Country Rocks and Reflections

So today, I was reading a topic on laughingplace.com, which led me to watch both "Dream Lights" and "Fantilusion" (Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris' night parades) and then to watch the High School Musical Pep Rally from Disney's Hollywood Studios.
I've never seen high school musical, It's not that the idea appalls me, I really like musicals, however the idea of staring at Zac Efron for more then an hour does slightly put me off. Either way, I understand that it is a strong franchise, with powerful money-making potential. Which first of all makes me jealous of Disney for having this amazing outside product to bring into the park to create a successful show, and second of all because it is a small outdoor show with a small stage, and yet it manages to create lots of hype during it’s 15 minute performance.

Here at SFGAm, we have two outdoor purely musical shows, Country Rocks, and Reflections: Sounds of the 80s. Not to mention Spirit of America, Great American Idol, Manny B. and Serpent Safari, as well of course, Operation Spygirl. But it really got me thinking about Country and 80s. Both are very popular musical genres, with very good songs, and yet no one stops to watch them? Why is that?

Could it be the small casts? The Low volume? The low-energy dancing? The Off-putting staging areas (I don’t think they even deserve to be called stages)?

D. All of the above.

If they had even put maybe two or three more dancers in each show, I imagine they would have almost automatically had more energy. Not to mention the ever-present problem which also plagued Dead Man’s Party, and that’s Low-Volume. I had trouble understanding any lyrics in DMP, and even if you were slightly out of range of either of these “pop-up” shows then you couldn’t even notice they were singing. PUMP UP THE VOLUME six flags! If you want people to watch the shows, make people aware they are happening!

Next, and this is a problem that was present in every show for many years now, Show Stoppin’ being the notable exception. The choreography. These are mostly dancers that you’ve hired, give them something challenging and high energy to do. If the audience can watch and say “whoa good dancing” then the mostly mediocre singing will not be so distracting.

Finally, I think the biggest problem with these two shows are, as I said, the off-putting staging areas. The Country Rocks stage was too high, and placed so that the sun was in your eyes no matter where you stood because it was only performed in the afternoon. And reflections looked like a joke. I actually heard a woman comment “that’s the stage? I was expecting more.” Guests should come with high expectations and have them exceeded, not completely deflated.
So my suggestion is to take a leaf out of High School Musical’s book. And spend some money on stages that can move. Even if they are dragged out by SUVs or trucks. And give your dancers something to work with, and have speakers that can project more then just a few feet. Plus, just the moving stage will attract spectators, even if just to see what’s going on, then you have to deliver a product that will keep them watching.

I really liked both these shows, but even the general public could tell they were put together half-cocked. Considering we’re trying to expand our entertainment offerings, and we just leveled a theatre, we should probably be pouring money into our other shows to keep people watching.

Well? What do you think?