News David Duffy named Vice President, Live Entertainment at Walt Disney World Resort

[gorillaball]

Or just replace Festival of Fantasy.

nope.

 

[gerarar]

Are you sure it's only two? When I saw the show in December, they only had two of the four stilt walkers. They were also missing four of the animals.

I think that's just due to CMs being out (sick or some other reason). I saw a livestream the other day only having two stilts, but then another livestream had four.

Currently there is normally four stilt walkers and eight animals/dancers. That number use to be ten pre-2020, hence why I said two are "still missing", but will likely never come back.

 

[Basil of Baker Street]

Do we really think Duffy has the power to increase WDW’s entertainment budgets?

If he can bring back several missing components, then more power to him. But, I think it will be more of the same.

Nope. He will be another in a long line who will just do what he is told. Bob isn't about creative freedom. He only cares about short term financials.

 

[Lilofan]

Nope. He will be another in a long line who will just do what he is told. Bob isn't about creative freedom. He only cares about short term financials.

Job security for an exec but no guarantee is to get along you play along.

 

[tanc]

Well it's a good sign, hopefully he can come up with something better than kites at the very least.

 

[asianway]

Was he the one responsible for Disneyland Paris' 30th Anniversary offerings?

If he was responsible for the 25th grand celebration I have hope

 

[The Colonel]

I heard he's a huge Off Kilter fan.

 

[peter11435]

Are you sure it's only two? When I saw the show in December, they only had two of the four stilt walkers. They were also missing four of the animals.

It’s only the two missing. The show still has 4 still walkers but sometimes runs with 2 due to call outs.

 

[jrhwdw]

If he was responsible for the 25th grand celebration I have hope

Amen!!!!!!!

 

[AEfx]

TIL, there is apparently still enough "live entertainment" at WDW to need VP to be in charge of it.

 

[jrhwdw]

TIL, there is apparently still enough "live entertainment" at WDW to need VP to be in charge of it.

Let's hope that 2024 is big on Live Entertainment and blows UOR out of the Water!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Comped]

Now that's a good sign there.

Not as good as you think - as noted by some other posters, his work has primarily been a few mediocre parades (no storytelling in Dream & Shine Brighter just a bunch of characters strewn about with some on essentially cherry pickers with little/no theming), and a lot of opening ceremonies. A few nighttime shows here and there - but nothing like WDW needs right now - we don't need a replacement for Happily Ever After, we need a new Harmonious replacement, and ideally something in the long-term pipeline to replace Fantasmic. Which he really doesn't have experience on.

Don't everyone get your hopes up too high. While it's nice that he seems to have done good things at DLP, unless his appointment came with a budget increase, then nothing will be changing in entertainment. Remember all the cuts in entertainment we have had have been for one reason only, to save money. Somehow I just can't see Disney turning on the money faucet.

His experience at WDW/Disneyland doesn't lead me to much hope unfortunately. Lots of opening ceremonies, very few high budget entertainment efforts that signal an understanding of what WDW needs right now. Which is partially money, as you noted, but also quality entertainment that is fairly cheap...

Festival of the Lion King is still missing 2 of its performers/dancers, but at this point they've pretty much determined that the show doesn't need those missing dancers (I think it's fine, but would be nice regardless to return to the original).

I'm pretty sure BATB Live is pretty much the only show that has "fully" returned to its full cast (surprisngly).

Not sure about Nemo however since they've completely redone the show after it came back. F! varies night to night, but one character was cut from the steamboat at the end. MK stage shows changed post-closure. Think that covers all the live shows at WDW.

Nemo was massacred to allow for additional shows to run per day. One of the worst changes to a show I've seen in years.

• Tale of The Lion King Stage Show, Disney California Adventure, June 2019
• Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge Grand Opening Celebration, Disneyland Park, June 2019
• Mickey’s Mix Magic Fireworks and Media Spectacular, Disneyland Park, January 2019
• Disney Parks, Experiences and Products (Formerly Disney Parks and Resorts) D23 Keynote Presentations; multi-years at Anaheim Convention Center and Tokyo Disneyland
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout Grand Opening Ceremony, Disney California Adventure, June 2017
• Frozen- Live at the Hyperion Stage Show, Disney California Adventure, May 2016

View attachment 739173

So I’m sure Journey of Water will get a fabulous opening ceremony with rain and stuff.

Yep. My biggest issue with him. Experience launching a lot of attractions, but not really in making entertainment that WDW is known for - immersive and large in scale.

If he did Mix Magic, how long was in Paris? Just for the 30th??? I think he did better in Paris with Dazzling Christmas Parade(if that's his work), the return of Disney Dreams and everyone loved Dream...And Shine Brighter, even though the Dancers shouldn't have been in Merch/Jogging Suits IMO........

If TDO wanted to keep things the way they are, why the Personal Change? Unless, the last Person(who we don't know) was fed up with TDO not advancing? At the beginning of Summer, there was a rumor of Trolley Dancers returning, maybe he can get that done? As far as Castle shows, HEA's already back so he doesn't need to do that... the only thing cut from the stage were some characters from Most Merriest.

As far as a Night Parade...Sounds like TDO was already thinking about one before this move. Whether he will give TDO the help they need on this, who knows????????

He wasn't there long. But his drone show was a viral hit, so maybehe thinks he could get around the no-fly zone or something. I don't know - because his record in entertainment doesn't astound me. If it was someone from Toyko, or even Shanghai, I'd be more impressed. He's likely to find the same as every person who's had the job post-2001 - there's no money in entertainment (except on paper), so ops and other departments will push for entertainment to do even less with even less so they can keep their budgets up. If Disney somehow lets him do something new, his record at Paris/DL doesn't astound me, so it will likely be mediocure at best.

 

[the_rich]

He did Mix Magic and the Frozen show at DCA. Let’s hope he refined his skills in Paris…

The frozen show at dca was great.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

The frozen show at dca was great.

Having seen both the DCA and the Broadway versions, I have to say the DCA version had a much better Let It Go scene, especially with that staircase. Neither one was as good as Aladdin though.

 

[the_rich]

Having seen both the DCA and the Broadway versions, I have to say the DCA version had a much better Let It Go scene, especially with that staircase. Neither one was as good as Aladdin though.

Yea Aladdin was great. I would love to see the steve rogers musical.

 

[Comped]

Having seen both the DCA and the Broadway versions, I have to say the DCA version had a much better Let It Go scene, especially with that staircase. Neither one was as good as Aladdin though.

Ironically, when it opened, WDE management hated the Aladdin show because of how much it cost in comparison to other shows of the time. A different producer, with Broadway experience, was brought in to oversee the show, and costs ran up as a result... However the public absolutely loved it. Fn fact - if Eisner had his way, after BATB it would have been Aladdin on Broadway (he was even quoted in a newspaper article I found once about it). That didn't happen for years...

 

[aladdin2007]

Not as good as you think - as noted by some other posters, his work has primarily been a few mediocre parades (no storytelling in Dream & Shine Brighter just a bunch of characters strewn about with some on essentially cherry pickers with little/no theming), and a lot of opening ceremonies. A few nighttime shows here and there - but nothing like WDW needs right now - we don't need a replacement for Happily Ever After, we need a new Harmonious replacement, and ideally something in the long-term pipeline to replace Fantasmic. Which he really doesn't have experience on.

His experience at WDW/Disneyland doesn't lead me to much hope unfortunately. Lots of opening ceremonies, very few high budget entertainment efforts that signal an understanding of what WDW needs right now. Which is partially money, as you noted, but also quality entertainment that is fairly cheap...

Nemo was massacred to allow for additional shows to run per day. One of the worst changes to a show I've seen in years.

Yep. My biggest issue with him. Experience launching a lot of attractions, but not really in making entertainment that WDW is known for - immersive and large in scale.

He wasn't there long. But his drone show was a viral hit, so maybehe thinks he could get around the no-fly zone or something. I don't know - because his record in entertainment doesn't astound me. If it was someone from Toyko, or even Shanghai, I'd be more impressed. He's likely to find the same as every person who's had the job post-2001 - there's no money in entertainment (except on paper), so ops and other departments will push for entertainment to do even less with even less so they can keep their budgets up. If Disney somehow lets him do something new, his record at Paris/DL doesn't astound me, so it will likely be mediocure at best.

While all of that certainly makes sense, they can't be making this move for him to just do nothing,,,, there has to be something better in the works.

 

[aladdin2007]

Come to think of it, we never saw anything “live” happening in EPCOT either…. Would love to see more there as well

Epcot is a sad park, it has been stripped of most everything like that.

 

[drew81]

“Nothing is going to change and that is why we traveled all the way from Colorado.”

~Family from Denver

 

[mastromjm]

I've read a lot about changes to the entertainment department post-2001 - no coincidence that that was the year Ron Logan retired and Anne Hamburger took his place, no? Reading between the lines it reads a lot more like entertainment was slashed to the bone then, which makes sense given how much has gone away between then and now.

Not at all unrelated, the number of full-time, Disney-employed musicians numbered around 425 in 2001. That number is now just over 100. It'd be nice to see a pendulum swing, particularly in Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios where there is just ONE live band now to each park.