In case you ever needed to see the Avengers’ Captain America and Nick Fury sing and dance their approach via a mini-musical about Cap’s life, nicely, it’s time to go to Disneyland.
Disney and Marvel have teamed up for Rogers: The Musical, a half-hour stage present at Disney California Journey’s Hyperion Theater in Anaheim, Calif., that premiered on Friday (June 30).
The brand new one-act present – which is filled with goofy humor and a spread of musical kinds – grew out of a short sequence in an episode of the Disney+ collection Hawkeye in 2021. Within the present, the title character (an Avenger himself, performed by Jeremy Renner) attends a displaying of Rogers: The Musical, and the track “Save the Metropolis” is carried out by characters taking part in Avengers. Each the musical and “Save the Metropolis” grew to become fan favorites, with the latter producing simply over 1 million on-demand official streams within the U.S., in response to Luminate.
Billboard acquired a sneak peek on the new manufacturing the day earlier than its premiere, which was adopted by a panel dialogue with the present’s artistic staff.
“We have been like each fan,” mentioned Dan Fields, government artistic director, Disney Reside Leisure through the panel. “We noticed [‘Save the City’] and mentioned, ‘I need to see the remainder of it! I need to see all of Rogers: The Musical!’ However then we realized, ‘Hey, we’re Disney Reside Leisure, we will try this!’ In order that’s what we got down to do.”
Followers can be comfortable to know: “Save the Metropolis” seems in full within the real-world Rogers: The Musical manufacturing, together with seven different musical numbers.
Rogers: The Musical is scheduled to run via Aug. 31 at Disney California Journey. It’s the primary present on the almost 2,000-seat Hyperion in additional than three years, because the COVID-19 pandemic shut down its earlier manufacturing, Frozen – Reside on the Hyperion, on March 14, 2020. Nothing has been introduced by Disney if Rogers: The Musical can be staged in different Disney Parks or properties (akin to Disney Cruise Line).
In Rogers: The Musical, we observe Steve “Captain America” Rogers over 70-plus years – from his origin as a scrawny soldier-turned-beefy superhero within the Forties via his teaming with the remainder of the Avengers and his long-simmering love story with Peggy Carter. The present’s guide was written by Hunter Bell, whereas Christopher Lennertz is the musical’s composer, conductor and arranger.
“[It] was actually vital to all of us, [show creator and director] Jordan [Peterson] and Hunter and I … to provide everybody — each musical theater followers and superhero followers — one thing they’d love concerning the music,” Lennertz mentioned. “And the truth that we get to span 70 years and do all the things from ‘40s-style huge band jazz to a singer/songwriter fashion pop tune and clearly the Nick Fury patter track meets ‘Uptown Funk’ — it’s the concept of giving everybody one thing that they’ll seize onto and actually really feel prefer it’s a part of their story too.”
The Nick Fury patter track Lennertz calls out is the tune “What You Missed,” during which Fury explains – via track and dance – to a just-awakened Rogers (who has been asleep for 70 years however hasn’t aged) what’s occurred over the past seven a long time.
Dave Bushore, vice chairman of franchise artistic and advertising and marketing, Marvel Studios, recalled through the panel a memorable second when he and Fields offered a preliminary model of Rogers: The Musical to Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios.
Bushore mentioned, “We’re sitting in Kevin’s workplace, me and Dan…” Fields: “And Kevin says, ‘Nick Fury sings? That ought to be on the billboard!’ He mentioned, ‘Embrace that, lean into that!’”
Sean Teegarden/Disneyland Resort
Along with the present’s songs, theatergoers can be handled to pre-show music piped in from an onstage radio. It performs period-appropriate jazzy tunes, together with a track that references “Elias & Co.,” a retailer inside Disney California Journey, named after Walt Disney’s center identify, Elias. There’s no phrase on if any of the music from the present (together with the pre-show alternatives) can be launched commercially or via streaming companies.
With Rogers: The Musical bringing a stage present again to the Hyperion after greater than three years, it’s one other approach guests to the park – typically younger followers – will get to expertise reside musical theater, maybe for the primary time.
“For lots of people who come to our parks, they could not have had numerous expertise coming to theater — to conventional theater,” mentioned Fields. “However right here’s a chance to mix a love of theater with a love of superheroes proper right here in a theme park. It is a actual present for households, whether or not you already knew the story of Steve Rogers or not. So hopefully everybody’s discovered one thing to get pleasure from within the present.”