Should Disney World’s Cirque du Soleil show be replaced by something more Marvel-ous?

Jim Hill

14 years ago

Have you heard about this survey that’s been making the
rounds? The one that asks people who’ve previously attended performances of La
Nouba (i.e. that Cirque du Soleil show that’s been entertaining WDW visitors on
Downtown Disney‘s West Side since December of 1998) about a possible
replacement for this popular nighttime show.

There are two questions in particular on this survey that
have got themed entertainment insiders buzzing. The first asks:

“Let’s imagine that
Cirque du Soleil opens a new show in Downtown Disney at the Walt Disney World
Resort, right next to where you attended La Nouba. How likely would you be to
attend this new show if you were to go back to the Walt Disney World Resort?”

The second then solicited people’s opinions about possible
show concepts for this La Nouba companion show ” … that Cirque du Soleil could (possibly)
open in Downtown Disney.” Among the concepts that this survey mentioned were:

A show based on the Disney characters
A show created specifically for kids ages 6-14
A show based on a Hollywood blockbuster movie (like Avatar)

Survey participants were also asked if they’d like to see a
clone of one of Cirque du Soleil’s other shows built at WDW. To be specific:

Another family-friendly show (comparable to La Nouba)
An adult sensual cabaret – like Zummanity
A magic show like Chris Angel Believe
A true classic Cirque du Soleil production – like Varekai
A Water Show – like O

So what exactly is going on here? Is Cirque du Soleil
serious about possibly setting up a second show at Downtown Disney? Not
exactly, no.

No, what this survey is really all about is what happens in
this corner of Walt Disney World come 2013. To be specific, what Downtown
Disney will be like after construction of the Hyperion Wharf project is
complete.

Let’s remember that one of the main reasons that WDW
management pulled the plug on Pleasure Island was because they were working to
improve Guest flow across Downtown Disney. Not have that gated collection of
nightclubs, shops and restaurants that sat at the center of this 120-acre
complex continue to serve as a defacto barrier between WDW’s original shopping village and the West Side expansion which opened back in 1997.

This is why Hyperion Wharf – in addition to having an
innovative array of new dining, shopping and entertainment experiences — will
feature wide-open spaces. A relaxing lakeside park as well as enhanced
pedestrian walkways. Which will then make it that much easier for WDW visitors to
cross this complex.

Which brings us back to that Cirque du Soleil survey. Truth
be told, what Disney’s really looking to do here is – once construction of
Hyperion Wharf is completed in 2013 – is come up with a compelling new carrot
for Downtown Disney’s West Side. Give WDW Guests (who nowadays tend to cluster
in that relatively small area between Rainforest Café and the World of Disney store)
a reason to wander all the way over to the other side of this complex and then once
again sample some of the West Side’s shops & restaurants.

And in the Company’s eyes, the easiest way to do this is by staging
a brand-new spectacular inside of that 9-story circus-tent-like structure that
sits at the edge of Lake Buena Vista.

“But would Cirque du Soleil really build a new show around the
Disney characters?,” you ask. Well, let’s remember that – in the 12+ years that
Mickey and this Québec-based company have been in bed together – Cirque’s
creative team have built staggeringly entertaining shows around the lives &
music of Elvis Presley, the Beatles and (coming soon to a city near you in
October of 2011) Michael Jackson. So is it really all that hard to believe that
they could do the same with the Disney characters?

More to the point, let’s remember that – these days – the
library of characters & stories that Cirque du Soleil could draw from
extends far beyond the Fab Five. They now include the Muppets plus all of the characters from the Pixar & Pirates of
Caribbean films. Not to mention all of those comic book favorites that the
Company acquired with its purchase of Marvel Entertainment, Inc. back in 2009.

In fact, when I was talking with a Company insider earlier
this week, they actually floated the idea that this new Cirque du Soleil show might
be the way that the Marvel characters finally make their way into Walt Disney
World. As they explained this somewhat convoluted situation to me:

“Those licensing agreements that Universal and Marvel worked
out in the 1990s are very specific about what can and can not be done with
Marvel’s characters inside of a competing theme park on the East Coast. But
Downtown Disney isn’t a theme park, is it? Which gives the Company’s attorneys a
loophole that they could potentially explore if Cirque du Soleil actually wanted
to pursue this idea.”

So what do you folks think? Would a show like “Spider-Man
Turn Off the Dark” (with fewer people falling & injuring themselves, of
course) be a compelling enough reason for you to return to WDW’s Cirque du
Soleil theater? More importantly, pony up $120 for a seat as well as revisit
some of the shops & restaurants on Downtown Disney’s West Side? If not,
what sort of Cirque-style entertainment would you like to see replace La Nouba?

Your thoughts?