News Rogers the Musical coming to the Hyperion Theater

[PiratesMansion]

Honestly, it'd probably be more logical to do Moana: the Musical than bring back Rogers.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Was so glad I got to be at the last show of the day yesterday. And extra fun, a few of the cast passed by the line and signed autographs and posed for pics with their fans.

On my way out I told every lead I passed that I wanted the show to return. I know that's a decision above their paygrade, but I figured it couldn't hurt to give them extra support.

They wanted the queue for Oogie Boogie Bash so I knew it wouldn't be immediately extended, but still hope it will come back after the holidays until they decide on a more longterm solution for the Hyperion. I really love this show and just randomly find myself singing or humming bits from it.

Ran into a friend also waiting for the show and we reminisced about being at the last show for Aladdin, too. Always sad when a really good show ends, but always glad to give the cast and crew the appreciation they deserve.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

They wanted the queue for Oogie Boogie Bash so I knew it wouldn't be immediately extended

But this in itself is a huge problem with Disney management- this park NEEDS a show at the Hyperion. And it needs to be 7 days a week.

This is one of the most visited theme parks in the world. No excuse for a dark theatre.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

But this in itself is a huge problem with Disney management- this park NEEDS a show at the Hyperion. And it needs to be 7 days a week.

This is one of the most visited theme parks in the world. No excuse for a dark theatre.

I don't mind it being dark two days a week to give the cast a rest and do maintenance on sets, etc. But the dark days should logically be Monday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Wednesday, not Sunday/Monday. There was no excuse for a dark day on a weekend!

That said, yes, absolutely the Hyperion needs a show. They're probably crunching the numbers now to see how cost effective a 'cheaper' show was than one with a broader audience but much more expensive production vs. leaving it dark entirely. We'll see what the beancounters determine...

 

[Professortango1]

But this in itself is a huge problem with Disney management- this park NEEDS a show at the Hyperion. And it needs to be 7 days a week.

This is one of the most visited theme parks in the world. No excuse for a dark theatre.

There's no excuse for DCA as a whole anymore. The destruction of TOT was the beginning of the end for me. Every step since has been another downgrade to a park which was struggling enough as it was.

I wouldn't pay $10 extra to visit DCA, much less the $60 they charge now.

 

[MisterPenguin]

There are small independent theaters that put on a whole new musical (all revivals) every week as a repertory company.

There's no reason Disney can't do the same with it's abbreviated half hour musicals (or revues) every month and rotate through various shows (making sure that the same month year to year has a different show).

 

[Professortango1]

There are small independent theaters that put on a whole new musical (all revivals) every week as a repertory company.

There's no reason Disney can't do the same with it's abbreviated half hour musicals (or revues) every month and rotate through various shows (making sure that the same month year to year has a different show).

That's incredibly expensive. Rehearsing paid actors for a week of all day rehearsals, new sets and costumes, paying a creative team to constantly be working.

 

[Too Many Hats]

I'll just say, there have been a fair amount of leads around the outside of the theater helping shout at the guests to stand back and wait for their barcodes. So it's not just the regular CM's who are there shouting because that's what they're told to do.

Yup. A lead or manager named Todd was by far the rudest of the lot. He seemed genuinely angry that any guests wanted to enter via standby.

Thankfully Disney sent me a survey about my experience at DCA that day .

Disneyland CM training has changed. I see CMs needlessly berating guests just about every time I’m at the resort. It didn’t used to be this way.

Waiting in line at a theme park should not feel like going through TSA at the airport.

 

[TP2000]

But this in itself is a huge problem with Disney management- this park NEEDS a show at the Hyperion. And it needs to be 7 days a week.

This is one of the most visited theme parks in the world. No excuse for a dark theatre.

Agreed. I have to think that this is all related to the 13 month government shutdown of Disneyland for Covid, and this short term Rogers thing was just a neccessary first step in getting a CM pool of talent back on the books. I'm not talking the actors who often cycle in and out of these shows, but the backstage CM's who do all the lighting and audio and technical stuff and stage operations.

Those CM's are all needed on staff and full time before they can offer up a big new show like Frozen. You can hire a ride operator or food service worker in off the street and have that 18 year old kid fully trained and working in 2 weeks.

But the tradesmen that operate lavish stage productions are a skilled labor pool that is smaller and harder to fill.

Disneyland CM training has changed. I see CMs needlessly berating guests just about every time I’m at the resort. It didn’t used to be this way.

Waiting in line at a theme park should not feel like going through TSA at the airport.

It's alarming how fast their standards lowered. And how even the front line Dockers-clad manager like you encountered is helping to push the standards lower. This isn't a case of not being able to find good people, as any visit to an Orange County In-N-Out or Trader Joe's shows that there are lots of great service workers out there being trained and managed to very high standards.

It appears to be that Disneyland management just doesn't care. And their TDA executives are so far removed from the daily operation, if they even know where it exists and where to go see it, that they have no ability to put pressure on the lower management ranks to improve.

It's a potential Disneyland Doom Loop, to use a popular new California expression.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

That's incredibly expensive. Rehearsing paid actors for a week of all day rehearsals, new sets and costumes, paying a creative team to constantly be working.

Ideally the shows would rotate on a somewhat regular basis. Once or twice a year. This really should be a partnership with Disney Theatrical but the company is so divided now i guess that can’t happen.

I'm not talking the actors who often cycle in and out of these shows, but the backstage CM's who do all the lighting and audio and technical stuff and stage operations.

While they need more when Hyperion is running Disneyland still uses entertainment techs all over the property so that pool is there.

 

[Professortango1]

Ideally the shows would rotate on a somewhat regular basis. Once or twice a year. This really should be a partnership with Disney Theatrical but the company is so divided now i guess that can’t happen.

It's not just the division, it's the idea that the talent from direction to design to cast would need to be specific for DCA so each show costs millions to create. They could have a few shows in rep, but you still have the initial cost of creating/mounting each show and then not much benefit for running in rep.

Rep is a great way for venues to get the most from a limited audience. Bringing in stranger shows for a limited run because there isn't enough audience for a full theatrical run. And bringing multiple shows to recapture the same audience who would normally not see the same show multiple times.

With DCA, the audience size is enormous. And bring theme park guests, they don't have an aversion to experiencing the same thing again and again. Any returning patron is paying money to do that already. So having multiple shows doesn't really benefit the company all too much.

 

[TP2000]

While they need more when Hyperion is running Disneyland still uses entertainment techs all over the property so that pool is there.

Valid point. But there's obviously not enough of them to go around. They've only got 1 parade (Magic Happens) and 1 night spectacular (World of Color) that would use those sorts of Hyperion-scale techs.

They couldn't keep the Lion King show going consistently this summer at the Fantasyland Theater, even after Fantasmic was put on a long hiatus.

Go back just a few years and the average summer day or weekend at Disneyland offered:

1 Parade in each park daily (Paint The Night, Soundsational, and/or seasonal parade)
2 Fantasmic shows
4 Performances of Frozen in Hyperion
4 Performances of Mickey's Magical Map in Fantasyland Theater
2 Performances of World of Color

Plus all the usual smaller stuff; Red Car Trolley musical shows, Five & Dime, Fantasy Faire plays, NOS bands, dancing, Dapper Dans, street performers, etc.. And at Christmas they'd add bigger stuff like Viva Navidad, or all the stage entertainment during Food & Wine or Festival of Holidays.

The ability for the Disneyland Resort to host and perform its traditional roster of entertainment has been radically reduced and downgraded now. It's a shell of its former self now, and it's very sad and underwhelming.

When they do get some temporary smaller-scale thing into the Hyperion, the DCA managers train all their Usher CM's to stand outside the theater and bellow and yell and harumph at any paying customer who dares try to get in to see the show.

 

[TP2000]

I will say, because that post above came off rather dour, and I'm actually in a fine and happy mood today...

Next weekend is Destination D23 at WDW. During the opening segment on Saturday morning, Bob Iger's Sidekick Tightpants (AKA Josh D'Amaro), will give a one hour presentation that should announce a few new things for the parks on both coasts.

Let's hope that an announcement of a large scale new Broadway style show is announced for the Hyperion Theater then.

DCA and the Disneyland Resort desperately need it. They need to get back to some semblance of normalcy and full operation.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

They've only got 1 parade (Magic Happens) and 1 night spectacular (World of Color) that would use those sorts of Hyperion-scale techs.

Lion king techs would be from the same pool and Fantasmic techs are still working for the fireworks. But in general you are of course correct - the lack of shows reduces the lack of talent available for both actors, stage managers, and tech.’s.

It's a shell of its former self now, and it's very sad and underwhelming.

Disneyland Park is doing pretty good and as a whole the resort is way better off than WDW. MK has 1 band (5 days a week I believe), the dapper dans, castle show, and 1 piano player. I’m pretty sure that’s it.

Disneyland Park has 2 piano players, full band, small live show, and 7 piece jazz band (all above is 7 days a week) plus dapper dans, straw hatters, bootstrappers, pearly band, and lion king show. That’s 10 vs. 4.

And that’s what’s left AFTER Voices of Liberty, Firehouse 5, Fiddle player, billy hill, etc. were cut.

But of course if we go back to DCA - that’s where the problem becomes apparent. With no Hyperion we are left with only 5 & dime, citizens and perhaps the toy story drummers if they are still there?

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

Lion king techs would be from the same pool and Fantasmic techs are still working for the fireworks. But in general you are of course correct - the lack of shows reduces the lack of talent available for both actors, stage managers, and tech.’s.


Disneyland Park is doing pretty good and as a whole the resort is way better off than WDW. MK has 1 band (5 days a week I believe), the dapper dans, castle show, and 1 piano player. I’m pretty sure that’s it.

Disneyland Park has 2 piano players, full band, small live show, and 7 piece jazz band (all above is 7 days a week) plus dapper dans, straw hatters, bootstrappers, pearly band, and lion king show. That’s 10 vs. 4.

And that’s what’s left AFTER Voices of Liberty, Firehouse 5, Fiddle player, billy hill, etc. were cut.

But of course if we go back to DCA - that’s where the problem becomes apparent. With no Hyperion we are left with only 5 & dime, citizens and perhaps the toy story drummers if they are still there?

4 or 5 piano players at Disneyland that I can think of offhand. They cycle between ragtime piano, the two Fantasy Faire shows, and Golden Horseshoe.

DCA has the ones you noted (5 & Dime, Toy Story Drummers and the-I've-never-understood-why-they-have-kept-their-budget-for-a-decade Citizens of BVS) plus the Disney Jr show (which includes performers along with characters). And regular seasonal shows running during Lunar New Year, Food & Wine, and the Holidays, plus Oogie Boogie Bash entertainment and Plaza de la Familia entertainment currently. Plus there's almost always a group in the gazebo in Paradise Garden. And of course FIVE different shows that run multiple times a day in Avengers Campus. (I mean, seriously, is there any question why I love the place? It's supreme when it comes to the number of shows and characters. And that's why I go to the parks. That said, we still need a Hyperion show and I still want Rogers back!)

And then the bands in DTD. But I wish they were back at Tomorrowland Terrace instead. Much better venue. Less cockroaches.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

4 or 5 piano players at Disneyland that I can think of offhand. They cycle between ragtime piano, the two Fantasy Faire shows, and Golden Horseshoe.

Oh yes! I meant 2 piano players performing each day (corner and saloon).

I forgot about the bands that play in the gardens in DCA - there are some good ones there.

 

[Emmanuel]

Valid point. But there's obviously not enough of them to go around. They've only got 1 parade (Magic Happens) and 1 night spectacular (World of Color) that would use those sorts of Hyperion-scale techs.

They couldn't keep the Lion King show going consistently this summer at the Fantasyland Theater, even after Fantasmic was put on a long hiatus.

Go back just a few years and the average summer day or weekend at Disneyland offered:


4 Performances of Frozen in Hyperion
4 Performances of Mickey's Magical Map in Fantasyland Theater

Actually for both of those shows it was

3 Performances of Frozen Live at the Hyperion daily until late 2019-2020 when they had it dark Friday and Saturday. They tried 4 shows a day on several occasions but that was it. Outside of that it was always 3 shows.

5 Performances of Mickey and the Magical Map Friday to Monday (They never got their Thursdays back when they cut that day in 2016 and towards it last months they had that Friday to Monday schedule even on holidays). They only did 4 shows on days when a private event or the Halloween party when it was at Disneyland occured.

 

[Comped]

I don't mind it being dark two days a week to give the cast a rest and do maintenance on sets, etc. But the dark days should logically be Monday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Wednesday, not Sunday/Monday. There was no excuse for a dark day on a weekend!

That said, yes, absolutely the Hyperion needs a show. They're probably crunching the numbers now to see how cost effective a 'cheaper' show was than one with a broader audience but much more expensive production vs. leaving it dark entirely. We'll see what the beancounters determine...

A show to Disney standards is surprisingly expensive - in the round of maybe $25 million a year for a mid-sized show with very few special effects. I costed one out for a project in grad school (although at WDW because DL didn't have a union agreement that I could find), and it's not cheap. Salaries make up most of that, then you bundle in things like pensions and healthcare (plus union labour for the director, choreographer and other creatives), and it's a significant cost. No wonder why we've seen more characters used - they're cheaper than Equity talent in most cases.

There are small independent theaters that put on a whole new musical (all revivals) every week as a repertory company.

There's no reason Disney can't do the same with it's abbreviated half hour musicals (or revues) every month and rotate through various shows (making sure that the same month year to year has a different show).

Unless you made some very odd casting choices, you'd need a giant pool of entertainment on retainer or have folks cycle in and out of the parks beyond. Which is expensive - especially as Equity talent is not cheap by any distance.

Valid point. But there's obviously not enough of them to go around. They've only got 1 parade (Magic Happens) and 1 night spectacular (World of Color) that would use those sorts of Hyperion-scale techs.

They couldn't keep the Lion King show going consistently this summer at the Fantasyland Theater, even after Fantasmic was put on a long hiatus.

Go back just a few years and the average summer day or weekend at Disneyland offered:

1 Parade in each park daily (Paint The Night, Soundsational, and/or seasonal parade)
2 Fantasmic shows
4 Performances of Frozen in Hyperion
4 Performances of Mickey's Magical Map in Fantasyland Theater
2 Performances of World of Color

Plus all the usual smaller stuff; Red Car Trolley musical shows, Five & Dime, Fantasy Faire plays, NOS bands, dancing, Dapper Dans, street performers, etc.. And at Christmas they'd add bigger stuff like Viva Navidad, or all the stage entertainment during Food & Wine or Festival of Holidays.

The ability for the Disneyland Resort to host and perform its traditional roster of entertainment has been radically reduced and downgraded now. It's a shell of its former self now, and it's very sad and underwhelming.

When they do get some temporary smaller-scale thing into the Hyperion, the DCA managers train all their Usher CM's to stand outside the theater and bellow and yell and harumph at any paying customer who dares try to get in to see the show.

And 20-30 years ago they had a ton more than even that! It's sad how much entertainemnt was mauled post-2001, but post-Covid it's gotten even worse. Equity performers make things expensive, and even-more-so because Disney hasn't done what they used to do and bring in shows from overseas that worked and perhaps change them up a bit, except for Mickey And the Magical Map, in years...

Lion king techs would be from the same pool and Fantasmic techs are still working for the fireworks. But in general you are of course correct - the lack of shows reduces the lack of talent available for both actors, stage managers, and tech.’s.


Disneyland Park is doing pretty good and as a whole the resort is way better off than WDW. MK has 1 band (5 days a week I believe), the dapper dans, castle show, and 1 piano player. I’m pretty sure that’s it.

Disneyland Park has 2 piano players, full band, small live show, and 7 piece jazz band (all above is 7 days a week) plus dapper dans, straw hatters, bootstrappers, pearly band, and lion king show. That’s 10 vs. 4.

And that’s what’s left AFTER Voices of Liberty, Firehouse 5, Fiddle player, billy hill, etc. were cut.

But of course if we go back to DCA - that’s where the problem becomes apparent. With no Hyperion we are left with only 5 & dime, citizens and perhaps the toy story drummers if they are still there?

WDW used to have a ton of bands, but that changed over 20 years ago at this point. From the marching band to the orchestras across multiple parks... Used to have a lot more live music out east. Disneyland always had more live music because those in charge of entertainment fought for it. For a few decades, Orlando was included in this (witness how much live music Epcot and MK had in the 90's that is nowhere near as regular or nonexistent now) but again, this changed 20 years ago or so. Only major thing we have, entertainment-wise that Disneyland doesn't is a much more frequent Candelight (and I suppose, when that Pixar orchestra show ran during that one summer at DHS - each musician got paid $250 a night for context).

Actually for both of those shows it was

3 Performances of Frozen Live at the Hyperion daily until late 2019-2020 when they had it dark Friday and Saturday. They tried 4 shows a day on several occasions but that was it. Outside of that it was always 3 shows.

5 Performances of Mickey and the Magical Map Friday to Monday (They never got their Thursdays back when they cut that day in 2016 and towards it last months they had that Friday to Monday schedule even on holidays). They only did 4 shows on days when a private event or the Halloween party when it was at Disneyland occured.

They must be switching performers pretty frequently then - because they more performances they have, the more cas they're required to have, per the last Equity contract with Disney I found a while back (for WDW, but Disneyland is apparently similar). Of course, shorter shows means they can do more of them per week without switching out actors - it's why Nemo got cut at AK significantly. Here, since I don't think either of those got major cuts... It's probably Disney didn't want to pay for it. Which is sad, considering in the 80's and 90's Disneyland had a big stage show, in most cases multiple of them, daily.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

A show to Disney standards is surprisingly expensive - in the round of maybe $25 million a year for a mid-sized show with very few special effects.

Live entertainment in general is surprisingly expensive. If you want or need quality actors, tech.’s and stage managers that right there is going to be a large operating cost. Then add designers, directors, casting, producers, writers, etc. and it really adds up.

 

[TP2000]

Live entertainment in general is surprisingly expensive. If you want or need quality actors, tech.’s and stage managers that right there is going to be a large operating cost. Then add designers, directors, casting, producers, writers, etc. and it really adds up.

It's a shame Disney doesn't charge people money to get into the place.

If they started charging money to get into the park, they could maybe afford to do a stage show.