News New Theater to be built at the Magic Kingdom - now cancelled?

doctornick

Well-Known Member
So, I know this project has been long dead, but did we ever learn what the funds were re-allocated towards? It was hinted that they money would be used to enhance MK elsewhere, but nothing much else seems to be be in the works that we know of.
 

Old Mouseketeer

Well-Known Member
Indeed and this is one of the reasons they're regretting, to some extent, the Frozen show addition in Anaheim. It doesn't have much of a repeat value for many guests given its length, Frozen saturation and the younger-skewing story. Aladdin, for some of its stale aspects, kept things fresh and repeatable thanks to a lot of room for ad libs, particularly by the Genie. The length also made it a perfect break from the park without committing to a full 60+ minute show.

Plus it's EXPENSIVE and hard on the cast and crew. It has a much higher injury rate than Aladdin. It taxes the limits of the space and facilities of the Hyperion and makes it harder on the crew. Even with the cuts in scenes and costumes it still exceeds the space in the building. They have had to take over space in Stage 12 to handle the overflow. Many roles require two performers per day. For comparison, Magical Map has five shows at roughly 24 minutes each. That's 120 minutes or two hours, similar to a regular stage musical. Frozen has three shows at around an hour each--50% more than Map. Stage, tech, and costuming crews are at least double FL Theater. People I know say Aladdin was hard, but Frozen is excrutiating. Yet I know people who love working it. I also know CMs who have turned it down or left, including a performer who is on Broadway right now.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
If the cast is complaining about how much work frozen at the Hyperion is, they better not head to broadway! Ha.
Yeah I don’t hear Caissie Levy mitching and boaning about eight 2 1/2 hour shows a week as Elsa...there’s a reason leads tend to stay in Broadway shows as long as they can. The same guy who played Jafar in the cartoon has been Jafar on Broadway for five years.
 

kthomas105

Well-Known Member
Should we assume that this was an even exchange? Cut the theater and move all of the allocated money to a different project. Or is it more of a dispersion of funds, where they cut the theater and split the funds between projects?
 

wannabeBelle

Well-Known Member
Should we assume that this was an even exchange? Cut the theater and move all of the allocated money to a different project. Or is it more of a dispersion of funds, where they cut the theater and split the funds between projects?
And I wonder if the funds have to stay in the same area, meaning the same type of expenses. So if the Theatre was under the Entertainment umbrella, would it have to be moved to a different Entertainment project or could it be moved to a transportation project for example? Marie
 

Old Mouseketeer

Well-Known Member
If the cast is complaining about how much work frozen at the Hyperion is, they better not head to broadway! Ha.

Actually, it's a bit more layered than that. Doing eight shows a week on Broadway (or on tour) might look like it's more challenging than working part-time at Disney. But those part-timers are busting a hump to get outside work. And if they have more than one approval at the resort, they may get pulled from one show to another at a moment's notice. In a professional production outside of Disney, you basically have the same cast and crew eight shows a week, minus substitutions. At Disney it's a different line-up every day and sometimes from show-to-show. If you have a quick change, you likely have a different dresser every time you are in. If you sing a duet, trio, or quartet, it's a different group every day. If you're wearing earbuds, it's a different person mixing and different balances.

I know a Disney performer who booked a national tour for a major hit musical and he said the challenge of being a production swing (doing a different role almost every show) was offset by having the same cast and crew every performance. He said that most of the other performers had no concept of the challenges of a theme park show.
 

Flynnwriter

Well-Known Member
So, I know this project has been long dead, but did we ever learn what the funds were re-allocated towards? It was hinted that they money would be used to enhance MK elsewhere, but nothing much else seems to be be in the works that we know of.
The funds were allocated to a local pre-school who were tasked with painting tomorow land with their favorite colors.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
The funds were allocated to a local pre-school who were tasked with painting tomorow land with their favorite colors.
Fake news. It was the kindergarten class that painted the Fountain of Nations plaza in pre-k3. Management loved their work. In first grade they’ll paint the Tree of Life.
 

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