Less than one week after the closing of the Magic Kingdom's historic stage show "Dream Along with Mickey," refurb walls are already up at the castle front. In the gallery at the bottom of this article, you'll find all of the pictures of work being done in preparation for "Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire," the new castle show coming this summer. Aside from tasks included in typical refurbishment processes, many aesthetic aspects will be modified on the castle stage. The most noticeable change thus far has been the removal of "the lift," In "Dream Along with Mickey," the finale would consist of Mickey and Minnie coming together on the righthand side of the stage (from the guests' point of view) and the floor would rise--- furthering the magical, whimsical atmosphere designed to show that anything was possible. By guess-timation, the "riser" that Mickey and Minnie were on was probably about 15-20 feet from the castle stage surface. Deleting that element from the stage makes you think if something else will be added. Work is also being done on the surface of the stage, where the dancers and character perform. All of the flooring has been torn up as of right now. Contractors will not just be replacing the floors, but they will also be narrowing the surface area of the stairs that performs use... minimizing the margin for mishaps while creating more room for choreography. This show is going to feature more characters than we are used to seeing: You have 5 VIPS, Louis, Olaf, 1 queen, three princesses, 1 prince, 1 smolder-wearing heartthrob as well as multiple ruffians and other supporting dancers. It has not been confirmed on how many characters will be on stage at a time, but it seems safe to believe the 5 VIPs will introduce the show, then, each storyline will have their own stage time (with Mickey and Minnie making appearances in between) and then a finale of some sort. A lot is still to be announced regarding the storylines of this show because it's missing elements that WDW fans have been so accustom to in shows of this caliber. In recent debuts and shows, there would always be a certain message that Mickey and friends would focus on, but then a villain would come in and try to steal the show.. the performance would always come to an end with dreams, wishes and of course Mickey coming out on top. There will be no villains in this show, and the assumed storyline is that Mickey is giving these stories (other movies) to Minnie as a gift. Without villains, that means opportunity for pyro is minimized and there will be a lot of pressure to get the choreography right because there is no sense of conflict in the storyline... leaving the guests to pay attention on other aspects of the showing. Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire is scheduled for a Summer 2016 opening, but it's believed guests will start seeing the show during the last week of June. From what we know so far, the young children are going to be floored by the performance because WDW has not had a show (aside from parades) with 3 new-age princess storylines, rather than the classics. As always, everyone will expect to be blown away by what Disney has to offer, and it seems like they will once again exceed expectations.
