Tokyo Disney Sea

The last several days have been a blur of activity and so I’ll try to just hit the high spots in order not to annoy either of my readers. On Thursday we checked out of the Tokyo Dome Hotel and headed out to Tokyo Disney Resort. Disney on Classic (our tour) is collaborating with Disney Resort to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of Disney in Japan. Disney Resort now includes Disneyland, DisneySea, several hotels, a shopping mall and a new Cirque’ du Soliel theater. A cool monorail circles the park and shuttles guests between several stations.

The event was an invitation-only series of 4 concerts in the Broadway Theater at Tokyo DisneySea. This was all a bit nostalgic for me because I did the soundtrack for the show that opened that theater in 2001. Many of my friends still work there and seeing them brought back happy memories of the hours we spent together creating that show. But bringing a live concert event into a theme park setting is a bit like teaching a dog to walk on its hind legs. It can be done but the results may look a bit artificial. Theme park shows are meticulously planned to exclude anything unexpected or improvisational. Once installed, they don’t change. By contrast, live concerts allow performers latitude to create (within limits) based on the needs of the moment. Every day is different and the show grows and develops with each performance. Theme park shows are brief - typically 20-30 minutes, whereas our concerts are 2 1/2 hours (including intermission). I must confess that the theme park need for control elicited a bit of the inbred rebelliousness which American performers exhibit when they feel they are being are dictated to. So there was a bit of a “dance” as we all tried to figure out the best way to bring these two together. Then there is the “Mickey Factor” which means that we’re all working for Mickey. But when all was said and done the live symphony orchestra, singers, large cast of Disney Characters including Mickey and Minnie created an irresistible hour of entertainment for those lucky enough to get a ticket. I’m not sure it was a good concert but it was an entertaining hour nonetheless. We did this 4 times and called it a (long) day.