From the E-Mailbag…

Galen Fott, who told us so much about the Disney World Beauty and the Beast mini-musical he was in tells us more…

Thanks for the coverage! Indeed, there are many who started in entertainment at Disney World and went on to bigger things. It might have been Leanza Cornett that you saw as the Little Mermaid at Disney World; she opened that show in 1991 or 92, and was crowned Miss America in 1993. Will Swenson, Berger in the recent Broadway revival of Hair and the lead in the upcoming Priscilla, Queen of the Desert did his time as Gaston at Disney World as well.

At Disney World, most actors and singers are hired under Actors Equity contracts, and the money really isn't too bad, comparatively speaking. It is a great place for young people with an interest in theatre, on either side of the footlights.

That's very good to hear…and it probably goes a long way to explain why so many people like that show and maybe even why it developed into more than a short-term theme park attraction.

Wikipedia — which as we all know is never wrong about anything — says the attraction "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" opened at the Disney-MGM Theme Park (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) on January 7, 1992. I think I was there around March or April of that year so perhaps I did see Ms. Cornett. Whoever it was, she was quite wonderful.