As part of a pretty hefty news dump, Disney has announced opening dates for two new shows at Hollywood Studios. In this post I’m going to discuss the announcement and, my favorite topic, how this impacts touring Hollywood Studios this summer.

The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure debuts May 27

New at Hollywood Studios beginning May 27 will be The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure. This show replaces to old Voyage of the Little Mermaid show, which never reopened after the 2020 closure.

Here’s a quick snippet of how Disney describes the show, followed by some concept art and discussion:

Nestled in Animation Courtyard, Ariel, Flounder, Sebastian, Prince Eric, and more will take to the stage to retell the classic story of The Little Mermaid. This fully reimagined show will feature stunning set pieces, imaginative costumes, cutting-edge effects, skillful puppetry, and a bold new design aesthetic that captures Ariel’s imagination and emotions through her unique view of the world around her. Source.

Despite the description, I think you can see from the concept art that the big-picture structure of the show remains largely unchanged. It’s a dark theater that uses bright puppetry to tell the Little Mermaid story.

As we’ll discuss later, Hollywood Studios gets a lot tougher to tour with two new shows. I’m not bothered by this particular one playing it a little safe—keeping the old IP and overall design while giving it what looks and sounds to be a glistening polish.

Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After debuts May 27

And also on May 27, the brand new Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After show will debut. This show takes over the space formerly occupied by Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, back behind Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

Again, here’s a quick snippet from Disney and discussion of some concept art…

They’ve broken through the Magic Mirror’s glass — now what? This immersive musical stage show brings the most devilish foes into our world to figure out, once and for all, who is the most misunderstood. Who has had the worst time as a villain? It’s time for these baddies to share their side of the story in a show full of theatrical magic, witty humor, and plenty of mischievous charm.
But in the end, it’s you who decides who has been treated the most unfairly. But…choose wisely. You never know who might have a poisoned apple up their sleeve. Source.

Two things capture my eyes in this concept art. First, you’ve got all the audience heads. This reminds me of how small the Lightning McQueen Racing Academy theater was—there are more people in that art than were ever in that theater. It’ll be interesting to see what this show’s capacity winds up being and how Disney manages what will likely be very high demand (virtual queue, anyone?).

Second, the portraits on the top and sides of the frame catch my eye. Racing Academy had a huge wraparound screen. It looks from the edges of this image that the screen will remain in some form. It might even still exist behind the stage, too. This is overall a bit surprising because of—again—the size of the theater. It really feels like they’d need to demolish those screen in order to fit a reasonable number of people in here.

I’m interested to see how this potential mix of stage and screen plays out. It could work out magnificently. It could look really awkward and forced. Or I could be wrong, because my interpretation of concept art is just that, and maybe the screens are just gone, which makes more sense in terms of using the space.

How Does Hollywood Studios Touring Change on May 27?

Okay, first thing’s first—we don’t know how many showtimes these shows will have. We don’t know if they’ll have Lightning Lanes. We don’t know if they’ll have virtual queues (I think Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After should probably try this, but we’ll see). So, this is all a bit preliminary at this point.

Hollywood Studios is already a fairly challenging park to tour in a single day. It’s got a relatively small ride lineup that’s heavy on popular rides—this means you’ve got probably four rides where you’ll either have long waits or just accept whatever Lightning Lane time you can get.

This isn’t a huge problem in itself—fitting nine rides into 12+ hours is usually possible. The challenge comes when you’re also forced to fit these rides around show schedules. Starting May 27 there will be five top-notch shows at the park, and some only have five total showtimes.

Again, this sounds simple enough—if every show has at least five showtimes and there are five shows, you should be able to find amenable show times. But the problem is there’s a chance you’ll continually find yourself with 30-minute blocks to fill between shows.

Without Lightning Lanes, 30 minutes won’t be enough to get a ride in. Even with Lightning Lanes, a 30-minute block isn’t usually going to work out well because you still have to walk to a ride, wait in a Lightning Lane (frequently for 10 minutes), spend time on the ride, and then walk to your next show.

The poor, unfortunate bottom line here is that spending money on Lightning Lanes at Hollywood Studios will be more important than ever (how villainous of Disney!). This isn’t because you need Lightning Lanes for the shows (you might, and we don’t yet know whether these new shows will have Lightning Lanes), but rather because building your schedule around the shows requires short waits for the rides. And you’ll still need some luck or thoughtful scheduling to get your Lightning Lane times to lineup with the shows.

The alternative is simply to plan not to see all the shows. I think this is totally reasonable, frankly. I think Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After will be “must-see”, and with its small space it will probably be the toughest to get into.

I’m also a big fan of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and the Frozen Sing Along (more fun for adults than you’d expect). But I’ll probably put The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage pretty low on my list most days. Ideally I’ll fit them in, but this is going to be a park where prioritizing is necessary.

Which show are you most excited about come May 27?

All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered

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