Disney California Adventure has a new show at the Hyperion Theatre and it’s one that was born from a silly gag from Disney+’s Hawkeye. In the series, Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) takes his kid to see a Broadway musical in New York called Rogers: The Musical – the story of Captain America and the Avengers. Clint makes fun of the musical as there is a scene depicting the Battle of New York, with a song called “Save the City” (written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman).
“Ant-Man wasn’t even there,” Clint explains to his kids.
Flash forward to a year and a half later, Rogers: The Musical is now a reality!
Like everyone on the internet, Dave Bushore, Vice President of Franchise Creative Marketing at Marvel Studios, and Dan Fields, Executive Creative Director at Disney Live Entertainment, knew they had to make this into a real thing.
Fields told the audience during a Q&A, “Hey! We’re Disney Live Entertainment! We can do that! So, that’s really what we set out to do and with this amazing team of collaborators and many collaborators who are behind the scenes in the park.”
Of course, the series already had the story based on Steve Rogers and how he became Captain America. But, the creative team wanted to focus on Steve and his love story with Peggy Carter.
“Great love stories make great musicals,” said book writer Hunter Bell, star and writer of the Tony Award-nominated [title of show]. “So much great musical theater is based on a love story. So when we honed in on Cap having all these adventures in the films, there’a a compass and there’s Peggy. We honed in on that love story of Cap and Peggy.”
In the musical, Steve Rogers is a scrawny but brave kid from Brooklyn who wants to fight in the war, but is turned away due to his health issues. But, scientist Dr. Erksine and Agent Peggy Carter see something special in Steve and recruits him for the Super Soldier project, which turns him into the Captain America we all know and love. We all know what happens there, he is frozen and found by Nick Fury and joins the Avengers — performing “Save This City,” but that’s not the conclusion to the story. The musical grants Steve his fairytale ending – with the help of Old Man Steve and the time stone — to be reunited with his love, Peggy Carter.
The show will have five all-new songs with music by Grammy-winning composter Christopher Lennertz and lyrics by show director Jordan Peterson, Lennertz, and Alex Karukas. “Star Spangled Man” (written by Alan Menken and David Zippel), from Captain America: The First Avenger, is also performed in the show.
Bushore wanted the story to be similar to what Clint was feeling on the show watching the musical, but through the eyes of Steve Rogers, “I was thinking about watching the show from Hawkeye’s perspective and when you’re watching “Save the City’ from Hawkeye’s perspective, it’s very emotional in the show because that’s [his] life. If Steve Rogers were to sit in the audience today and watch this show, I had a feeling he’d be like, ‘that’s a pretty great life.’”
Rogers: The Musical is playing at Disney California Adventure this summer.