Lack of a Night Time Show aka 'The Void That Needs to be Filled"

[RocketChk]

My husband and I were talking about this the other night, and my rant in the Entwined thread reminded me of it.

I believe that there is a serious need for the return of an extravagant night time show. After a day of being in the park, or even a couple hours, it was nice to know that I still had a 9:15 showing of Imaginique or Kinetix. Or squeezing in a little bit more time in the park by staying for the 10:00 show. It gave you something to look forward to before the drive home. I also feel like it was kind of like a cooling off period, or a time to wind down before leaving the park. Almost like a night cap.

These shows were exciting. Entertaining. Fun. Every show was a bit different, enough to get you to want to come back to the show as much as you can. I can honestly say that there is absolutely no show right now that I want to see (until HoS), much less more than once after the initial viewing. These shows appealed to even the non-show goers. Case in point: my husband. Hates going to shows. Cringes at the mere mention of the words Monster and/or Stomp. The man said he missed Kinetix. I about fell over and died, but it proves that these really were a big part of the BG experience and are truely missed by all types of park goers.

I really hope the park considers reviving the magic that used to be in RPT. The addition of the seats and the fact that Tampa used Imaginique's production company last year gives me a grain of hope. Illuminights doesn't count. I don't want to see snipits of shows in different venues.

I want what we used to have. And I want what was taken away from us.

 

[Haberdasher1973]

You eloquently expressed what I briefly touched on in my blog post: I think Illuminights was an admirable experiment, but I'd rather see the budget that's currently spent on numerous smaller so-so shows (not to mention the cost of nightly pyrotechnics) spent on one or two Illuminights-style performances per night instead, sitting in RPT at the end of a long day in the park.

You really summed it up: "cooling off," "time to wind down" and "night cap."

 

[Zoomy]

I agree completely. We would be there early for whatever show they had, then take turns getting icecream from the parlor in France. I don't think I've gotten icecream there since there was a show at RPT.

 

[CoolDrMoney]

I'm 100% with you on this. The summer of '02, when Imaginique was running nightly with the full lighting effects, and the bubble machines, and the music change over was the best summer of my Busch Gardens-going life. I appreciate Illuminights -- it's better than the nothing it replaced -- but a full-time, fully committed nighttime show was the perfect end to a day at the park.

I hope that with all the new-and-improving they're doing, they can find the money to put a major show back in the RPT (preferably, Imaginique).

 

[Pretzel Kaiser]

I saw a suggestion on another blog to make Entwined a late night show. They could tweak it to make it more like Imaginique in presentation. It would be a better location than the Festhaus.

DoctorMoneyMD: It's good to see you back.

 

[mbarker12474]

I saw a suggestion on another blog to make Entwined a late night show. They could tweak it to make it more like Imaginique in presentation. It would be a better location than the Festhaus.

DoctorMoneyMD: It's good to see you back.

Agreed. Something for the grownups.

Unfortunately, it seems the park is moving in the opposite direction, by removing live musicians from the Festhaus and from Ireland (town square combo). And:

-- not having a 30 to 40 minute length show
-- removing singing from the Italy show, in a show without
a (strong) tangible plot or story
-- gearing the Entwined Show towards younger children, with their
moms and dads enjoying the show because their children enjoy it

The primary consumer of the amusement park is the 14 to 20 year old roller coaster rider, with cash in his pocket for food and souveniers. The second consumer of the park is the 8 to 14 year old child, who rides the rides and then sees a show and eats with cost conscience mom and dad. The third consumer is an adult couple without children, who desires a high quality, full-length show with a plot, story, theme, individual singing and speaking talent, and the full spectrum of music, dancing and visuals.

The Irish dancing show is the closest BG show to meeting the desires of this third consumer. Turn this into a 90 minute production, with a changing production every 30 days, and adult couples would come to the park just to see the show. (And have a nice dinner at a nice restaurant, and stroll through some pretty gardens created for this purpose.)

The current staff of talent performs the same short production four times a day, seven days a weak, for the entire summer. And they do no other regular performing. Some of this talent could be diverted into the park as attention-getting devices (the strolling musician or the street corner band), and some of this talent could be directed into larger productions, and night time productions.

 

[pandorazboxx]

Some of them actually do the Celtic Dyne dinner show. You should check it out. It's not so much a production, but some of the cast dances and shows you some dances and plays you some music as you eat dinner.

 

[mbarker12474]

Some of them actually do the Celtic Dyne dinner show. You should check it out. It's not so much a production, but some of the cast dances and shows you some dances and plays you some music as you eat dinner.

Yep. This is a clever idea.

It also pushes toward the business move of making individual employees "stars" and talent known by their personal names.

When the audience fan can touch and speak face-to-face with a member of the employee talent, this not only has a strong emotional impact on the fan, but could have a multiplicative effect with potential new audience visitors.

People are more attracted to going to see a show featuring "Joe Blough and Mary Schmoe and the Irish Dancing Team" than they are going to see the "Irish Dancing Team."

In any event, the performers throughout the park are highly talented. The singing in the Entwined show is very good, for example, regardless of whatever else one thinks of its staging, target audience, etc.

 

[Haberdasher1973]

Saturday night, I caught Tampa's version of KINETIX - while it was no Imaginique, the energy of the show and the skill of the performers were both insanely good. There were a few moments when I was literally on the edge of my seat, forgetting to breathe...

It felt so good to have a big, sit-down nighttime show to look forward to again, instead of running from one area to another to catch shorter shows.

After the curtain calls, the audience was thanked and told to look to the skies as the cast gestured out beyond the audience. The audience stood, turned around, and the fireworks began. It was a really incredible way to end the day...