One of the plans to redesign DL's Tomorrowland in 1998 was to include a musical variety-show revue with Audio-Animatronic alien musicians whose spaceship has landed in Tomorrowland. That was to go in the long-vacant Carousel Theatre, where America Sings had been gone since 10 years before. That never got off the ground, and it got replaced with Innoventions.
Seeing as though I don't think anyone goes in to see CAROUSEL OF PROGRESS anymore at WDW (and are somehow quite bored by it), I think it's time we shook things up a bit. For the Plectu's revue, I think we should build it in the same theatre as CAROUSEL, only lose the walls between the outer part of the stage building so the audience completely surrounds the stage (in the "theatre-in-the-round" style). However, the audience will still revolve around the stage (in a complete 360 degree turn) during the finale.
The story? Well, we have the aliens, the band, the dancers, and the master of ceremonies, and we have a variety show planned, but I think we need some kind of a crazy story. And you can bet the whole thing's going to perk up once we see Wall-E and M-O as bumbling stagehands! You can expect mishap after mishap to occur during each number in the show. We have like two or three numbers with a minor hitch in the presentation (one has the LGMs from Toy Story), but then we find out that EVE is in the audience! She had come as a late straggler between the first two songs, and it is here that Wall-E zones out big time. He has no clue what goes next in the next big number. M-O reluctantly carries on the stagehand duties solo, but he is not as inept alone as he is with another person with him, and so the whole number goes awry, and crashes and burns. The curtains close. We see the backstage antics projected onto the curtains. The M.C. gets angry, saying he can't work with automated garbage cans for stagehands! Wall-E pleads for another chance, which M-O supports. The M.C. reluctantly agrees to finish the show if nothing goes wrong and he doesn't get distracted. The show resumes, the curtains go up. The rest of the show continues without a hitch. All the performers are standing on all parts of the stage, as the audience revolves a full 360 degrees around so they can see everybody. The finale ends, fireworks "explode", lights go crazy, thank you, good night! Well, not quite. Wall-E peeks back in the stage as everyone leaves, wanders the stage looking for EVE. It turns out she has wandered on stage to find him. They embrace. Lights go down. House lights come up. Please gather all your personal belongings and exit to the right.
Here are the order of the acts as it happens.
Now how about the music? I'm thinking snappy variety-show style orchestra with live brass and electronic sounding piano, guitar, bass, and drums, much in the style of "Galaxy Search" or "Sonny Eclipse". The songs would all be written by myself. Beginning the big finale is a snappy Vegas-y big band rendition of "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," as a reference to Carousel of Progress.
And the voices? I'm thinking about Martin Short as the Emcee (Frankie Mercury - after Frank Sinatra and Freddie Mercury, two dynamos of the stage), Seth McFarlane as both voices in the comedy act, and Broadway actress Sutton Foster singing the alien torch love song.
And of course, the technology is a prime subject. We would use very sophisticated Audio-Animatronic technology (which almost rivals the kind in The American Adventure), combined with holographic digital projection. Of course, this is a Vegas-style show, so we need the whole automated light fixtures that they use in a lot of the attractions here nowadays.
WHEWWWWW. That was a mouthful. I'm up for this totally happening. Any comments?
Seeing as though I don't think anyone goes in to see CAROUSEL OF PROGRESS anymore at WDW (and are somehow quite bored by it), I think it's time we shook things up a bit. For the Plectu's revue, I think we should build it in the same theatre as CAROUSEL, only lose the walls between the outer part of the stage building so the audience completely surrounds the stage (in the "theatre-in-the-round" style). However, the audience will still revolve around the stage (in a complete 360 degree turn) during the finale.
The story? Well, we have the aliens, the band, the dancers, and the master of ceremonies, and we have a variety show planned, but I think we need some kind of a crazy story. And you can bet the whole thing's going to perk up once we see Wall-E and M-O as bumbling stagehands! You can expect mishap after mishap to occur during each number in the show. We have like two or three numbers with a minor hitch in the presentation (one has the LGMs from Toy Story), but then we find out that EVE is in the audience! She had come as a late straggler between the first two songs, and it is here that Wall-E zones out big time. He has no clue what goes next in the next big number. M-O reluctantly carries on the stagehand duties solo, but he is not as inept alone as he is with another person with him, and so the whole number goes awry, and crashes and burns. The curtains close. We see the backstage antics projected onto the curtains. The M.C. gets angry, saying he can't work with automated garbage cans for stagehands! Wall-E pleads for another chance, which M-O supports. The M.C. reluctantly agrees to finish the show if nothing goes wrong and he doesn't get distracted. The show resumes, the curtains go up. The rest of the show continues without a hitch. All the performers are standing on all parts of the stage, as the audience revolves a full 360 degrees around so they can see everybody. The finale ends, fireworks "explode", lights go crazy, thank you, good night! Well, not quite. Wall-E peeks back in the stage as everyone leaves, wanders the stage looking for EVE. It turns out she has wandered on stage to find him. They embrace. Lights go down. House lights come up. Please gather all your personal belongings and exit to the right.
Here are the order of the acts as it happens.
- Big opening number with dancers and big band/introduction to the MC
- Comedy act with two twin brother aliens
- big flub-up on Wall-E's and MO's part
- Torch song with female alien singer (LGMs backing her up)
- EVE comes in!
- Big production number featuring MC and dancers - MO goes too far with the scrim doohickey
- Everything goes nuts
- The curtains close
- Backstage banter
- Plans to finish the show without messing up
- Finale w/everybody
- Wall-E and EVE embrace
Now how about the music? I'm thinking snappy variety-show style orchestra with live brass and electronic sounding piano, guitar, bass, and drums, much in the style of "Galaxy Search" or "Sonny Eclipse". The songs would all be written by myself. Beginning the big finale is a snappy Vegas-y big band rendition of "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," as a reference to Carousel of Progress.
And the voices? I'm thinking about Martin Short as the Emcee (Frankie Mercury - after Frank Sinatra and Freddie Mercury, two dynamos of the stage), Seth McFarlane as both voices in the comedy act, and Broadway actress Sutton Foster singing the alien torch love song.
And of course, the technology is a prime subject. We would use very sophisticated Audio-Animatronic technology (which almost rivals the kind in The American Adventure), combined with holographic digital projection. Of course, this is a Vegas-style show, so we need the whole automated light fixtures that they use in a lot of the attractions here nowadays.
WHEWWWWW. That was a mouthful. I'm up for this totally happening. Any comments?
