Mousekingdom Blog

As the Los Angeles Times reports (http://www.vegasblog.latimes.com) the Las Vegas hotel and casino Mandalay Bay (http://www.mandalaybay.com) just announced that Disney’s Lion King will takeover the large theater of the complex from the current tenant “Mamma Mia” in 2009.

The final curtain for “Mamma Mia” will drop in January allowing the technical crew enough time to bring in the mechanic elements and set pieces for Disney’s worldwide smash hit. Previews are scheduled to start April 20, 2009 followed by the official premier on May 2nd. Pre-sales donor seem to be open at this time and no date could be found so far.

The show will be presented as an exact copy of the original Broadway show, just as all over the globe. With this decision Disney differs from many prior stage musical productions in Las Vegas which often were not only restaged but underwent major changes to the script shortening the shows (e.g. Phantom of the Opera or Starlight Express). However those were trailblazers for stage musicals I. Las Vegas and the huge success of “Mamma Mia” might have convinced Disney Theateical that theirfull show will be accepted by the regular visitors of Las Vegas as well - ad those have changed a lot in the recent years.

So if you are planning a visit to Disneyland Anaheim as of next spring you now have an extra reason to consider a side-trip to Las Vegas, don’t you think??

Pick a city and write a proposal about turning it into a Disneyland park. If you do so you might win a 5000 euro prize (approximately $7066) from a famed academy.

It happened to British economist John Kay who proposed to turn Venice into Disneyland.

“Only one man can save Venice: Mickey Mouse, the city is already a theme park and should be handed over to Disney — they would do a better job of running it.” (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Istituto Veneto rejected the idea, but still thought is was briliant enough to give Kay a prize for his idea and proposal.