The global pandemic has been a complicated thing for Walt Disney World to navigate to say the least. After being closed for several months the theme park resort began to slowly reopen while managing capacity, staffing, social distancing rules and more. Needless to say, it also pushed back a lot of the plans that Disney World had in 2020. Many new attractions were delayed, some are still, as far as we know, on ice. However, one highly anticipated attraction now finally has an opening date. After missing its original 2020 grand opening date, the Disney-themed Cirque du Soleil show Drawn To Life is now set to debut on November 18, and tickets go on sale this Friday.
Yesterday Disney World confirmed its biggest pandemic loss to date. The NBA Experience, a Disney Springs location that had only been open a few months before the closure, is staying closed for good. But while one major Disney Springs building is staying empty, another is about to fill once again. The previous Cirque du Soleil show ended its run at the end of 2017, and the theater that housed that show, will finally debut a new show in November. Check out the trailer below.
While the previous Cirque du Soleil show at Disney Springs, La Nouba, did not have a specific connection to Disney, Drawn To Life is an exclusive show that takes its cues from Disney Animation. The trailer shows the tools of animation being used as props for the performance and we see classic Disney characters appearing in some of the images on the screens behind the performers. While the actual look at the show is minimal, this is the first we've actually seen of what the show will look like.
Drawn To Life was originally scheduled to go into previews on March 20, 2020 and officially open on April 17. Of course, since Walt Disney World shut down on March 15, 2020, that didn't exactly happen. The good news is that the show is now almost ready. The combination of Cirque du Soleil and Disney feels like something that could be quite special and from what we've seen here, it looks like it really is.
And with the closure of the NBA Experience, having Drawn To Life there will be all the more important. Disney Springs is a shopping and dining complex that doesn't require Disney World tickets to enter, and so it relies much more on normal visitors that the rest of the resort. A show like this has the potential to draw not simply visitors to the theme parks but Florida residents who are simply looking for a fun night out, even if they wouldn't normally go to theme parks. And with the ticket sales will comes food and merchandise sales giving the resort a financial boost.
Tickets are set to go on sale in just a few days, August 20, so if you're looking to see one of the first shows you only have a little time to put together your plan. And there's one special reason that grabbing tickets to the very first Drawn To Life show might be worth it. November 18 is Mickey Mouse's birthday.
