'Sweet Bird of Youth,' 'Jungle Book' Musical Will Bookend Goodman Season The Tony-winning director Mary Zimmerman ("Metamorphoses") will adapt and mount a musical version of the Disney movie "The Jungle Book" at the Goodman Theater in Chicago next year, the latest attempt by Disney Theatrical Productions to spin a hit out of the film studio's catalog, which was yielded Broadway successes like "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast" and flops like "Tarzan" and "The Little Mermaid." Goodman Theater executives announced the musical on Monday as part of its 2012-13 season, which will also include a revival of Tennessee Williams's "Sweet Bird of Youth" to be directed by David Cromer, who had been expected to stage the play on Broadway at one point. Disney theater executives have a history of pairing directors with projects, most famously the director and puppet-maker Julie Taymor with "The Lion King" in 1997; that show won Tonys for best musical and best director and has gone on to gross more than $4.7 billion in worldwide productions. Disney had been talking to Ms. Zimemrman for years, according to Roche Schulfer, executive director of the Goodman. The company will provide money to support "The Jungle Book" at the Goodman; the amount is now under negotiation. If Ms. Zimmerman's adaption is a hit, Disney could earn money licensing it to other theaters in the United States or abroad, or consider moving it to Broadway, as it is doing this spring with another adaptation, "Newsies," that was mounted first at another regional theater, Paper Mill Playhouse. Asked if the production would involve puppets as animals, as in "The Lion King," Mr. Schulfer said the idea would be a major focus of a design meeting in the next weeks. He said the musical may include new songs that were not in the Disney movie, as well as material from Rudyard Kipling's original stories. As for "Sweet Bird of Youth," Mr. Schulfer said that Mr. Cromer's production was not intended as a Broadway tryout. The theater, he said, had wanted to collaborate for some time with Mr. Cromer, who has roots in Chicago and directed the acclaimed Off Broadway revival of "Our Town." They agreed on "Sweet Bird" after it went into limbo for Broadway. Nicole Kidman had been mentioned widely as the likely star of the Broadway revival; asked if she was in line for the Goodman production, Mr. Schulfer said it was premature to discuss casting. "Sweet Bird of Youth" is scheduled to run Sept. 15-Oct. 21, and "The Jungle Book" is set for June 21-July 28, 2013. Among the other plays at the Goodman next season will be the world premiere of "Teddy Ferrara," by the New York playwright Christopher Shinn ("Picked," "Dying City"), about gay and straight college students dealing with a tragedy on campus.