Rogers the Musical Review

Rogers the Musical Review

Recently we went and saw Rogers the Musical at Disney California Adventure Hyperion Theater. His is a limited run show and is scheduled to end its run August 31^st, 2023. Here are my thoughts. Spoiler Alert!  I will be telling you about the show.

 

Hyperion Theater is a approximately 2,000 seat theater in the Hollywodland area of Disney California Adventure. It has a very retro 1920’s feel. It is state-of-the-art as far as sound and effects. To get tickets to see this live stage show you can join the Virtual Queue or join the standby. To join the Virtual Queue you open the Disneyland App and go to join Virtual Queue at 10 am or 2 pm. Just keep refreshing the page and hopefully you will get a spot. You will be assigned a return time for the show. It is advisable to get to the theater about an hour early. This is a 3-story building and if you have problems with stairs I suggest you request Orchestra Level. You can just show up about an hour early and join the Standby Line and hope there is room for you.

 

Rogers the Musical based on a short sequence in the Disney+ Christmas Serries, Hawkeye. In the TV show they show Hawkeye watching the play with his children and dreading how silly it makes the Avengers look. I kind of equate what I saw to being so bad its good like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. In the TV show we just saw the stage actors acting out what they thought the Avengers did to save the world.

 

While you wait for the play to start you will listen to 1940’s music being played on a large radio on the set. This sets the mood for the play and is a lot of fun. This play does not take itself seriously. It is just seriously FUN!!

 

The show is a Musical so there is LOTS of singing and dancing. You get to see the transformation of Steve Rogers from scrawny kid to a super soldier. He stumbles over his tongue when he talks to Peggy Carter. In the 4pm 08/11 showing there was a young lady in a wheelchair as part of the cast.

 

I loved the moral of this little play. I came away with don’t tire of doing the right thing and don’t be afraid to reach out for the good you want. It is also very Red, White, and Blue patriotic!

 

SPOILER ALERT!! STOP HERE IF YOU DON’T WANT THE STORY!:

 

The show starts much like the first Captain America movie with Steve trying to join the army. He meets Peggy Carter and gets tongue tied. He is transformed and goes on to do his War Bond bit and then off to fight the war. His exploits are show off in very cartoon ways. He ends up crashing, like the movie in the artic. He wakes up 70 years later and starts to fight modern bad guys. You see his attitude of I can do this all day. He is getting tired of the fight and Old Steve shows up and tells him to go back in time where he stays with Peggy. This basically ties all of the Avenger Movies together in one little 45 minute play.

Aladdin the Musical from Screen to Broadway

Aladdin the Musical from Screen to Broadway

 

The music of Disney’s Aladdin is engaging and captivating. It is no wonder this movie made it to the stage.

In 2001 Aladdin the Musical Spectacular came to the Hyperion Theater at Disney California Adventure Park (DCA). This play is an amazing 45 minute long life stage show worthy of being on Broadway. You would pay almost as much as you do to get into the park just to see this play in a professional/Broadway caliber theater.

The Hyperion Theater in the Hollywood Land section of DCA is a Broadway caliber theater that seats 2,400 guests. There are multiple set changes and the performers are changing costumes frequently. The carpet flies overhead several times and several times during the show you wish your head was on a swivel so you can see it all!

They stayed faithful to the story, as portrayed in the movie. They did leave out Abu and Rajah due to the difficulty of bringing them to life on stage. They added a song, “To Be Free” to lengthen the play and replace the scene where Jasmine pours her heart out to her bet tiger, Rajah. It shows you her emotional need to be free.

Here is a video of a performance of Aladdin from DCA:

Several years ago Disney announced they were taking Aladdin out of DCA and replacing it with a play from the Disney Cruise Line (DCL), Toy Story the Musical. When loyal fans and Annual Passholders found out they banded together and let their voices be heard and kept Aladdin in the Hyperion. The fans were correct! Aladdin needed to stay.

When the Fantasy join her sister ships in the DCL the Aladdin plan was adapted and added to the ships evening line up of entertainment. I’ve not seen this version of the stage play but from the short clips of video I’ve seen it is quite similar to the play in the Hyperion at DCA.

Now Aladdin is joining the lineup of Disney movies to make their way to Broadway stages! Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins, Lion King, Little Mermaid and Newsies are a few of the Disney movies that have gone before. I honestly believe that Aladdin the Musical will make a great addition to the Disney Broadway lineup if it is even half as good as the version that is at the Hyperion! I have heard that new songs have been added to the play. Some songs that did not make it into the movie were brought back for the Broadway version.

So watch the lights of Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theater in the Spring of 2014 to be lit Gene Blue! Beware of flying carpets and mysterious tall, dark ugly men that look better from Ja-far.