Should Disneyland expand their Candlelight Processional shows?

[WatchYourHeadNStep]

Well the WDW list is out and still no news from DLR out here on the left coast!

WDW narrators:

November 24 - 26 David Robinson
November 27 - 29 John O'Hurley
November 30 - December 2 Rita Moreno
December 3 - 5 OPEN
December 6 - 8 OPEN
December 9 - 11 Steven Curtis Chapman
December 12 - 14 Maureen McGovern
December 15 - 17 Kirk Cameron
December 18 - 20 Lou Diamond Phillips
December 21 - 23 Cuba Gooding Jr.
December 24 - 26 Gary Sinese
December 27 - 30 Marlee Matlin


I think DLR needs to expand their shows to include more of the Hollywood stars considering this is LA! Not to mention CLP started at DLR first! WDW always steals what DLR did first and makes it better!!!

WE WANT MORE CANDLELIGHT PROCESSIONAL SHOWS! AND WE WANT THEM IN DECEMBER!!!!

[brigeet]

Please post when you hear who the DLR narrators will be!

I have never been to this. I think this year will have to be the first time. I guess I always thought it was an invitation only type of thing. Sounds cool!

[SCUBAbe]

sure expand them, but for gods sake move them off of main street. that was beyond crazy!!. I was so happy when they canceled them the next day...

[WatchYourHeadNStep]

sure expand them, but for gods sake move them off of main street. that was beyond crazy!!. I was so happy when they canceled them the next day...

Cancel Snow White during the holiday season and move it to the outdoor theater! What a perfect venue for each weekend until December 25! WDW has their own outdoor theater just for this....PERFECT!

[SCUBAbe]

Cancel Snow White during the holiday season and move it to the outdoor theater! What a perfect venue for each weekend until December 25! WDW has their own outdoor theater just for this....PERFECT!

that would be perfect...

[Experiment626]

Isn't this the last time Snow White's musical thingy going to be on stage...ending at the end of the summer?

[JiminyCricketFan]

I don't know. I like the procession down Main Street. WDW has so little "procession" (they just cross the street) I cannot understand why they call it a processional.

I would not mind if they had it BOTH places. Still hold the same weekend in December with all the tradition of Disneyland, but then have performances in the theater the rest of the holiday season with rotating guest narrators. So you could still have a "processional" just that one weekend, but then have the concert the rest of the season.

[DisneyFunGuy]

Personally, I think having Christian recording artist, Sandi Patty would be an awesome choice for narrator!! If you remember, see is the one who sang the lead vocal for the firework show (BELIEVE) before the 50th show came on board.

Come on, Disney, ask Sandi, she'd make a perfect choice!!

[TP2000]

Why change tradition? That Procession has been on Main Street since Walt started it in '58 (with a couple of years in the Fantasyland Theater when Cynthia Harriss was in charge).

At WDW, the program is marketed more like a nightly dinner show with lots of meal n' ticket packages sold through Disney travel agents. At Disneyland, it is still exactly what it was originally designed as by Walt; a special performance designed to thank the sponsors and business associates of Disneyland for a great year. Walt never offered up seats to the regular day guests, those seats were for the park sponsors families and local Anaheim businesses who worked with Disneyland. Since the failed attempt at moving it to the Fantasyland Theater, they have backfilled some of the seats with people who purchase dinner packages at the hotel.

Personally, looking at the list of "celebrities" that WDW got, I have to laugh. I have never even heard of half of those people, and the three I have heard of are definitely on the C- List (Is there a D List for celebs? If so, the C- List is being generous for these folks). Rita Moreno? She's still alive? Kirk Cameron? Wasn't he on a sitcom during the late 1980's? Has he done anything since? And Maureen McGovern? The only Maureen McGovern I know is the gal who sang the love song in The Poseidon Adventure back in '72. Or was it the love song from The Towering Inferno in '74? I forget. But is that really her?

Lou Diamond Phillips, I do know that name. He was in a movie in the 80's, right? But I mainly know who he is because he was arrested this month for beating up his live-in girlfriend in a San Fernando Valley tract home. Assuming he makes bail, is he still invited to EPCOT Center to tell the story of Baby Jesus?

[Opus1guy]

What I like about Disneyland's Main Street & Town Square Candlelight is that it is the continuation of a long tradition started by Walt...and it is much more charming than the thing Marketing & Entertainment put together in Fantasyland Theater and heavily advertised to sell more tickets to the Park.

The original Town Square Candlelights were not built to sell more tickets to the Park and in fact were rarely advertised. Just two nights and mostly locals might know about them and even folks visiting the Parks by chance those 2 days might not know they were happening.

Even now, Disneyland's Town Square Candlelight's are run are completley different than Walt Disney World's current version (if you can call it that). At Walt Disney World, this is a regular scheduled major entertainment event with far-in-advance bookings that span performance dates over many weeks, and is heavily advertised.

At Disneyland...they've always been known to pay nothing or next to nothing (scale) for their Town Square Guest Speakers. At Disneyland...it's usually always been more of an "invite" than a "hire." It was a long local tradition that many celebs knew about and often wanted to do for free!

What happens is they usually invite the "big name" who they want and that person (if interested) usually gives a conditional agreement to appear. What this means if that they will appear if no other better big buck offers come up and they remain available. They usually agree to finally give their firm commitment one way or the other X number of weeks prior to Candlelight. And it's usually not that far in advance.

Walt Disney World "contracts" and pays their speakers same as any other sort of paid "talent" performance agreement.

Therefore, Disneyland usually has a back-up "short list" of possible speakers that they know they can get at short notice. Very often they have to fall back on this backup list, as their first choice becomes unavailable near the last moment. You can often tell if they had to fall back on the backup list by the "stature" of the person that ends up showing up.

Because of this special nature of Disneyland's Town Square Candlelights...they don't usually advertise far in advance who the Guest Speaker is, because they don't know for sure if they will be able to make it. And they don't want folks to be making their plans just because who the Guest Speaker is...because it's very possible that that Guest Speaker might not show up.

I guess you could say that at WDW...Candlelight is all business. Something which Disneyland's has tried to resist (sometimes unsuccessfully) over the many decades of this great Disneyland holiday tradition.

[Hyperbole]

Cancel Snow White during the holiday season and move it to the outdoor theater! What a perfect venue for each weekend until December 25! WDW has their own outdoor theater just for this....PERFECT!

Maybe I'm confusing things with another Xmas carol event, but I saw the candlelight thing at the former Videopolis stage just a couple of years ago. The guy who did the voice of Cogsworth was the narrator.... I think. I wasn't impressed.

[TP2000]

Maybe I'm confusing things with another Xmas carol event, but I saw the candlelight thing at the former Videopolis stage just a couple of years ago. The guy who did the voice of Cogsworth was the narrator.... I think. I wasn't impressed.

Yes, for a couple years around the turn of the century they moved Candlelight Procession to the Fantasyland Theater. The internet message boards were full of howls of protest and it was generally decreed a failure. They moved it back to Main Street after two years.

[sediment]

It might be nice if they were after-hours events during the week.

[stinkerbell]

And Maureen McGovern? The only Maureen McGovern I know is the gal who sang the love song in The Poseidon Adventure back in '72. Or was it the love song from The Towering Inferno in '74? I forget. But is that really her?

I get your point, but Maureen is an incredible singer and has been performing on Broadway these last many years. Just saw her in Little Women last week and she was the highlight of the show for me.

But Kirk Cameron, oy. John O'Hurley? Please! David Robinson? The basketball player?

Yeah, I don't get the casting on this.

I won't ever go for Disneyland's, it sounds so horribly crowded. We planned our upcoming trip and last year's around NOT going to the processional.

[Hyperbole]

Yes, for a couple years around the turn of the century they moved Candlelight Procession to the Fantasyland Theater. The internet message boards were full of howls of protest and it was generally decreed a failure. They moved it back to Main Street after two years.

Okay, that makes more sense. Thanks TP2000!