lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
What makes a theme park a theme park, and not just an amusement park, is that it is an immersive experience. You're entering a story, not just seeing a collecting of related imagery or discrete experiences.
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News Rogers the Musical coming to the Hyperion Theater
- Thread starter Emmanuel
- Start date
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
The first warning that Disney was going to destroy Star Wars.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
Theme parks are also allowed to just be fun, corny, tongue in cheek, fantastical, and absurd. There really are no rules. I see no issue with Roger's the Musical, apart from it clearly being temporary and not really fitting the scale of the theatre, which will be fine as from most reports, a proper show is in the works.
The risk of sometimes taking theme too seriously, you end up with a Galaxy's Edge, which has a beautiful landscape, great theming, and is void of the fun and cheesiness of Star Wars.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
None of those things are contradictory to the idea of immersion. It’s like saying you can’t have a fun movie with a good story.
Galaxy’s Edge’s problem isn’t that it takes theme too seriously. The fun and cheesiness of Star Wars comes from its characters, which are what is really interesting, not the dreary, war-torn places they’re always leaving.
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Professortango1
Well-Known Member
I don't think anyone minds tongue-in-cheek or absurd. It just has to work. With Rogers, it started as an eye-roll-inducing lame show to mock on Hawkeye. But that doesn't work for a 30 minute show. So Disney kept the same eye-rolling aspect, but also tried to make it earnest at times. And campy. And poetic.
The problem with Rogers isn't that it tries to be camp. The problem is that it fails at it. It feels lazy. It feels like Knotts Scary Farm's offerings post Ed Alonzo/Dr Cleaver in the Ghoul Time Theatre. Just cheap jokes that aren't that clever, some nice dancing and flash, and a paper-thin premise.
A bad drama is entertaining because it becomes goofy. See The Room for reference. However, a bad comedy just lays there. See Movie 43 for reference.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
I don't think it faces any of the problem you have suggested. It's fun, entertaining, has moments of heart, and humour. It's in on the joke, as much as it is the joke. The audiences clearly seem to be enjoying it, and it brings back an important part of DCA.
It's also something fun and different for Disney to put together.
It's all very subjective, and it's also very temporary.
Professortango1
Well-Known Member
Different strokes for different folks. Most people I know find the songs and writing to be completely lackluster and groan-inducing rather than laugh-out-loud funny. But I also know mostly theatre folk and people who enjoy stage shows, so we draw off of a different level of expectation.
I think the theme park energy and limited nature of the show creates a fever and a demand that weeds out anyone who isn't invested prior to the curtain rising. Its like getting a good reaction in Hall H at Comic Con. People are excited to be there and the demand means most people there should be uber fans who will applaud just about anything.
If you like Rogers, that's great! I just saw a brand new play at The Geffen where a majority of folk wanted to walk out and another group jumped to their feet for a standing ovation. I'm all for people embracing what they enjoy. But also support those who are objectively critical and ask for work to be of a higher caliber.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
I get what you're saying, and Star Wars Land is a perfect example of them taking themselves way too seriously.
But they also seem to be doing this more and more lately all over the parks and leaving out the "fun" part. And it's only accelerating and getting worse and more cringe inducing with each passing announcement on the Parks Blog. They just can't stop themselves any more, everything must be something bigger.
Everything they do now is very, very important and with deep and profound meaning. Almost nothing is allowed to just be funny or fun.
- A Main Street Christmas shop now owned by a fabulously wealthy Latina who can also travel through time.
- A musical log ride dedicated to an employee-owned food cooperative run by the famed Filippino and Chinese communities of New Orleans (When you say New Orleans you automatically think of Pork Chow Mein and Leche Flan, right?), with a queue reminder that President Wilson refused to desegregate the US Armed Forces during World War I.
- The addition of a half dozen shops/restauarants to Downtown Disney that is actually a "Dynamic, multi-cultural lifestyle space".
- The 20 year old margarita stand in DCA is no longer just a margarita stand owned by a lady named Rita (get it?). Now in 2023 Rita has morphed herself into a "repair technician who maintains the floating wind turbine that sits atop the structure". She's a Green energy repair technician and a margarita slinger? Why?
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Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
As someone who has been in the industry, who has spent their life in the theatre, whether on stage or in the audience, I've been to, loved, liked, and hated all kinds of theatre.
I also always recognize that art is subjective, everyone likes what they like, and expects what they expect. But I do not believe in policing the art form, and saying that something some may like is because they can't be critically objective, or somehow have lower standards.
The London revival of Cabaret blew me away last month in London, it was poignant, heartbreaking, edgy, and intimate. The next day we took a complete left turn and saw Back to the Future, which is a HUGE spectacle, with very unmemorable music, and you know - both my partner and I had a blast! We loved both shows, for different reasons.
Theatre can just be fun, silly, bold, ridiculous, simple, complicated, deep, shallow. The theatre can also be a space to forget your worries for a few hours, just as much as it can be a space to learn, reflect, grow, and be challenged.
Rogers works, in this moment and time, in that space, for a myriad of reasons, for myself at least. It clearly doesn't click for you, and that is fine.
It's also a 30 minute theme park show, so I am not entirely sure why this conversation is going here. I wouldn't label any show that has graced the Hyperion stage as some revelation of theatre and art.
MarvelCharacterNerd
Well-Known Member
Save the City is pure fun and gets big (appreciative) laughs. As does Fury's song. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean others aren't thoroughly enjoying it the multiple times I've sat in that audience. Including me.
The show is exactly what it should be - amusingly and affectionately self-aware and a gift to the fans.
MarvelCharacterNerd
Well-Known Member
Most people I know find the songs and writing to be terrific and laugh-inducing. The music is super-catchy (I find myself literally singing or humming the songs the rest of the day after seeing it) and I know others planning cosplays of the outfits.
But I also know mostly performers and people who enjoy stage shows, so we have a level of expectation that was perfectly satisfied and in fact, was exceeded by this production.
Again, different strokes for different folks.
waltography
Well-Known Member
Saw it today. I agree with this take, and that's after seeing "Into the Woods" last night.
SplashJacket
Well-Known Member
And why we’ve heard displeasure from some people actually involved with Hawkeye. They feel it insults their work. The stage-show was intended as a mockery of low-effort brand shoehorning where it doesn’t naturally belong.
I think Rogers is funny as a temporary show, where Disney called the bluff, but if they actually keep it for a long time, a lot of people are missing the point.
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
Gues what? The JediAcademy thing they did at Disneyland was showing to a full audience every day and ran for years. I'd see parents march over to Tommorowland at ropedrop to sign their kids up for it.
Costumed characters being silly is more in tune with themeparks to me than people saying Bright Suns, which isn't from any piece of Star Wars media.
George Lucas did plenty of content that showed he was willing to have fun with Star Wars and its characters, he did not take them seriously.
This gamecube game I got back in the day had an amazing disco intro with all the characters dancing.
There's also this gem from right before Disney bought Star Wars
Whats funny is my concern was Disney would make Star Wars too corny and associate the characters with Mickey but I was mistaken and they went into the opposite direction.
But that being said I'd rather see a Star Wars stunt show like Water World at Universal or Batman at Magic Mountain than another dance off. Sadly Disney actually has the equipment set up for stunt shows in the balcony of the GE buildings but only did the show during for press preview day after the Bob's cut the budget.
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Professortango1
Well-Known Member
I said earlier that I had no problem with Jedi Academy, so not sure why you quoted me.
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
You said DHS was a trash fire, I assumed was because of Jedi Academy? Or do you mean the park in its entirety?
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Did Jedi Academy include a dance off?
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
I never saw it besides passing by as I dont have kids but I thought it was the same thing? I know kids fight Vader.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
While the posted video is from the Jedi Academy stage, that was not part of the show. The show had kids training to be Jedi but was largely played straight. The dancing is from Star Wars Weekends which increasingly relied on the gimmick of characters doing ridiculous things towards the end.