Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical
Creature From the Black Lagoon: The Musical was a live performance show formerly located at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park in Los Angeles, California. It debuted on July 1, 2009, replacing Fear Factor LIVE. As of March 9, 2010, this show was officially closed. The musical at Universal Studios Hollywood was loosely based on the basic plot of the 1954 Universal film.
| Creature From the Black Lagoon – The Musical | |
|---|---|
 Promotional artwork for Creature From the Black Lagoon: The Musical. | |
| Universal Studios Hollywood | |
| Area | Upper Lot |
| Status | Closed |
| Opening date | July 1, 2009[1] |
| Closing date | March 9, 2010 |
| Replaced | The Land of a Thousand Faces (1975 - 1980) Castle Dracula Live Show (1980 - 1983) The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular (1983 - 1992) Beetlejuice's Rock and Roll Graveyard Revue (1992 - 1999) Spider-Man Rocks (2002 - 2004) Fear Factor Live (2005 - 2008) |
| Replaced by | Special Effects Stage |
| General statistics | |
| Attraction type | Live Show |
| Theme | Creature From the Black Lagoon |
| Duration | 25 minutes |
Plot
The show began with a clip from The Today Show with Matt Lauer, talking about the Creature. The premise was that Universal made the film based on a real creature, and a new team of explorers were on a second expedition to investigate, the principals being Kay, Mark & David (all characters which also appeared in the original film).
Aboard the Rita, the Captain (which in this version, is an Amazonian woman - a voo-doo Shirley Bassey) leads the cast in the opening number, “Black Lagoon".
Kay vents her romantic frustrations with her fiancé in the second song, “Slay Me". The song recreates the famous "swimming sequence" from the original movie, in which Kay swims while the Creature observes her below, tantalized.
The next song is “Prime Evil", in which everyone sings about the Creature. To the dismay of the cast, the Creature climbs onto the boat and joins the song.
The Creature kidnaps Kay and takes her back to his lair, which bears a resemblance to an underwater grotto bachelor pad. This is where the Creature and Kay bond during their duet, "Strange New Hunger". Mark and David, Kay's fellow scientists, rush in to save Kay. The Creature tells her his name....Gill! He gets shot with a tainted speargun, with results that soon become clear.
Back aboard the Rita, the scientists hear massive footsteps. It turns out the spear that pierced Gill had fallen into a supply of "human growth hormone" and the Creature, now 25 feet high, appears. Kay sings an encore of “Strange New Hunger", rising to the level of the Gill's face on a vine. Before he can stop himself, the Creature eats her...and the Captain sums up the unpredictability of love with an encore of "Black Lagoon".
History
Due to the recent unpopularity of the park's former Fear Factor Live show, the attraction went down for improvements in spring 2007 and early 2008, both failing to outperform their previous versions. Because of this, Universal closed the attraction on August 14, 2008, confirming that it would soon be replaced by a Creature From the Black Lagoon-themed show titled Creature From the Black Lagoon- The Musical to open the following Spring. Fred Barton served as composer and co-lyricist, Gerard Alessandrini served as co-lyricist and co-director. Peter Fish provided additional music and Lynne Taylor-Corbett received final credit as choreographer and director. Jonathan Tolins is the scriptwriter, and the production is co-produced by Marc Routh and Broadway Attractions. Due to lack of audience interest, "Creature from the Black Lagoon: The Musical" was closed temporarily in mid September. On March 9, 2010, Universal Studios Hollywood revealed that the attraction had been officially closed. On June 26, 2010, the venue reopened with an updated version of the lower lot special effects show entitled Special Effects Stage.
Location
The show was located in the Castle Theater located in the Upper Lot (Entertainment Center), which has hosted many shows in the park's past including The Land of a Thousand Faces, Conan the Barbarian, Beetlejuice's Rock and Roll Graveyard Revue, Castle Dracula Live Show, Spider-Man Rocks and Fear Factor Live. The theater has also served as a location for horror/comedy themed shows during the park's Halloween Horror Nights annual event.
Construction
The attractions former tenant began demolition in August 2008, with construction following shortly after the same month. Set design was rumored to begin in October 2008. Construction walls were built around the attraction in December 2008. The show finally opened in July 2009.[2]
Closure
As of October 2009, during a performance of Bill and Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure for Halloween Horror Nights in the building, parts of the sets caught on fire, and the building had to be evacuated during these incidents so the fire could be put out. This resulted in fire and safety code violations in the building, and it remained closed after Horror Nights, with the show not re-opening. It was scheduled to start performances again in January 2010, but due to lack of audience interest, it was left closed. Pieces of the set are said to be seen in the Tram Garage area. The boat is now a prop in the Special Effects Stage show, and the giant creature is on-stage behind the screen on the left. On March 9, 2010, the park announced that the show was officially closed.
Opening debut
The attraction held its grand opening debut on July 1, 2009. Julia Adams, the leading lady from the original 1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon attended the premiere.[3]
See also
- Universal Studios Hollywood
- Creature From the Black Lagoon
- Universal Horror
- Universal Monsters
- Gill-man
References
- Brady MacDonald. "'Creature From the Black Lagoon: The Musical' coming to Universal Studios Hollywood in '09 - Seriously!". Los Angeles Times.
- George, Susan A. (2016). "Creature from the Black Lagoon, The". In Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew (ed.). The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters. Routledge. ISBN 9781317044260. OCLC 1019829071.
- "Photo Flash: Universal Studios Hollywood's 'CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON' Rock Show". BroadwayWorld.com. 2009-07-02. Retrieved 2018-10-27.