My family took a trip to Disney in October of 2013, My daughter was only 13 at the time(to young to do the show) and the producer said "please come back when you are 14" So my daughter and I planned a 2 day trip to come back and do the show. We were just there on 1/27/14. These are all very professional people!!! They gave my daughter every courtesy. She sang for the initial producer, then on to a duo of producers who gave her the green light to join the event. She did the hair and makeup, the little arrangement thing with the vocal coach and then to her rehearsal. She rehearsed and then competed against to very good singers. The stage is IMMENSE. It is a thousand seat auditorium that they filled up both times she sang in it. She received amazing feedback from the judges. Even the one mean judge said "I can't even be mean to you" She then went on to the finals where she competed against 3 people. Two of which who were from Brazil and came to Disney JUST TO DO THIS EVENT. She won in the finals and received the Dream Ticket. If you are going to do this you have to give it almost the whole day. I am glad we really only went to Disney to do this for that reason. I am critical of most things but there is not one thing I can say bad about it. The producers were all awesome, the warm up guys were awesome, the judges were all industry professionals who gave my daughter great feedback and great Advice.... Just amazing.
I auditioned for AI Experience in early March, 2010. I was the first or second on line, as i went there as soon as the park opened,and there wasn't a crowd at all due to the fact that it is a slower time of year. I did an acapella audition for a nice woman in a small private room and made it through to the next round. One thing that she did ask was if I had plans later in the evening, and if i knew anyone who works for Disney. I do not know anyone.... but i did have Fantasmic booked.... latest time.... more on this later... You must stop and choose a few songs in the Coke Lounge from the approved list to use for this final audition. You are able to listen to the two minute arrangements on an iPod. When you choose the songs, you go into a room to audition karaoke style for the producer. He may ask you to do one , all, or pick one to try if he doesn't think any chosen songs Suit you. I had to sing two songs... The producer liked my second one, " I Will Survive", and I was put through to perform in the first show!! You have your hair and make up done, then you work with a musical director on your performance. You are then taken to the set, where you go over the show with the host and have a full tech rehearsal.... It is truly amazing! Your family is brought in well ahead of the audience, so they get to watch the rehearsal.... Very nerve racking for me. When the audience is brought in and the show starts, it truly is magical! Before each contestant sings, there is a video clip of either that person doing kooky things or of audience members cheering for you.... That was my clip... Very sweet! I was actually given the "pimp spot" or final performance spot of the show. Honestly, none of us had fantastic voices, but my co-contestants got ripped by the judges.... I also got criticism, but not as badly. The audience really seemed to like my performance. Turns out, the middle contestant won... He was a very nice nerdy guy from NJ... Sang pretty cleanly...nothing spectacular. He had also made it into a daytime show the year before.But a few people said I should have won... I could care less, as I was just so thrilled to perform, though I kind of agree. I am not a trained singer at all... I just love doing it! I am wondering what some of you are in terms of rigging.... The fact that the Lady asked me if I had late plans was a tip off after the fact. The Fantasmic show would be running at the same time as the AI finale show, and they know that these shows are booked months in advance, so if I did win, My family and i would have had to Miss Fantasmic.... I wonder what would have happened if I told her that I didn't have plans... All in all, this is an amazing experience, and I would urge anyone who likes to sing to audition, whether you are trained, experienced, etc or not.... You just might get lucky!! I plan on getting back to Disney this year, and I am going to give it another shot!! Not sure what will happen this time, but I plan to have fun! And I also plan to say NO when asked if I have plans later in the night! I did get a quick peek from outside of the end of the finale show that night... Plenty of contestants.../ and the nice guy from my show didn't win, but an older gentleman who sang a country son did.
This experience was as legit as possible. My husband and I went to Disney and he auditioned not really knowing what the experience was. He made it through all the rounds and won the Dream ticket. We actually went into the whole thing thinking that it was all set up for everyone to win and did not know anything about the dream ticket. He performed with many other talented people, but he was the best singer there. It was not rigged. I can honestly say that the majority of the people in the audience voted for him. Hope he makes the show this coming up auditions!!! Vote for Matthew Nealey ; )
My family and I have been going to Disney World for decades, being that we live in Ft. Lauderdale it's only a 3 hour drive. When we heard they were adding The American Idol Experience we were thrilled! My daughter and I are both singers and wanted to give it a shot! It is truly an amazing experience! They did such a great job in re-creating the actual American Idol TV set. The whole process is amazing....you start out singing an a capella audition in a small sound quality room. (This is actually better then the real show where you audition in an auditorium with NO acoustics). If you pass the first audition, ( I suggest not holding back with your voice and personality to get by this first step), you then move on to the producers room where you sing two songs to a musical track. (I highly recommend you go online and look up the "American Idol Experience Song List" of over 120 songs. After you find a few songs you like I also HIGHLY recommend you go on YOUTube and search for that song + American Idol Experience. see if anyone has posted that song and learn the track ahead of time! They cast 5 shows a day, 7 shows during peak times. The audience votes, which makes a total of 5 winners. Those winners go on to the Grand Finale show later that night. The winner of the Finale gets a "Dream Ticket". Which gives them a "Front of the line pass" to any audition to The TV Show. The very cool thing which also make this so credible is: 5 of the top 13 contestants for last year's American Idol TV show won the Dream Ticket at Disney's American idol Experience. My daughter and I have been on the show many times and continue to come back as regulars!! If you like American idol ....you must go and experience this! If you Love to sing.....give it a try!
They made us yell" We love you Logan" and they filmed it all before the show and then so help me Logan won. I liked the girl that sang, and everybody around me voted for her, but then Logan won. It didn't appear that our votes were counting. I think I saw Logan working the counter at Star Wars ride. (Just kidding) but I do think it was rigged, and for about the thousandth time it made me wonder if the whole of american idol is rigged also.
I auditioned in May 2009. I had signed up ahead of time online, which is actually rather useless if you get there early in the morning. I was 15 at the time. Though the TV show prohibits anyone under 16 from auditioning, the WDW version lowers it to 14. So I went into a sleek hallway and was directed to a small room. In that room was a snazzy-dressed woman sitting at a table with a laptop and notebook. She asked me to sing 30 seconds of any song. I chose "Colors of the Wind" because I've performed that for large crowds before. She said I was fantastic and have a real future in music -- I don't know if they're required to say that, but it's moot. Yet, she said, 14- and 15-year-olds are only permitted to audition; not to perform in the real show. She said to come back when I was 16 and I would be a shoe-in. Suffice to say, I was pretty ticked. Don't set this up for your young, bright-eyed teens. It will make the whole day at DHS very dissapointing.
Hey there, We just got home from an 9-day, 7 park, orlando vacation that we surprised our 13 yr old with as a birthday gift. As part of that gift I set up an audition on line (which turned out to be worthless, one of the other girls I performed with also did this and they just thru away the form we had to print out and hand over at the park. Maybe if there were crowds and crowds of people auditioning they would have been useful but there weren't crowds of people waiting to audition like they want you to believe) to perform in the AI experience as an additional surprise for my daughter, as we've watched all 8 seasons of american idol together since she was 5. I've always loved to sing and have done a bit at church and karaoke. but never professionally. I've been told by many, and my daughter always wished that, I should tryout for the american idol but have always had to tell them I was to old. Well,in my research for this trip I came across the AI Experirnce, which stresses young and old alike can win, and thought, what a great opportunity to share a fun experience and possibly even win that ticket for my daughter to possibly use someday herself (yes, they say they do give the tickets away to the older singers too and you are permitted to transfer them on to others (paper work required), you just aren't allowed to sell them). Well My husband HATES American Idol and has tolerated our watching it all these years. He won't even stay in the same room when we have it on. I purposely kept my audition a secret till we got to the park so I wouldn't have to hear how much he wasn't going to want to do this. When we got to the park and he found out I was auditioning I had to convince him this was for his daughter, to which he conceded and agreed to participate, tho begrudgingly. Now I do have a bit of a competitive spirit but am also fair minded enought to except defeat if truly warranted. But with what is to follow here I question the validity of the voting process at this show. I made it thru the 2 audition processes to be a contestant, it was fun, fast paced a little bit nerve-wracking and over in a flash. I enjoyed every moment of the experience (it was exactly like the real thing) till the end when I did not win to move onto the finale. You of course get to hear the other 2 contestants sing during rehearsal and it's only natural to compare yourself even tho you really try not to, but I have to say there really wasn't much comparison. I sang You make me feel like a natural woman and really belted it, Got tons of applause thruout and at the end of the song during the live performance, unlike the other 2. The judges (except for simon of course) all had great things to say no critism at all as the other 2 did. One of the other contestants (#1) whispered to me, "I'll be back to vote for you in the finale. Even my husband after hearing the 3 of us shared that he was like thinkin to himself "Oh crap, she's gonna win and I'm gonna have to come back here for the 7pm finale, DARN IT!" I really believed I was gonna win...how could I not? The votes were in...they made us wait for the verdict of course...and then the host said it...Girl number 3 (I was #2) got the most votes. There was a very eerie, awkward silence after that was anounced, like a "huh?" moment before the weak applause. Even the winner looked confused. Needless to say I was very dissapointed and confused. On my way out to reunite with my family. I can't tell you how many people came up to me very confused also saying they had voted for me and felt something was not right. There was an older gentleman sitting beside my hubby who he said was totally not into the show at all. He just sat there and wouldn't participate in the preshow...but when i sang his whole demeanor changed and he applauded and actually voted for me, and when I didn't win, he turned and angrily, made a point of telling my hubby this show has to be rigged. And then my hubby started thinking back and realized that the whole time up to the show they coached the audience to pick this girl. They had people that coached them into yelling her name and that they loved her and that they wanted her to win and that she was the best even before they heard her and with the other contestants family and freinds standing right there listening. He said he didn't think to much of it till he moment that old man said that "this thing is rigged". Later in the day I walked into a bathroom and the whole place broke into cheers and clapping and they all said the same thing it was rigged. Ya know I really wanted that certificate I've really come to believe that I was naive and gullable in thinkin that this was the real thing and that I may have had a real chance of winning, but now I have so many doubts. I just keep reminding myself that I had a good time that I knew I was a winner as did my family and fans. I do want to mention too that they were really scrambling to find people to audition. I'm not even sure they held any other shows because when you get picked as a contestant you wear this big obvious bright yellow tag that lets everyone know your performng and to come and vote for you. and considering there are 7 shows thruout the day, we should've been seeing another 18 of those tags thru out the day and we saw only one person wearing one besides the other 2 I'd performed with. So it's possible this attraction won't last and isn't the big success they thought it was gonna be. So if you are considering performing...be ready to just have fun because although I'm leary of the ligitamacy of the voting process, I have to admit it was fun and exciting, it really was, but also be ready for dissapointment when losing to those less talented than yourself. Ya know, maybe one of the earlier posts who mentioned they thought they were trying to keep us oldies out (I'm a very young and young looking 50) was right, and that only reinforces my doubts in the validity of the vote counts that morning. Now that I'm home and look back on it, I feel we as the contestants are there strictly for the use of the park as entertainment and our dreams really mean nothing to them we are just props for yet another attraction to bring them in more money. I did get to keep the yellow tag (consolation prise), "Whoopi"! and they gave you a Disney photo pass so you can go and "BUY" at $15 dollars a pop as many of the 154 pics they took of you during your AI Experience.
I saw one of the prelim shows March 22nd,2009 and I was very impressed with the set and the whole production of the experience. I don't think they could do much more than they have other than have a different host and judges. Were they good? That's relative. Some might think they were terrible, some might think they were great. I thought everything was good. I laughed at some of the Simon characters remarks and found the other two to be not very memorable. The host wasn't anything you'd want an autographed picture of but he did the job. The only people who really get a fantastic deal on this are the contestants and their friends and family. That experience is something I for one would love to have. My daughter works as a CP so I was ineligible this year but maybe next year. I am 56 though and get the feeling they really are doing there best to discourage older people like myself to be a part of the show. I come to this conclusion because of the tiny song list they provide. The lack of a song list anything close to what you would find at even a mediocre karaoke show screams we've got control over this and that means you don't sing. Come on, it can't be a cost thing. They could have a thousand or more songs to chose from and broaden the talent pool for the show. But that would bring in people that were singing covers of such washed up bands as The Beatles, Billy Joel, etc. I believe the song list was very carefully thought out to attract a certain profile of contestants that the imagineers had in mind when this plan was hatched. After all, who wants to look at some balding old fart on stage singing even if he does blow the doors off the competition. I get that, but don't necessarily agree with it. And for me this could be one of the downfalls of the show. After all this is really just a very glorified "expensive" karaoke show with higher than normal qualifications. It's a shame though that it is missing the boat on what I feel is the shows true potential. All talent in the park that day. Unknown Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Buffet types, need not apply. It's not stated but the format seems to point that direction. Its only truly an American Idol Experience for the contestants, not the audience. Without the contestants there is no show. But in Disney's eyes, without the right contestants there is no audience. I disagree. So get a larger range of contestants on the stage and you will entertain a wider range of audience. This will give the show more longevity. The way it is now, once you've seen this once I can't see people spending time seeing it again and again to watch three strangers who may not even be that good. Disney did not think this through enough before they pulled the trigger. On the surface it sounded great until I realized that the only thing that was really great about it was that I was maybe going to be able to sing on that set. Other than that it was not something I was interested in doing more than once or twice unless someone I knew was in the show. Simple supply and demand. Sooner or later there will not be enough people who want to watch 21 amateurs sing every day. And sooner or later people might see there's really not much motivation for contestants either to monopolize their whole paid park admission day to participate in the contest. Give the winner an Annual Pass or something. Something he or she can actually dream of winning and use if won. The Golden Ticket is like giving the winner a one dollar ticket for Powerball Lottery. Even if you have it you've probably got nothing. Come on Disney, give up a pass or something. You can still clip me for food, drinks, and souvenirs and make out on the deal. See The American Idol Experience, its well worth the time. I just don't think it can hold the interest of "All" the park guests for very long. I give it between 2-3 years till its gone in its present state. They're hopefully already are talking about how to salvage their investment because unlike some here I think Disney has realized that this isn't going to fly in its current state. If they haven't realized it yet, they'd better hire me to clue them in! ha ha
I saw the show March 23 three times and once on the 24. As you have heard the set is fantastic and the energy levels very high. I did have reservations about the quality of the guest singers. This far into the opening of the attraction I am very suprised that the performances were from just good to very good. In some cases a few of the people I saw are better that what's on the show now. Does the attraction have staying power.? At this point I'd say yes. Two of the shows I saw were within 100 people of being packed and two were complete sellouts. That's a 1000 seat show.
I HATE American Idol on TV!!!! But, the experience at DHS was pretty darn cool! My wife and I both enjoyed the show (she of course likes it on TV though, unlike me).... The host the day we were there was Cast Member Mark... he was pretty entertaining all by himself! The three singers were critiqued by the three judges just like on TV including a cranky Australian Judge who everyone booed (all in fun of course) when he was mean to the contestants. And just like the TV show we, the audience got to vote the winner. Was Well Done! Hats off to the Imagineers they hit a Home Run here (and that coming from someone who like I said above Hates the TV show!) :)
With a great prize on the line like the "dream ticket" to get to the front of the line at any American Idol Audition, I believe many people will start adding "Studios" to the end of the nationally recognized phrase coined by the stars of Idol. I was there for the Grand Opening on February 14th and have to say that I am hooked! I missed the first show, but saw every one after that and enjoyed each one thoroughly! Unlike other shows and like Millionaire - Play It, this will never get "old" because the content is always different every show. The judges were excellent. I saw both sets, the look alikes to Randy, Paula and Simon and the other set...both judging groups were cast wonderfully. One of them however reminded me how much we all miss the Comedy Wharehouse, because he was one of the talents that performed there. One of the best aspects I believe is the buildup to the daily Grand Finale show. I believe the intrigue as to whether or not the contestant who won in your show will receive the Dream Ticket, may actually help keep quite a few people in the park who may otherwise leave earlier in the day. The only thing that has me worried is that on the day of the Grand Opening, they had very few people auditioning and 99% of those that were auditioning were girls. If this was the Grand Opening and so few were auditioning, I worry about days with less people in the park. Overall though, congrats to the Cast Members who made the Grand Opening a huge success and congrats to Disney for adding AI to our magical experience!
The show has a very impressive set, but its all down hill from there. The pre-show guy was quite possibly the most annoying person I've seen on stage. The judges had to give the stereotypical tv responses....randy is ghetto....paula is an airhead....and simon is an a$$....its stupid. It might be a hair better if the judges actually gave true opinions instead of giving a blind response. I've spent almost a year of my life in Disney World and their has only been one attraction I refuse to visit...Stitch...now there's 2.
I went to the AP preview on Feb. 6th at 4:00 and I have to say I really enjoyed it. All 3 performers were teenagers, but they all had decent voices. No one was the trainwreck that people think there will be out there. Sure, you could see nerves, but no one was outright horrible. Also, the stage was outstanding. I know it's been said before, but it does look just like the real stage and blows you away when you enter the theater. The show was very entertaining and worked almost exactly like it does on the show. There were the three judges and the thing that I liked about the Experience show was that they did tend to try to give advice to the contestants about what they could do better. Now, keep in mind, I'm a fan of American Idol. But I don't believe you have to be a fan of the show to be entertained. I think that people who like the show aspect of the Studios will enjoy this attraction. If you're more of a rides person, this might not be for you. However, I'm always one who likes to give everything a try and believes that everyone should go in with an open mind about everything that is there.
Let me start off by saying, both my husband and I were sick on this our last day at WDW, but we had the Annual Passholders preview tickets and wanted to attend. We got there around 11am,had to check in for the 12 noon show, but were told that there were not enough people (audience? contestants?) for the noon show, but that we could attend the 1pm. But we did check in, got our wristbands and spoke to one of the CMs there who told us that her Mom was going to be singing, which puzzled me because I watch American Idol and the cut off age for contestants was 30, the Mom had to definitely be older than 30. We had to be back at AI by 12:30PM for the pre-show. By this point, we couldn't wait to get into the theater and sit down. Finally went in and a CM explained that 3 people would be singing, and that we had keypads on the arm rests and we'll be asked to vote at the end. They introduced the 3 judges, the gentleman judge definitely acted the Simon Cowell part. First up was the CM's Mom that I spoke about, she sang "I Can See Clearly Now" and did a good job. The second was a 14 year old boy from Florida who sang "Sweet Home Alabama", and wasn't bad. The third was another middle aged woman, who sang "Walking After Midnight" in a very soulful, sultry voice and she was fantastic (and the winner). She would be back at the 7pm show, along with the winners of the other afternoon shows. The daily winner would get the front of the line ticket to any American Idol audition (however as explained by the host, today's winner would not be getting the ticket -- probably because of the American Idol age cut off) I am an American Idol fan, so it did interest me to see a form of it live. Would I do it again? Not sure. I don't know if our illness had something to do with my not giving this show a 10. I really didn't care for the pre-show. I do give the performers a great deal of credit and wish them all the best for that coveted Golden Ticket to Hollywood.
I have seen the show a couple of times now. A few weeks ago in the very first soft openings the show was a bit rough, but really that is to be expected. Now that I have gone during the AP and DVC previews I saw signifigant improvement and I LOVE it. Of course I am a big American Idol fan so that may lead me to love it so much. To me the show is very entertaining. I have overhead different guests during the show and at exit and everyone has said they like it. Each time is different because of the guest performers. The lighting, the graphics, the host, and the judges all add to it, but the best part of the show in my opinion is the guest performers because their families and friends are there and each show is different because of them.
Wife and i are casual Idol fans and we saw a soft opening performance. Great set. It looked like one of the 3 performers was an actual contestant and the other two were disney employees. It was entertaining, I might see it a 2nd time but I dont see how it can survive? It will end up a glorified kareoke show. Also I want to be entertained, I dont want to have to be "part of the show' clapping and screaming like I'm excited about whats going on.. For us, one of the interesting things about Idol is that you get to know the singers. You like some and hate others. This wont happen at disney, at each show you are seeing total strangers... Like I said, Kareoke.... Steve
The name of the constant is Julianne Taylor, not Caroline. The contstants are people visiting the park that day. We spent some time talking with Julianne's family after the show. They weren't expecting this.
If you are an Idol fan you will love this attraction. The stage is awesome. It has all the aspects of the actual show. I would have taken pictures, but the cast members were watching like a hawk. My husband, daughter(9) and I went to the 4pm show on February 4th. We enjoyed the winner so much we went back to the finale show to see if she would win the golden ticket and she did. Remember the name Caroline Taylor, she will do very well on the actual show. The golden ticket gets them to the head of the line of an actual American Idol audition. As they say, "The ultimate fastpass". We loved the warm up guy, Mark. The guy who is supposed to be Ryan S, I was not impreesed with. I think they can find someone better for that roll. He couldn't remember his lines and kept looking up at the teleprompter. They have the words from the songs up there too for the contestants. The judges are ok. I liked the one lady who is supposed to be Randy's counterpart the best. I enjoyed booing the one who was supposed to be Simon. His digs were pretty funny. The judges were better in the finale. More serious and dressed better. The finale was done well and had five contestants. We will definately go to this attraction again. Try it at least once. It is entertaining if you like music.
The American Idol Experience was somewhat disappointing to me. The number one problem was the judges. They filled the stereotypes of Randy Paula and Simon, and, like the people they were portraying but moreso, they were totally rehearsed and predictable. There was little believability that what they were saying was an opinion of the song they just heard. They came across as though they were going to say the "funny" comments that they rehearsed regardless of how the performers did. Now I realize that the show is still in previews and there is an announcement that Disney employees are allowed to perform until the official opening, but at the finale show that I saw, I think four out of the five performers were "planted" there. One came across as a genuine park guest, and coincidentally, he was the only one for whom they prepared a video profile. The others had no video about themselves, and they clearly appeared to be actors made up to look like park guests (though I can't prove this.) It gave the show another aspect of unbelievability. The winner, as chosen by the audience, was one of the people I felt was an actor, and he balled when his name was announced. It all seemed unreal. Another problem is that the contestants were reading the lyrics from a large projection on the back wall of the auditorium. This isn't wrong, especially given the short time they have to prepare, but it looked painfully obvious that they were reading, so it came across as a giant karaoke contest. A small live band would have helped make the show seem more real and believable, also. I thought the host was good, and the warm up host was funny if not a little too hyper. I don't regret having seen it, and it was somewhat enjoyable, but it could have been much better. The show would be better if I felt that all the contestants were actualy park guests, but if I were to return to the park, I'd have no problem skipping the show if there was something else I wanted to do in the time I had.
Obviously for people who love Idol, but there are enough of them to more than justify this very faithful recreation. Only thing I'd have liked more was superstar television 2.0!
Beautiful set. That's the end of the beauty! The host and judges are so horribly scripted. The talent was terrible. It's a "once and done" experience --- see it once and chances are you'll never go back. Sad.
this show was bad wram up guy is the wrost the judges are all wanna bes and bad at the the stage and everything is mint but this wont last to long went with 4 friends everyone hated it the gift shop pushes all the idol cds games etc they should have buld a new ride THIS WONT LAST TO LONG!
We saw the American Idol Experience on January 14th. Me, my husband and son thoroughly enjoyed it. The theater was full. We thought it was well put together. The 3 singers weren't Idol quality but they come out and did their best. We thought it was awkward using the touch pads for voting which are located on the arm rests of the seats. The set is beautiful. Lighting and sound in the theater was good and the commentary from the 3 judges was similar to ones done on the show. We would probably come back to see it again, but not something we would do every time we visited Hollywood Studios.
First thing to say about Idol may seem obvious, BUT, if you like American Idol, you will most likely really like the attraction. If you are so-so, or dislike Idol, I dont think you are going to find yourself in this attraction very often. It seems a very accurate reproduction of the real Idol show. The production quality of Idol at the Studios is first class. The theater, lighting and set is very well done. They really have delivered a great looking show, and even go to such lengths as using a stedi-cam for providing TV pictures during the performances. Where the attraction begins to fail is when you get into the actual substance of the show. In our preview show, we got to see 3 guests sing. Yes the lights were great, the set looked great, and the effects were great, but the singers were not. They did a great job of trying, but the fact is they were not great singers. I don't want to spend an hour of my park time seeing 3 guests sing random songs. The hosts and judges were good, as you would expect. Some of the old Adventures Club hosts have found a new home here. There are then some other issues with the show that need addressing in my opinion. There is a whole section featuring Jordin Sparks, that shows a promo video of the Studios, where the whole audience is supposed to be on their feet cheering and singing along. I am sure the idea behind this was to involve those who were not performing, but it just comes across as cheesy, and will grow tired very quickly for repeat visits. To sum up, it's very well produced, but isn't a good attraction as a whole. I think serious fans of the show will like this, and any potential performers may be counting down the days till they can perform, but for the majority, I think this will turn into a see-it-once attraction.
Let me be perfectly frank to start out saying, I don't think American Idol belongs in Disney. And another thing to get out of the way: I enjoyed the show. Keeping in mind that this was the FIRST public Finale Show (A huge first) I got to see seven of the "best" singers from the Day. Surprisingly, most of them were quite good. The lighting and the amazing camerawork (SteadyCam Operator? INCREDIBLY expensive!) makes the songs entertaining, as well as any flair (or lack thereof) the singers give. I've already mentioned how shiny the set is, as well as the comfort of the seats) so I won't get into it. The pre-show, and main show really shine because of how dedicated, funny, and involved the entertainers are. It's kind of like that line in Pineapple Express: "You know at first I didn't like Red, but you liked him so much, now I like you!". Pretty much. This show will only continue to be exciting as long as the reigns are loosened on the Cast (Continuing to allow them to improvise, and be funny.) and keep being excited about the show, and the audience remains involved. Every time the crowd got a little less-then-hyped, or the singer was sub-par, the show would go from Good Jazz, to Yanni. ("That's the SAME song Yanni.") Another problem is "hyping" people to boo the Judges if you disagree. Maybe it's because I usually AGREE with Simon (And the Show's Simon), or the fact that I don't hold Judges in contempt for JUDGING. Kinda' what they are supposed to do. Let the three funny judges do their thing, I will never boo any of them. So in conclusion, get there fast and see the Finale show. And hope they've found good singers. Because if just one of these things falls out of place (Which sadly, seems very easy.), the show may be like a bad song: Funny at first, but then kind of depressing.
So far the show is still in tech-rehearsal but has alot of potential to be a hit. I really enjoyed the Finale show. It's done really well. A lot of the show has to do with the talent of the singers so I do believe there is a repeatability factor. The stage is awesome. Looks like the real thing. It also has a feel of a live TV taping. I would say this attraction helps put the Studio back into Hollywood Studios. Something that has been missing for awhile.
The show has great lighting effects and set pretty much like the television show. If you are a fan of American Idol than you would like it. If you aren't and don't care for a glorified karaoke performance than don't expect too much. The talent that I saw was very plain. I'm sure there will be some great performers that come through the auditions eventually but I'd rather spend the wait time for another attraction.
A Good addition to Hollywood Studios. Show structure runs well. Only problem I see is with the talent casted, as it could be hit or miss in the future. The Judges really make the show great, and the set/lighting design are top notch. I'm not a fan of the TV show, but was still entertained by this theme park version. May still need some tweeking, but still worth seeing once. (and huge credit to whoever wrote the "delayed show" announcement, it's pretty great)