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News Celebrate Gospel!, Tale of the Lion King and more entertainment to return in 2022
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Wouldn't surprise me.
Part of it is that Disneyland seems reluctant in general to have things run in that theater (remember how weird the scheduling was for the last few years of Magical Map?), but part of it too is that that show seems to have issues that seem inexplicable.
I'm not local, so the fact that two out of the three performances I've tried to attend have been cancelled-one more than halfway through the show-is a bit troubling. There really isn't anything that seems super technical about the show, so I'm really not sure what the explanation would be for such cancellations, unless no one else has really had these issues and I've just had super bad luck.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
The only reason I could see it being cancelled mid show would be due to technical issues or a cast member got injured or something.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Definitely the case, just didn't see an injury happen (doesn't mean it didn't) and there isn't a lot of tech in the show.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
We’ve been to DL a half dozen weekends since the show changed to Lion King and we’ve only seen it once, maybe we have bad luck also because it felt like this show rarely played.
We used to watch Mickey and the Map nearly every trip.
TrainsOfDisney
Well-Known Member
It’s always concerning when entertainment is cut and no replacement is announced or known about.
While Disneyland Resort is in much better shape than WDW, just a few years ago there were shows in both fantasyland theatre and Hyperion, a day parade in each park, and a night parade at DL.
The lion king show has had a nice run, a replacement would be fine but I fear the theatre will sit empty.
While Disneyland Resort is in much better shape than WDW, just a few years ago there were shows in both fantasyland theatre and Hyperion, a day parade in each park, and a night parade at DL.
The lion king show has had a nice run, a replacement would be fine but I fear the theatre will sit empty.
waltography
Well-Known Member
The cast and crew should be very proud Tale ran so long considering it seemed to be conceived as a temporary show to fill DCA's summer line-up. At the same time, the show was really kind of a bare bones production, and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't drawing as much crowds anymore because of it. Here's hoping the next production in that space will be a little more robust given Map before it.
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
We were disappointed by how bare bones it was, we were expecting something like the Lion King portion of the Mickey and the Magician show in Paris, that uses animal costumes to provide a lot of movement and energy while the performers sing, at DL the performers were good but with nothing really happening on stage we found the show itself very bland.
Paris got all this spectacle for a 3 minute portion of a show…
Disneyland got people singing… they sound amazing but it wasn’t much of a “show”
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Heavens to betsy! Already?
I mean, I know I was hoping a new show that's more similar to Mickey and the Magical Map, but I'm didn't expect Tale of the Lion King to end that soon. What a surprise!
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
The only optimistic way to spin this is that Disneyland has nothing new coming for 2024 (unless you count TBA, which definitely won't make summer and may well be pushed to 2025), and it takes a lot less time to put together new pieces of entertainment than it does to build attractions.
Perhaps they will fill all of their big entertainment holes as a compensation action?
(I'm sure they won't actually do this, but it wouldn't be difficult and would give them something to advertise in the meantime).
Perhaps they will fill all of their big entertainment holes as a compensation action?
(I'm sure they won't actually do this, but it wouldn't be difficult and would give them something to advertise in the meantime).
waltography
Well-Known Member
Agreed! I think removed from the context of how the show has evolved, it's very easy to feel underwhelmed by it. I'd seen the show when it first premiered summer 2019 as synergy for the live-action movie; it was on a temporary stage in Paradise Park, so in that context the show was perfectly serviceable.
I'm confident they pulled it out in 2022 as a way to get something easy to stand up and stage, and with that came the expanded stage, but otherwise the book and blocking seemed essentially the same. So a step up from what it was originally, but definitely not utilizing the Fantasyland Theatre to its full potential. It seems like DLE is still slowly pulling itself together to run full-scale productions, which is a shame, but I hope TotLK closing means they'll pull something new (and better) together by next summer.
