Explaining the show-about-a-show concept of the new “Rogers: The Musical” that riffs on the Marvel Cinematic Universe with an insider’s knowing smirk can be challenging for even the Disney and Marvel creative teams that collaborated on the project.
“It’s the life story of a fictional character being told in a real setting on a fictional TV show and here we are making a real musical based on that fictional setting,” Disney Live Entertainment Executive Creative Director Dan Fields said.
If your head is already spinning, then “Rogers: The Musical” might not be for you. But if the high-minded concept sounds intriguing or makes perfect sense, then you’ll probably love the new Broadway-style musical based on the life of Captain America coming to the Hyperion Theater at Disney California Adventure on Friday, June 30 for a limited run.
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Fields doesn’t think “Rogers: The Musical” is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“We weren’t trying to point to the cinematic universe,” Fields said during a video interview. “We were trying to use the language of musical theater, the music of movement and stagecraft to tell a story that was a riff on what superhero fans may see in the movie theaters or on Disney+.”
The backstory for the new Marvel musical at DCA will follow the journey of Steve Rogers from his service in World War II to becoming Earth’s first known superhero to the birth of the Avengers.
Marvel fans were introduced to the fictional “Rogers: The Musical” in the first episode of the Disney+ series “Hawkeye.” In the show, Hawkeye attends a performance of the Broadway musical about the life of Rogers, the first Captain America.
“In the show, all the Avengers are invited to New York for the premiere of the brand new, showstopping musical but only Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, shows up,” according to Marvel.com.
“The MIA Avengers don’t know what they’re missing, though, as viewers are treated to a musical number based on The Battle of New York … though a few creative liberties have been taken here and there.”
Disney Live Entertainment drew inspiration from the “Save the City” song performed in the “Hawkeye” musical theater spoof and the comic books to create the new 30-minute one-act stage show starring Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Ant-Man and Hawkeye.
“We have plenty of experts in the superhero business here,” Fields said. “We brought in our musical theater, musical staging and music experts to really create that palette for us.”
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Rhys Thomas, who directed the “Hawkeye” episode built around the Broadway musical, told Polygon in 2021 that that the consciously silly tone of “Rogers: The Musical’” was a balancing act for the creative team.
“You realize, like, oh, we’re making an MCU musical in the MCU,” Thomas told Polygon. “So how good is it? How bad is it? It needs to be absurd. So finding that line, which I feel like is a line that I find myself constantly trying to walk: You’ve got to take it seriously, but just not seriously enough.”
“Rogers: The Musical” will take its tonal queues from the Marvel character interactions and shows in Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure.
“Our shows in Avengers Campus are familiar but they’re also fresh,” Fields said. “We’re not replicating anything. There should be things that will feel familiar, but you’ve just never seen them like this.”
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Disney Live Entertainment collaborated closely with Marvel Studios on “Rogers: The Musical.”
“There has developed a great sense of trust where they have said, ‘You have proven that you know, love and respect our characters and that you do right by them. So go tell the story you want to tell,’” Fields said. “We get to create something new that’s adjacent to the thing that our fans really love.”
Disney cryptically teased the upcoming run of “Rogers: The Musical” at the Hyperion during a live performance at the D23 Expo in September at the Anaheim Convention Center. D23 attendees watched a surprise live performance of “Save the City” from the musical during the Marvel Studios panel.
The new “Rogers” musical coming to DCA’s Hyperion will feature “Save the City,” “Star Spangled Man” from the 2011 film “Captain America: The First Avenger” and five new original songs written for the show.
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