A new stage show called “Disney Junior Dance Party” will be coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios this fall, replacing the park’s current attraction based around the kid-centric Disney Junior television channel.
“Disney Junior — Live on Stage!” has been running in some form at the theater in the park’s Animation Courtyard since 2001 under its original title of “Playhouse Disney – Live on Stage!” It occupies the space which once housed the Soundstage Restaurant, which lasted from the park’s opening in 1989 until 1998.
The puppet-led show has been changed several times over the year as different Disney Junior characters were swapped in and out. The current version has shown its age by featuring two shows—“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and “Jack and the Never Land Pirates”—which have wrapped up their runs on television.
The new show shares a name with a live concert currently touring around the U.S. as well as a show at Disney California Adventure which replaced that park’s version of “Disney Junior — Live on Stage!”
It’s being promoted as a “high-energy, live show experience” which will remove characters from older programs and bring in some of the channel’s newer shows like “Mickey and the Roadster Racers,” “Vampirina” and “The Lion Guard” while retaining characters from “Doc McStuffins.”
“The new ‘Disney Junior Dance Party’ is a musically infused, interactive concert, hosted by Finn Fiesta and a DJ – named Deejay, of course – who involve you in all the fun, including live appearances from some of your favorite characters, fun music from Disney Junior and much more,” said Shawn Slater, senior communications manager for Disney Parks Live Entertainment.
If Disney exports the same concert-style show seen in Anaheim to Hollywood Studios, guests can expect to see full-sized costumed characters in place of the previous show’s puppets.
The change is just one of many coming to Hollywood Studios over the next 18 months. After years of attractions closing, guests will begin seeing construction projects pay off beginning with the opening of Toy Story Land on June 30, featuring two new attractions and a relocated entrance for Toy Story Midway Mania.
2019 will see even bigger changes starting with Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway replacing the shuttered Great Movie Ride. That will be followed by the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge in fall 2019, which is expected to draw some of the biggest crowds in the history of Walt Disney World.