Chapter 129
Tuppence a Bag

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(Originally posted January 4, 2014)

Tracy had been wanting to go to the Sephora booth all day to get her makeup done with the new Ariel collection, but the lines had been ridiculous each time we’d walked by. Now we had a little time to kill, so we decided to wait.

Here was the end result.

I loved this board with directions to draw your favorite Muppet. If we had been able to take out the time, our favorite Muppet would have been Beaker (of course).

We had places to go, however—and by that, I mean we had to go get in line even though it was still almost 4 hours until the concert was set to begin. The Disney Legends ceremony was well underway in the Arena, which meant that the line for the concert was forming. The holding area for the Arena line had about 40 rows that were starting to fill up—I think we were in about row 12(?). From what I heard later, though, some of the last rows didn’t even get a spot in the Arena itself. In the end, we were glad we waited as long as we did even though it was a pain at the time.

While we waited, Tracy and I both took turns wandering around the show floor a little so we didn’t literally have to sit there for 3+ hours. I went first and saw that the cast of Good Luck Charlie was doing their meet and greet at the Disney Channel stage.

I also saw this great cosplay of The Redhead from Pirates as I wandered around.

We had brought two trader Vinylmations with us to see if we would be able to get anything good in exchange for them, but the Vinyl pros shot me down. I’m glad that cast members have to trade pins and vinyls in the parks because I really don’t like interacting with other actual collectors. They’re always so snobby about their collections.

I went back for a final look at the WDW Radio booth (we knew that the Expo would be over for the day when the concert ended, and we weren’t coming back for day three…).

When I got back to Tracy, the Legends ceremony had let out and this is what the Arena line looked like.

She wandered around next, checking out several different booths. She saw someone walking into a “backstage” entrance and thought he looked like a dead-on cosplay person dressed up as Captain Hook from Once Upon a Time. When she got back to the line, she looked at Twitter and found out it had actually been the real actor himself!! No wonder he had looked so realistic!

Tracy also grabbed us some dinner (even though it was only about 4:00) because we knew the concert would go right through dinnertime. We ate an Italian wrap and a pretzel with cheese, both of which were actually pretty good.

After we’d waited what seemed like an eternity, the crowds began to get to their feet and we prepared to be ushered into the Arena.

The whole process was pretty slow, but we finally got to the doors where we would almost be let in. Suddenly, off to the side of the doors, we saw a face we recognized. Josh Strickland (who had been part of the Broadway and Beyond concert the previous night) was familiar to us because we had watched Holly’s World on E!—which followed Holly Madison after she moved out of the Playboy Mansion. I went to take a picture of him, and he waved at us.

It was funny as we filed into the actual Arena to realize that we hadn’t been into this venue yet in spite of the fact that we’d spent two full days at the Expo. It was another reminder just how many different things go on at once during this weekend-long event.

We were led to our seats, and we were very happy with our spot. We had joined the line just late enough that we were in some of the first raised rows—which was great for Tracy because she always has trouble seeing over people when we have to sit in rows of chairs that are all on one level.

There were all sorts of trivia questions being asked on the big screen, and we entered our guesses several times by texting the correct answer to the number given. It was all very interactive, which I thought was fun.

Finally, right before the concert was about to start, the screen switched over to show this image.

Here is how the event was described on the official D23 schedule: Richard M. Sherman and Alan Menken: The Disney Songbook (For one night only, two of the world’s most celebrated songwriters and composers will take to the stage. Richard Sherman and Menken have won a combined 10 Academy Awards for their work with Disney, and have composed music and songs for more than three dozen Disney feature films, over two dozen Disney Park attractions, and half a dozen Disney musicals on Broadway).

Obviously this was quite the credentialed pair of composers, and Tracy and I were beyond excited to see both of them.

Once again, I’ll describe our personal experience at the concert, but I think that every Disney fan would appreciate seeing the whole event for yourselves. You should absolutely watch this video so that you can see how magnificent the whole experience was. It’s so long that it had to be broken into two videos, but here is the Richard Sherman portion:

[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW2oO5jzxcU” ]

And here’s the Alan Menken portion:

[kad_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9A2mn8XfBc” ]

As the houselights went down, Disney historian Tim O’Day (who was to be our emcee for the night) came out to welcome us to the concert.

When the two Legends were announced, the audience truly SPRANG to their feet in a standing ovation that lasted well over a minute.

After they both got their welcome, Alan Menken went backstage and Richard Sherman began the concert. Most of the concert (if not all?) went chronologically. Sherman relied on a sort of banter with Tim O’Day during which the two would discuss the songs and the movies before he would sing them. Some of my absolute favorite moments early on in the Sherman portion came when he sang “Let’s Get Together” from The Parent Trap and several hits from Winnie the Pooh.

When he sang the actual song “Winnie the Pooh,” he actually forgot the lyric “silly willy nilly old bear,” and you could just hear as the entire audience fed him the line because we ALL know these songs. One of the great things about the Sherman brothers’ music is just how catchy and bouncy and genuinely HAPPY all of the songs are. I think that’s one of the reasons they’ve endured as long as they have.

His one minor memory lapse aside, I think it was also incredible just how SHARP Richard Sherman seemed in spite of the fact that he’s in his late 80s. This program would have been ambitious for someone half as old, and all I can say is that I hope I’m as spry at that age as he is!

At some point early on in the concert, we discovered that we had a “singer” seated almost directly behind us. She must have been about our age, but she literally sang along with EVERY song (even the REALLY obscure ones)… I never know what to do in that situation, so we mostly just tried to position our heads so that our ears weren’t pointing too much in her direction.

After covering his massive Disney film repertoire (except the biggest one), Sherman moved onto all of the songs he and his brother had written for the parks. It’s amazing when you think of how his contributions like the Tiki Room song and “Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” truly MAKE the attractions, and they have been heard by so many millions of people over the years.

Of course, before Richard Sherman could retire the microphone for the night, he had to talk about his and Robert’s most memorable undertaking—Mary Poppins. Since this has always been one of my favorite movies, of course this was the Sherman section I was most excited for.

He started off talking about “Spoonful of Sugar” and welcomed Jason Schwartzman and BJ Novak (who played the brothers in Saving Mr. Banks) to come out and sing the song with him.

He covered several other songs (I should note that he told amazing stories about every song along the way, and about working with Walt).

I think we were all waiting on baited breath for when the subject would turn to Walt’s favorite song, “Feed the Birds.” I’d heard Sherman tell the story about this song in interviews before, but I think hearing it in person from the horse’s mouth was an experience I can’t even explain. When he sang the song, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house, and the audience leapt to their feet in a standing ovation.

Next, he told the story about singing “Feed the Birds” at the dedication of the Partners statue (in honor of Walt’s 100th birthday) and about how a single bird flew by out of a clear blue sky. I think we all lost it again at that point.

After performing such an amazing canon of work, Sherman was done (for now), and he exited to a deafening ovation.

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