The newest addition to Disney California Adventure at Disneyland Resort isn’t an exciting ride based on a popular animated film; rather, it’s a Broadway-style stage musical based on Captain America. Rogers: The Musical has gone from being a punchline in an episode of Hawkeye to becoming a real thing. And make no mistake, Disneyland’s Rogers: The Musical is a legitimately great show. It feels like the creators really did their best to try and make the show as close to a real Broadway production as possible, which leads me to the question: could Rogers: The Musical actually end up on Broadway?
I am forced to believe that not only could such a thing happen, I think there just might be a chance that the show’s purpose at Disneyland Resort, or at least one of them, was to test exactly these waters and see if a real Broadway run was possible. There’s a lot about Rogers: The Musical’s production which is unusual for a Disneyland stage show, but would make a lot more sense if this show is acting as a sort of Broadway workshop. I've been following and studying the theme park industry for a long time, and this isn't the first time we've seen a scenario that looked like this.
Rogers: The Musical Is Very Different From Your Average Disneyland Resort Stage Show
When Rogers: The Musical was first announced to be coming to Disney California Adventure, we were told the show would only run for a “limited time,” but those words tend to have a different meaning in the theme park world than elsewhere. Theme park trips need to be planned, and unless you live close by, nobody can just drop everything and head to Disneyland. So even limited-time attractions tend to run for several months, or as long as a year.
Instead, Rogers: The Musical is currently nearly halfway through a run that will only last two months, i.e. not even the entire summer. And it gets worse because the show doesn’t even run seven days a week. While it has several performances daily, the show is completely closed on Sundays and Mondays.
The reason for this very limited performance run, as I understand it, is that Rogers: The Musical only has one cast. This is very unusual. Most Disneyland stage shows, like the ones that have appeared at the Hyperion Theater at DCA prior to Rogers, tend to have multiple people who can play any role, that way performers can take days off, get sick or quit, and the show can still happen multiple times a day, every day, for years. When DCA built a rock band out of Alice in Wonderland characters, fans who went to the shows regularly tended to have favorites among the various performers who played each role.
Only having one cast explains the limited schedule, as that cast obviously needs rest, but the question to ask is why? Disneyland has musical performers coming out of its ears. Certainly plenty of people could be found who can play the roles and sing well enough, but it seems that 'good enough' wasn’t good enough here. I’ve heard that most, if not all of the cast actually came from New York. If true, that would indicate that Disneyland decided to go to the source to get actors that either have Broadway experience or perhaps are on the bubble of stardom, and they were willing to relocate for a couple of months.
That’s a lot of work and expense that, to be blunt, Disneyland didn’t need to go through, but there was obviously a goal to go the extra mile and make these shows special, with not just good performers but the right ones, in each of these roles. It reminds me of a time that Disneyland was previously used to showcase music, with the goal of something much larger.
Rogers: The Musical Creation Feels A Lot Like Another Time Disneyland Was Used To Promote Musical Performance
Back in the summer of 1981, for a period only slightly longer than Rogers: The Musical will run, a sci-fi rock band called Halyx performed on the Space Stage in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. As covered in Matthew Serrano’s excellent documentary film Live From The Space Stage: A HALYX Story, the band wasn’t created by Disneyland, but was instead the creation of Walt Disney Records. The concept of the band was that it would be a visual spectacle, made up of science fiction characters that were as entertaining to look at as they were to hear.
Auditions were held and the band was assembled, but they needed a place to play. Since these performers had never played together before, they needed a spot where they could learn to be a band and maybe drum up some early buzz. Luckily, Disney had a place where bands regularly performed that was always full of people: Disneyland.
Eventually, it was decided that Walt Disney Records was too small a label to handle Halyx properly, and they went looking for partners. The Disneyland performances were also a great way to bring in other record executives so they could see the band in a live concert environment. Disney came very close to getting Warner Bros. to snap up Halyx, though at the last minute, the executive who wanted to sign them left WB, and his replacement had no interest. The whole thing fell apart. Eventually, the band broke up because people who make a living making music need to go out and make music.
While the Halyx experiment didn’t ultimately work the way all involved had hoped, it came very close. If nothing else, it proved that Disneyland can be used as a place for talent to bake until it’s ready. So is that what’s happening here?
Could Rogers: The Musical At Disney California Adventure Be Building Toward Something Even Bigger?
There are a lot of obvious similarities between Rogers: the Musical and Halyx. We're talking about a group of talented people, specific people, who are being presented as the show. It's not just the concept, it's these specific performers, and they won't be here forever. And with apologies to other theme park shows, Rogers: The Musical, like Halyx, is on another level when it comes to the talent involved both on the stage and behind it. It's already one of the best attractions at Disney California Adventure
Considering all the time, effort and, one assumes, large quantities of money that have been spent to create Rogers: The Musical, it’s hard to believe the show is going to end on August 30. Even if there were plans to bring the show back after the Halloween and Christmas holidays, one assumes that the current cast is only signed through the end of the current run, and again, that's the only cast there is.
So could Rogers: The Musical at Disney California Adventure be a test balloon for Rogers: The Musical on Broadway? It would be an easy way to show everybody, both key executives inside Disney and part of Broadway in general, that such a show could be viable. As more people see the show this summer, Disney can make an honest judgment regarding how successful it was and if a bigger version of the show might be something people would pay to see.
Even if all this isn’t an intentional move by Disney, there’s always the possibility it could happen anyway. If the right executive sees it, or if the grassroots reaction gets loud enough, perhaps we could see Rogers: The Musical become something more. It almost happened once before, and maybe this time it will actually happen.
