Creating Disney story-telling magic

The Indiana Daily Student sat down with Jack Feivou, general manager for entertainment operations for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, who came to speak with students last week. Feivou has also served as the chief operating officer and artistic director for the Boston Ballet Company. In his current role, Feivou oversees all entertainment operations at the studios, from the guy dressed as Mickey to the stage and stunt shows.

IDS: I understand you worked on the 2000 Super Bowl halftime show for Disney.
Feivou: It was a team of 10 stage managers, and I was actually on the field, getting all of the equipment, sets, performers into place, getting the show to go and then getting it all off the field. So it was myself and another stage manager who had the field as our responsibility. That’s playing a big house; there’s not many times you can play a 70,000-seat house.


IDS: And what about that amazing Times Square show I heard about?
Feivou: We did an event to launch Expedition Everest, which was one of our new roller coasters. ... We actually had performers performing on the side of the W Hotel in Times Square. We wanted to make an event that would garner some really great media attention.

When you think “Everest,” you think “bigger than anything else in the world,” so how were we going to do an event like that? And by performing in Times Square – instantly recognizable – and on the side of a very recognizable icon in Times Square, you make a really big, big splash.

And, you know, Everest is about mountaineering, it’s about excitement, it’s about the legend of the Yeti. ... So we wanted to do a piece like that, but ... you can’t necessarily bring a group to Everest, bring the press to Everest, so by doing a – I’ll call it a ‘mountaineering ballet’ on the side of the building – we kind of recreated the excitement that it would be if you were there as a trekker.


IDS: A lot of “theater snobs” would say your shows don’t count as “real” theater.
Feivou: They’re as much of “real theater” as Broadway is real theater. We even use the same unions. ... We’re doing the same sort of musical theater shows as you would do, we do stunt shows; it’s basically live entertainment.

We do it for a different type of audience. We do it for a family audience, and we try to keep our shows exciting, uplifting and accessible to all ages. I think the biggest difference is the length of the shows.

We tell our stories in 20- or 30-minute increments. ... So it’s really the length of the story. It’s all story-telling, and I think what makes the best live entertainment is making sure we tell a compelling story that touches the audience, touches the guests.
And in the theme park setting, we have so many guests coming through the gates that if we did do two-hour shows, we couldn’t touch as many of them. ... We will affect more guests than any Broadway theater, because we do seven or eight shows a day, every day. So it’s just a different kind of experience.

It also is, for many people, some of the first live entertainment experiences they have, and hopefully we “hook ’em” and they want to continue to enjoy live entertainment and it’ll be not just us, but ice shows, and Cirque du Soleil and Vegas-type shows and Broadway and the regional theaters and symphony and ballet, and I think it all grows out of enjoying a good story and wanting to see it performed live as opposed to watching a screen.


IDS: So is the audience part of why you went back to Disney after the Boston Ballet?
Feivou: The audience is certainly part of it. Different shows and different experiences have many different types of audience members, and I found that with the Disney company, with many theme park-type companies, you touch a family audience, and that’s what I really enjoy producing theater for.

... You can enjoy the show through your eyes, but you can also enjoy the show through your children’s eyes and I think that’s important. That it’s an experience parents and kids can have
together.