The first (official) seasonal event in two years is on at Tokyo Disney Resort, with both parks looking back on past entertainment in short bite-size greetings. We were on hand for the very first one, which looked back on the classic “A Table is Waiting” stage show, which played at the Dockside Stage from 2011-2017 and featured the Disney Friends showing off the cuisines of the world with songs, dances, and kooky costumes!
The greeting features Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Chip, and Dale all in their “A Table is Waiting” costumes. The show made its debut back in 2008 as part of the Disney a la Carte event, and returned in 2011 as part of the park’s 10th Anniversary “Be Magical!” celebration, where it lasted until March 2017.
The main focus of the greeting was of course Mickey and Minnie, who came out in their outfits from the show’s final segment and grand finale. The show itself had a rather strange concept, acting as a sort of sequel to the show which preceded it, “Over the Waves”. In “A Table is Waiting”, Mickey and friends have returned from their cruise around the world, and have brought back foods from around the world to share with the guests at the park. Using the costumes in the greeting, which was fairly barebones, we’ll describe the original stage show.
Once the show opened, Chip and Dale would come out first, representing Mexico, singing about how much they love tacos in an original song called “My Tacos Is Wonderful”.
Donald would come out dressed like a hot pepper and dance along with dancers (also dressed like peppers) to “Hot Hot Hot”, the iconic ’80s dance hall hit.
After Donald ate too many peppers, his beak would swell and turn red, transitioning into the India section of the show, which featured Daisy Duck and Bollywood-esque dancers accompanied by a rendition of “Spice Up Your Life”, the 1997 Spice Girls song.
Leaving India, we would transition to the United States with Pluto, who acts as a cheerleading coach of sorts, with dancers dressed as hamburger condiments and holding rifles shaped like French fries marching out on stage to Sousa standards and “Yankee Doodle” before lettuce cheerleaders pump up the crowd at “halftime” with “Rockin’ in the USA” by KISS.
The weirdness only continues, but it was wonderfully charming in person. After halftime, the condiment dancers came out again and stacked on top of each other to form a human hamburger.
The main course followed, with Goofy dressed halfway between a bento box and traditional Japanese garb to represent Japan. The tunes of two traditional Japanese songs were adapted with new lyrics for the show to describe different possible contents of bento boxes (and Japanese foods in general) as a traditional Japanese omikoshi portable shrine accented by fake foods and four inflatable shrimps was paraded through the audience.
Finally, Minnie represented the desserts from France that would close out the show’s world tour. Lumiere would try to get all of the courses in order before disaster would strike on stage and everything fell apart. And of course in the end, he succeeds and the entire group of Disney friends as well as many of the global dancers would come on stage for an encore of the show’s theme, ending with confetti and “Bon appetit!”
It was by far one of the stranger shows in the history of Tokyo Disney Resort, but one that was beloved by regulars and day guests alike because of its novelty and goofy nature. I remember seeing it my first trip in 2016 and absolutely fell in love with how crazy it all was! Seeing the costumes and hearing the theme song again brought back so many memories, and it’s nice to get a nod to such a beloved show, even if the nostalgia sheen is wearing off after two years of the Oriental Land Company milking it.
If you’re interested in watching the original absolutely bonkers show for yourself, you can check out a video of the final performance above.
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