I saw the 11/8 - 12:30pm soft opening tech run, and 2 words came to mind: not surprised. I'm not surprised that Disney could create a show at such a high caliber of creativity, entertainment, effects, and overall production value. i was very delighted to find out that even though the composer of Avenue Q did the scoring, that the music didn't resemble Avenue Q's at all... the puppets were amazing, it really did feel like a Broadway production. Excellent aerial work, and overall completely involving the audience and enveloping them into the “Finding Nemo” world.
Just a few comments, suggestions, critiques, feedback to any creative team people reading this (b/c I know they do) AND I DON'T KNOW IF THIS WOULD BE CONSIDERED SPOILERS (THAT'S WHY I AM CAPS-ING SO IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT AND DON'T WANNA KNOW ANYTHING MOVE ON):
(A) when the puppeteers separate from the puppets to sing, they get spotlighted as well as the puppets themselves. i thought it completely destroyed the focus being on the puppet characters instead of the puppeteers. I was confused as to whether I should be focusing on the actor because he’s the one singing, or on the puppet because it represents the main characters of the story. Especially at the end during the last duet between Marlin and Nemo. Something minor that also contributed to this problem was that the costumes drew attention to the actor. I know that in Avenue Q, the puppeteers wore all black, and that helped draw attention toward the puppet. When they were separated from the puppet, my attention stuck with the puppet, because they weren’t spotlighted. There was a distinct separation. So if you wanted the audience to focus on both the actor and the puppet, good job. Otherwise, people might be a lil confused.
(B) The pacing of the dialogue felt a lil rushed. I understand that this is meant for a theme park and not Broadway, and so a stricter time constraint is in place. I thought during the scenes when there was dialogue and no canned underscore, some of the dialogue, one-liners, quips, etc. could be drawn out and “hammed” up more. Obviously where the soundtrack is running, you don’t have an option, other than to cut some lines. The audience reaction to some of the jokes during my preview was minimal b/c I don’t think the audience had enough time to react before moving on. If you’re worried about the show being too long, I believe Aladdin at DCA runs around 40 min, and the audience when I saw it there was not phased by it being such a long show. I personally enjoy the longer shows, b/c I don’t like the shorter shows (BatB, Little Mermaid at MGM for example) condensing a 90 min story into 15 min. LMAX is around 40 and it seems just about right. So maybe give the dialogue w/ no underscore some more time for the audience to react.
(C) During the EAC scene with Crush, his vocal was getting buried by the sound track. His dialogue and singing wasn’t being understood clearly.
(D) Maybe something to look into with some of the other shows (BatB) at the parks as well as Nemo, maybe hiring a live rhythm section to play along with the tracks during the shows. It would give it more of a Broadway feel (by adding a pit orchestra). Also, it would open up more jobs for professional musicians. I’m a music educator/semi-pro drummer/percussionist, and would love the idea of playing at Disney during the summers. I’m also a big fan of Broadway, so that would be a perfect fit. Just a suggestion.
I hope these comments were helpful. I wanted to give you the perspective of an average park guest, as well as someone who has a music degree (Belmont University – Nashville, TN, BM 2004) overall, an excellent show, I look forward to more productions like this in other Disney Parks!
