It’s showtime! “Rogers: The Musical” has premiered at Hollywood Land’s Hyperion Theater in Disney California Adventure. While it was performed in a preview yesterday for media and select D23 Gold Members, today was the debut for the general public. The new one-act musical is inspired by the fake Broadway show seen in “Hawkeye” on Disney+.
To see the show, guests can purchase the Premium Viewing Experience, join a virtual queue, or try for standby. The virtual queue is not required but recommended. The Premium Viewing Experience is $29 and has very limited space — it sold out within an hour of becoming available on opening day.
Watch our full video of “Rogers: The Musical” below and keep scrolling for photos.
Rogers: The Musical Video
‘Rogers: The Musical’ Photos
Audio plays, seemingly from a retro radio onstage, while guests take their seats. The audio includes a musical commercial for Elias & Co., a store in Disney California Adventure named after Walter Elias Disney and his father.
The radio station is KBVS for Buena Vista Street (K is assigned to commercial radio stations west of the Mississippi River).
A safety announcement 10 minutes before the show includes the sentence, “The stars are out tonight, amid the glitz and glitter of this bustling young movie town, and they’ve gathered right here at the Hyperion Theater, a beacon for the show business elite.” Parts of this line are lifted right from the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror pre-show. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was previously part of Hollywood Land, not far from Hyperion Theater, but was re-done to become Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!, now part of Avengers Campus.
The show is hosted by the “monarchs of melody,” the Starkettes.
The show starts with a big opening number that introduces the man of the hour, Steve Rogers, and sets the stage for his story to come.
We even get a quick introduction to Peggy Carter in the opening number.
We also get an appearance from Bucky Barnes, later known as the Winter Soldier, in this number.
After a quick motif of Captain America’s theme, we begin the next number, in which Steve laments not having his chance to serve in the army due to his physique.
Despite his heart and desire to try, he is turned away from multiple attempts at enlisting.
Eventually, Steve meets up again with Peggy and Dr. Abraham Erskine, and they recruit him into the Super Soldier Serum program.
And so, begins the next song, “Star Spangled Man.”
The Starkettes take on minor roles in the show, like nurses. They serve as a chorus of sorts, similarly to shows like “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Eventually, Steve enters the chamber small and scrawny, and exits strong, handsome, and taller!
Steve then takes his place as the “mascot,” Captain America.
The screen behind the stage simulates Steve’s travels through America to boost morale and “help sell war bonds” as Captain America.
Peggy then arrives to tell Steve that his best friend Bucky’s division was captured and is being held behind enemy lines. Of course, Steve resolves to save Bucky, and anyone else he can.
This marks the next song in the show, a duet between Steve and Peggy. They promise each other to go on a date when Steve returns.
We then reach a montage of Captain America taking on Red Skull and saving Bucky’s division from enemy capture, all set to a reprise of “Star-Spangled Man.”
Peggy calls in for a status update from Steve, who delivers bad news. Despite taking over an enemy Hydra aircraft packed with enough explosives to wipe out the East Coast, there is no option left but to crash the plane into the Arctic.
Steve asks Peggy for a raincheck on their date, for Saturday at eight, just before his communications cut short.
After a bit of audio implying the passage of time, we arrive in a hospital room, where S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury is waiting to greet Steve Rogers after being “asleep” for nearly 70 years.
Nick Fury brings plenty of laughs to the show with his own number, where he tells Steve exactly what he missed while he was “asleep.”
The billboards of New York City are full of Easter eggs, like Stan’s Heroes deli and World Exposition of Tomorrow.
Fury fills Steve in on everything, from the creation of emojis to spoiling the original trilogy of “Star Wars.”
Eventually, Steve stops the number and Fury shares his idea: to bring together a group of people to accomplish a task, to become something greater — The Avengers.
At this point, the Avengers join the stage, and we start to get to the point of the musical that fans saw in the Disney+ series, “Hawkeye.”
Steve eventually gets his supersuit, which in this show is just a leather jacket with motifs inspired by his costume.
The number everyone’s waiting for finally arrives, “Save the City.”
The Avengers take on Loki in New York City, a battle you might remember from “The Avengers” feature film from 2012.
At the end of the song, an overhead announcement references other battles that the Avengers took part in during the films, including “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Captain America: Civil War,” and “Avengers: Infinity War.”
Eventually, Steve meets up with an aged, older version of himself after the events of “Avengers: Endgame.”
The two have a conversation, and old Steve reminds young Steve just what, and who, are waiting “at the end of the line.”
Eventually, old Steve uses the Time Stone to send young Steve back to have his date with Peggy.
Projections on the screen show images of the past and future, including the current holder of the Captain America mantle, Sam Wilson.
As promised, Steve eventually showed up for his date with Peggy, on Saturday at eight.
Eventually, the Avengers and USO dancers join them onstage, as they sing and share one last kiss.
The Starkettes then return to the stage for one last reprise of “Save the City.”
Nick Fury returns for one last handshake in the final number.
Bucky and old Steve also share a last farewell.
And Hulk gets in one last “smash!”
The cast take their final bows to an instrumental version of “At the End of the Line.”
In honor of “Rogers: The Musical,” Disney California Adventure has a new guidemap. There is also a small collection of “Rogers”-branded merchandise. A “Rogers: The Musical” photo op is available by Hollywood Lounge.
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