said Peck. "My skills as an improviser in the moment have grown so much. This involves writing a lot of underscoring, a lot of transition music and it's been a great process for me to do this."
Peck's many Jungle Book duties have been to function as the show's orchestrator, arranger, music adaptor and piano conductor. Peck has also had to study and learn a great deal about classical Indian music and instrumentation, since Zimmerman "wanted to take Indian forms of representation seriouslycostume, music and danceand her challenge to me was to make the music a fusion of Indian and jazz."
That learning process included trips to India for Peck and Zimmerman and hiring expert Indian musicians from around the country who could work at creating fusion music by means of Western notation and jazzy improvisation.
One notable aspect of Zimmerman's Jungle Book staging is how often the pit musicians end up prominently onstage. It's an outgrowth of the two collaborative Jungle Book workshops.
"Mary and all the designers and I saw the musicians playing in the room. We all thought that it would be such a shame to have them all buried in the pit," Peck said. "And because there's so much improvisation, we wanted to feature the Indian instruments as part of the action… I keep telling the musicians thousands of audience members will see for the first time how the tablas are played, the sitar or the vina. They're doing their instruments and culture such a service to show them off."
Peck's work has already garnered praise from one tough-to-please critic: original songwriter Richard M. Sherman.
"Everything I've seen sparklesthe music is extraordinary," said Sherman about attending Goodman workshop rehearsals for The Jungle Book. "It's special and original and different and Doug Peck is the genius."
Whether or not a trip to the Great White Way with The Jungle Book is up in the air for Beck. What isn't is his upcoming gigs this season, which include 42nd Street at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora and reteaming with Court Theatre artistic director Charles Newell for a new staging of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel next summer at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y.
"I would just love if this show could have a future life past Boston," Peck said about The Jungle Book. "There's international possibilities, there's regional possibilities and there's licensing possibilities. (A cast album) is something Richard (Sherman) and I have talked about in preserving these arrangements and this amazing cast and these amazing musicians. Obviously it's expensive to make a cast album, but there's high hopes that we will at some point."
The Jungle Book continues through Sunday, Aug. 11, at the Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St. Tickets are $30-$125 (prices subject to change). Call 312-443-3800 or visit www.goodmantheatre.org for more information.