Ahhh... Light Magic, the street-tacular that disappeared off the face of the Disneyland map so quickly that it didn't even make it into any of the Disneyland history books.
Light Magic was supposed to be the next big thing at Disneyland after MSEP left in November 1996... it opened in May 1997 to scathing reviews from both the press and the "internet media"... in particular was the fateful "AP Premier Party" that turned out to be only a dress rehersal. After that one night it was pretty much doomed from the starting gate.
Unlike your typical parade at DL, this was more of a show on rolling stages... so staking out your spot fir viewing Light Magic was the key to truly enjoying LM.
My thoughts on LM... I had really hoped that Disney would continue to work on improving the show beyond it's opening Summer season. There were tweaks here and there throughout that summer, but apparently those particular folks who wrote the scathing reviews wouldn't care what Disney did at that point in time. They could have had Pressler dancing around like a marionette under the control of one guest each night and that still would not have helped LM.
But for the 10+ performances that I saw that summer... I saw the cast members out there busting their butts night after night for an audience that either a)loved what they saw, b)were confused about what they were viewing, or 3)had read about LM online (no thanks to a certain newsgroup at the time) and were just there to be a thorn in Disney's side.
For more on LM, Jim Hill was working on a series about the creation and ultimate demise of Light Magic... and Yesterland.com also has a brief snippet about LM.
