By Joey Aguilar/Staff Reporter

Leading the cast included Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy who enthralled hundreds of spectators during the opening night yesterday.

Carlton Meier, performance director at Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival, told Gulf Times that they have conducted seven days of rehearsals to prepare for the Qatar show.

“The Disney Live brand is a pretty standard procedure so the same quality, the same expectations that an audience coming in will be met,” he stressed. “It is a very high quality and high level of production”.

Comparing it with the “Disney On Ice Celebrates 100 Years of Magic” held in 2013, Meier describes the new show as more intimate and theatrical. Audience, he added, will feel “a little bit more connected and involved” in a smaller place.

The whole production has produced 299 costume pieces while a total of 45 people are performing on stage: singing and dancing the greatest hits from the blockbuster movies of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Disney Pixar’s Toy Story.

Meier noted that Disney On Ice’s success has inspired them to bring another wholesome and entertaining Disney show to Doha.

“Children can feel more involved. I mean you are this close to Mickey Mouse and that is amazing,” he said.

Disney Live has also brought together 11 Turkish cast with four of their old performers. About their preparations, he finds the rehearsal space adequate giving them a large open space without mirrors.

He said they had spent enough time on stage for the timing, setting up the props and mastering the choreography.

The performance director disclosed that Disney Live had been performed in many languages such as Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese but not yet in Arabic. 

Meier, a native of Texas, has performed at Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and a special events dancer for Tokyo Disneyland. He has provided choreography for Star Wars Weekends, ESPN-The Weekend and The Power Ranger at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.  

Brittany Eubanks, who portrayed Ariel, has assured the audience that they will put up a fun-filled show for five days in the country.

“There is singing and dancing that we want the audience to participate in,” she said. “I believe it’s a bonding experience for the entire family.

She admitted that the rehearsal process was more challenging than the actual performance since the latter is all fun in front of a huge crowd.

Eubanks started performing when she was four years old after her mother enrolled her in a ballet class.

In a press statement, Sport and Entertainment Solutions CEO and Founder Ali Haidary pointed out that they want to bring quality family entertainment shows to the region.

“It is important that we make these world-renowned shows accessible to the Middle East,” he added. The show recently completed a tour of Turkey and Cyprus.

Organisers has added a new performance today starting at 3:30pm for everyone to see the lively musical extravaganza.

Priced at QR150, QR250, QR375 and QR1,000, tickets can be bought at Virgin Megastores and www.virginmegastore.qa.