CHILDREN’S MUSEUM BENEFIT : DISNEYLAND CELEBRATES 30TH BIRTHDAY AT BOWL

Disneyland annexed Caheunga Pass Sunday night for its 30th anniversary party--a spare-no-expense benefit performance for the Children’s Museum, staged at just slightly less than the scale of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics.

As if claiming the territory for Greater Anaheim, platoons of students from Bell and Huntington Park high schools marched up the aisles of Hollywood Bowl carrying Mickey pennants. Mousecrusaders all.

The night was unusually clear but the Disney pyrotechnists left nothing to chance: During “When You Wish Upon a Star,” a new heavenly body (suspended from a balloon) blazed overhead, bright enough to light the way to Bethlehem. Soon more fireworks erupted: pinwheels, skyrockets, effigies of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck--even a fiery Tinkerbell flying past an incandescent Magic Kingdom.

Earlier, dozens of elaborately costumed and masked Disney characters (from every era except the present one) made fleeting appearances on stage.

Near a portable wishing well, a toe-dancing Snow White (Elizabeth Nesi) yearned for her hunky Prince Charming (John Deniston) in rather manic bravura choreography, and then rode off with him on a white steed.

Dancers in chimney-sweep and pirate regalia (for the “Mary Poppins” and “Peter Pan” numbers respectively) cavorted on the elevated runway dividing the first section of boxes from the rest of the Bowl. Life-size marionettes took the “Pinocchio” lyric about “there are no strings on me” literally and escaped their puppeteers. Forty wooden soldiers paraded through “The March of the Toys.”

Just when all the spectacle began to pall, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman appeared to receive the “Mousecar” (the Disney empire’s equivalent to the Oscar) for the songs they had composed for Walt’s movies, TV shows and theme park projects. But soon even they became lost in the teeming masses singing “It’s a Small World (After All).”

Because of the logistical challenges alone, the evening belonged to producer/director John Alexander Lee. Certainly, the members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Master Chorale became nearly invisible accompanists for much of the program. Yet, under esteemed ballet conductor John Lanchbery, the music-making sustained the event’s imposing technical standards. Besides playing the candied arrangements of familiar Disney songs, the orchestra offered expert, detailed and atmospheric performances of Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker.”

The Disney anniversary program repeats Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m.