Disney World might usually be the happiest place on Earth, but that’s definitely not true at the moment. On Tuesday night, the park laid off a ton of entertainers from some of its most popular shows, including Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo: The Musical, and the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue dinner show. The shows have been dark since the park first shuttered in the spring due to COVID-19, and the lay-offs show there are no immediate plans to revive them.
Disney World Lays Off Hundreds of Entertainers From Iconic Shows in ‘Tuesday Night Massacre’
Nicolette Quintero, one of the laid-off performers in Hoop-Dee-Doo, which has run since 1974, wrote in an emotional Facebook post, “Claire DeLune, you were a dream come true. My dream role at my dream company on one of my favorite stages. Today is a very hard day.”
Also cut were performers who interacted with guests on Main Street USA, the Citizens of Hollywood at Hollywood Studios, and the entire cast and crew of attractions like “Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor,” “Beauty and the Beast — Live on Stage,” “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular,” “Jedi Training Academy,” and more.
Disney has now laid off around 20 percent of its Orlando workforce, many of whom have been working at the park for decades. This “Tuesday Night Massacre” was just a small part of the 28,000 company wide layoffs Disney has been making since September.