Opening Date Announced for The Little Mermaid - A Musical Adventure and Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After at Hollywood Studios

Mar 26, 2025 in "Disney Villains Unfairly Ever After"

Villains Show concept art
Posted: Wednesday March 26, 2025 8:05am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has officially announced that two new live entertainment productions—The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure and Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After—will both debut at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 27, 2025.


The long-awaited opening date marks the first time both shows will be performed for guests, bringing major new additions to the park’s entertainment lineup just in time for the summer season.

The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure

Performed in the newly refreshed theater in Animation Courtyard, The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure is a fully reimagined stage production inspired by the 1989 animated classic. The show will feature bold new set pieces, updated effects, and familiar musical numbers including Part of Your World, Poor Unfortunate Souls, and Kiss the Girl. The production replaces Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which closed in 2020 and did not return after the pandemic shutdown.

Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After

Taking over the Sunset Showcase Theater, Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After is a brand-new musical stage show starring Hades as he assembles a lineup of iconic Disney villains to rewrite their endings. The show was originally announced as part of Disney’s summer 2025 entertainment lineup and will be a permanent offering, not tied to seasonal events. The production replaces Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, which permanently closed earlier this year.

Both shows represent a major boost in live entertainment at Walt Disney World and will debut just days before the start of summer break for many U.S. schools, likely making them a central draw for visitors heading into the busy season.

More details on showtimes, virtual queue availability (if any), and potential previews are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

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    ToTBellHop10 hours ago

    It’s not a huge space. I presume they committed to this many shows to ensure adequate daily capacity until they see how much demand this show receives.

    ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ11 hours ago

    Hmm, I think they'd be better off with shows on the hour, with a runtime in the 30-35 min range to ease the turnaround time. Pad-out the current runtime with lesser Villains heckling the audience or acting out skits while glancing often at a big clock counting down to the main "gathering" of villains in keeping the concept in-theme. Have the Mirror tell jokes submitted by the audience via their own magic mirrors aka phones using the Play Disney Parks mobile app. Or just show a refresher 10 min video montage. From an operations standpoint the added runtime and downtime would allow them to up-charge with concessions. (to test the waters for use in the MK land) and better prep for the next showing.

    Tori14 hours ago

    Gonna be a tight turnaround that’s for sure. Nice to see a couple showtimes after 5pm.

    Agent H16 hours ago

    Personally I think it’s all about how people want to spend their time. In a park with 9 rides meet and greets and other shows of course no one is going to want to watch a forty minute show. It makes for an interesting comparison to Disney cruise line where people have a lot more time and generally less things to do on the ship (unless you really like restaurants and bars which if that’s the case you won’t be hearing any shaming from me)

    TheMaxRebo16 hours ago

    Long shows are good in theory but they can muck up the plans for days as you really have to allot a good chunk of time for them (getting there early, filling the theater, emptying the theater, etc) and make sure you make one of the shows as there aren't many and if you just miss one it throws everything off. Even like Indy can have that impact Personally I would rather have an 18 min show that runs every 30 mins and they get 15 shows a day in than be 40 mins and only get in 5 shows or so (like Indy is)

    eddie1041 day ago

    I personally think a 40 min show might be a tad bit overkill in this day and age. Depending on the content and if it holds my interest a longer show is fine. 20-25 minutes is the sweet spot in my opinion.

    Figments Friend1 day ago

    Guests in general have shorter attention spans then ever before it seems. The decision to have the show be shorter then originally pitched makes sense from that perspective. It also helps insure they will be able to provide multiple showings per day. Looking forward to seeing this once it opens. -

    Comped1 day ago

    I remain unconvinced the 40 min show ever existed except as a concept (certainly have never had its existance confirmed by anyone I've talked to). DLE hasn't made show that long for Orlando since Frozen (Nemo since it was cut doesn't count), with original Nemo being the last one before that anytime close. (And even Nemo was cut down from a full length show after previews.) Disappointing to say the least.

    ToTBellHop1 day ago

    It’ll be a tight turnaround but doable. 3D shows unload and reload pretty quickly. Unfortunate that this was trimmed down. Hopefully, it still works. This combined with Mermaid are a nice capacity boost to the park.

    Comped1 day ago

    18 is right. Very annoyingly.

    Jedi141 day ago

    I’m guessing the show is about 18 to 20 minutes if they can run it every 30.

    TheMaxRebo1 day ago

    Glad to see so many shows - some at DHS don't have many and can restrict the flow of your day Though do worry if they will be able to get the theater turned over in time when the showtimes are only 30mins apart if the run time is the reported 17-20 mins

    Gusey1 day ago

    I'm glad they're having so many shows. Since Lightning McQueen ran every 10 minutes, it meant it was always operational. With live stage shows, the more shows the better as more opportunities to watch

    discos1 day ago

    With showtimes this close together, it's more than likely they'll have 4 sets of casts per day. Two casts will alternate performances during the first half of the day and then two alternating in the 2nd half. LOVE seeing a nice boost in the amount of equity roles available on property.