Happiest Place Adds Spontaneity

Disneyland has always maintained a clear line between the entertainer and the entertained. They’re “cast members,” and we’re “guests.”

But lately--and with an uncharacteristic lack of hype--the park has crossed that line. In several of the themed “lands,” audience members are being invited into the spotlight. And for a little girl with a Jasmine complex or an accountant with a yen to do stand-up comedy, Disneyland’s interactive opportunities offer as much excitement as any thrill ride.

Tim Runco, the park’s director/general manager of entertainment operations, said the shift began several years ago when Disneyland Resort president Paul Pressler recognized the Disney characters’ special powers.

“If there’s a way you as an individual can be connected to those characters, whether it’s through a wink or a hug or whatever, that’s going to make your experience something to treasure,” he explained.

With that in mind, Disneyland brass has been scattering interactive opportunities like pixie dust. Along Main Street, guests may be chosen to dance with a fairy in the Light Magic spectacle or join a performance of the roving Dapper Dans barbershop quartet.

Over in Fantasyland, characters such as Snow White and Cinderella, once confined to roaming and posing for pictures, plunk down on velvet cushions several times a day in the Tinker Bell Toy Shoppe to read fairy tales. And in New Orleans Square, the music, food and atmosphere will soon be “as close as possible to Jackson Square on a Saturday afternoon,” Runco said.

Even the what-you-see-is-what-you-get method of bonding with characters has been refined. Pooh and pals regularly hold court in a shady spot in Critter Country, and the Big Five (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Pluto) almost always hang out in Toontown. A daily tip sheet dispensed at the gate lists all the stars’ schedules.

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Aladdin fans are in luck. A 12-minute show in Adventureland, which debuted last March, uses improvisation, audience participation and old-fashioned storytelling to good effect. The 300-seat venue, Aladdin’s Oasis, becomes just that for adults recovering from a sun-baked, 90-minute wait for Splash Mountain with a squirming preschooler.

Seated on throw cushions a few feet from the performers (adults are banished to chairs), kids watch as Kazoo, the narrator (also genie, sultan, Barker Bob and seller of knickknacks), spins a Cliff Notes version of Disney’s animated “Aladdin.” With lots of help from Aladdin, Jasmine and kids selected from the crowd, and with some very funny, deliberately hokey special effects, the story flies to its happily-ever-after.

The show, “Aladdin and Jasmine’s Storytale Adventures,” is directed by Diane Doyle, who spent nearly 20 years directing South Coast Repertory’s Young Conservatory program. She says bringing the spontaneity of children’s theater to a place known for its slick, carefully scripted spectaculars has been a thrill.

“It’s that big question mark of audience-participation theater, that ‘What’s going to happen?’ That’s so cool,” Doyle said. “The audience knows that when you get a volunteer up on that stage . . . anything can happen.”

Anything including bathroom noises. Doyle recalls that an 8-year-old boy brought on stage last week to provide a “magic sound” obliged with a robust . . . noise. The narrator and audience happily repeated the sound at the appropriate plot points.

Another of Doyle’s projects is Laughingstock, an improv troupe that wanders Frontierland. The trio--an inept cowpoke, a blustery mayor and his homely daughter (sometimes played by a man in drag)--stage audience-participation sketches in front of the Golden Horseshoe.

“Street theater like that is something we’ve been missing,” said Runco, who started out at the park as a performer. “There are risks. A lot depends on the performer’s skills, and sometimes the bit just doesn’t work, at which point they have to move on.

“This isn’t a science,” he added. “We’re experimenting, and as much as we plan, it still all comes down to ‘Do the guests like it?’ ”

BE THERE

* “Aladdin and Jasmine’s Storytale Adventures” is performed daily at 11 and 11:55 a.m. and 12:55, 1:55, 3:45, 4:40, 5:35 and 6:30 p.m. in Aladdin’s Oasis in the Adventureland section of Disneyland, 1313 Harbor Blvd., Anaheim. Park admission is $26 for children ages 3 to 11; $32 for age 60 and up; $36 for children age 12 and up and adults. Children 2 and under are free. (714) 781-4565.