Elton John and Tim Rice collaborated on 19 new songs for Disney’s stage musical Aida, which officially opened—after several preview performances—at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in Chicago on this day in 1999, the first stage musical Disney produced that was not based on an animated movie. The stage show tells of a tragic love triangle in which a Nubian princess is captured by an Egyptian warrior, who falls in love with her instead of his betrothed Egyptian princes. Disney executives and the film’s writers and composers were all on hand at this important opening, ready to make last-minute changes and tweaks to get the show into perfect shape for its Broadway opening several months later. Changes, in fact, were made to the book and dances and a new song was written. The extra work paid off. In March 2000, Aida premiered at the Palace Theatre on Broadway and continued for a successful run of more than four years.