D23's Destination D: Magic Journeys Featuring Richard Sherman
Page 1 of 2

Last weekend D23 held their first Walt Disney World Destination D event celebrating the past, present and near future of the resort. And while stories from those who purchased the property and built the parks, tales of Star Tours and New Fantasyland and the comedy stylings of Jason, Alex and Jason were both entertaining and informative, there’s no question that the entire show was stolen by the finale event - Magic Journeys: A Flight of Fancy Through 40 Years of Walt Disney World Musical Memories featuring an evening with songwriting Disney Legend Richard Sherman. In fact, I’d go as far as to say this event alone was worth the $175 event cost. After all, how many times does one get the opportunity to spend a relatively intimate evening with one film’s and theme park’s greatest songwriters as he plays and sings the highlights of his career - all with the kindness, class and humility one hopes to find in a Disney Legend?

Well … to answer my own question … more than once. In fact, this my third time seeing Richard Sherman perform live. The first was at Walt’s 100th birthday celebration at Disneyland (a much shorter set) and the second at last year’s D23 Expo following the screening of The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story (again - a shorter set). But what made this event particularly special was not only the set length, but the numbers before and after his performance including an appearance by Dreamfinder and Figment and a spectacular Destination D finale from Encore!, the Walt Disney World cast choir and orchestra. Let me take you through this magical night....

Kids of the Kingdom

As guests filed in a lone guitar was on stage performing and singing various modern songs with a funny, Disney twist. The show then officially began with the Kids of the Kingdom running onto the stage 1990s style to sing When You Wish Upon a Star. It turns out at least one of those performers really was in the Kids of the Kingdom and is still performing at Walt Disney World today.

Next up was the One and Only Genuine Original Main Street Philharmonic (known less formerly as the Walt Disney World Marching Band) performing a medley of Disney tunes including The Mickey Mouse Club March, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes and a Be Our Guest clap-along. It was quite heartwarming to see the huge applause they received as they marched out of the room - not the last time my heart would be warmed on this night.

Event host Tim O’Day then introduced Richard Sherman with a clip from Mary Poppins and various celebrities talking about the incredible work of the Sherman Brothers (I believe these interviews were from The Boys documentary). Richard Sherman then took the stage to a standing ovation and took his place at the piano with Tim O’Day standing on the other side. The magic was underway.

Richard Sherman

Together Tim and Richard started with a song written by the Brothers’ father Al Sherman, You Gotta Be a Football Hero and a pre-Disney hit for the Shermans, You’re Sixteen (which reached the Billboard 100 twice - once with Johnny Burnette in and again with Ringo Starr) as vintage record covers were shown on the screen. In fact, a visual of the film or album or sheet music accompanied all the songs and most were introduced with an interesting anecdote or two. Here’s the rest of the playlist:

• Let’s Get Together (The Parent Trap)
  Richard said Hayley Mills was very nervous about her singing because she was an actress, not a singer. He told her to “act” like a singer and it worked.
• Ugly Bug Ball (Summer Magic)
  Walt gave them this project as a test to see if they could tell a story through music.
• Winnie the Pooh Theme
  As Richard said, Winnie the Pooh doesn’t do exercises for the same reason most do, he just does them to make himself hungry.
• The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers
  Richard said Tigger is the Pooh character he is most like. Then he did a wonderfully delightful version of the Tigger laugh.
• I Wanna Be Like You (Jungle Book)
  Here Richard told what I felt was a sad story. Apparently this song was written with Louis Armstrong in mind but they couldn’t cast him because the company felt the NAACP would be upset that a black person was cast as an ape. So instead they found Louis Prima who did a wonderful job and “happened to be white.”
• Beautiful Briny Sea (Bedknobs and Broomsticks)
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (not a Disney movie though many think it is)
• Spoonful of Sugar (Mary Poppins)
  The idea came from one of Robert’s sons who came home from school after being given the Salk vaccine at school with a spoonful of sugar. Richard explained the musical note for “down” in “helps the medicine go down” is an up note instead of a down note adding the unexpected to this peppy song about a decidedly unpeppy subject.