A triple-tower, 21-story Rocket is the hot new ride at Lagoon this season, and the amusement park is launching its biggest entertainment program ever -- seven different music and comedy shows throughout the park.
And the resort's diverse mix of rides and shows is just the way Peter Freed, chairman of the board, likes it."I like the idea that this is an entertainment park as much as it is a ride park," Freed told the Deseret News. "I hope we have shows for every taste."
Lagoon opens on Saturday, April 17, for weekends-only operation; the park opens full time on Memorial Day weekend.
However, the Rocket should be operating this weekend.
Workers from Logan-based S & S Sports Tower were putting the finishing touches on the high-rise attraction earlier in the week, and it formally premiered during a by-invitation-only "grand opening" on Wednesday.
For the 1999 season, only two of the ride's towers will be operating, with riders having their choice of two options:
-- The Rocket Blast Off, which accelerates riders (12 at a time) from the ground straight up 217 feet in less than three seconds. According to Lagoon's information sheet on the ride, the initial powered blast creates a force of 4.5 Gs. After reaching the top, passengers are blasted downward with a 2 G-force.
-- The Rocket Re-entry, which reverses the process. Riders are slowly raised to the top of the tower (a 20- to 25-second ascent), then blasted forcefully downward.
The final result on both towers is described as "several air-cushioned bounces" -- but it's probably not an experience that could lull you to sleep. (And it's unlikely there will be a lot of time at the top of the tower to enjoy the high-rise view.)
Lagoon marketing director Dick Andrew said more seating and the necessary propulsion equipment could be added to the third tower of the $3 million ride next year, depending on which of the two options prove most popular: the fast launch or the rapid re-entry.
S & S Tower has constructed nearly 60 similar attractions in parks throughout the United States and 16 countries. While the Rocket is already a Lagoon landmark -- towering over the nearby Ferris wheel and Sky Coaster -- the lighting at night will be somewhat subdued in order to placate residents in the vicinity.
The Rocket, which will be included with the park's all-day ride passes, has displaced one of Lagoon's oldest rides -- the Flying Aces, which have been moved just a short distance away to what was previously a small lawn adjacent to a nearby picnic pavilion.
Meanwhile, Lagoon's Entertainment Division is in high gear, rehearsing seven shows in the midst of scenery construction and costume fittings.
When it comes to entertainment, what was Nashville's loss -- the closure and demolition of Opryland amusement park last year to make way for a huge factory outlet shopping mall -- is Lagoon's gain. Two years ago, Lagoon hired Mark Huffman, a former Opryland performer/director, to take over the entertainment division.
Huffman's Nashville connection is beginning to reap substantial rewards. New members of the division's creative staff include operations manager Glenn San Marco, who toured two years with "Les Miserables" and worked with Huffman at Opryland, and choreographer Todd Crank, one of three dancers busily engaged in mounting the park's new shows.
Huffman has also hired Sean Hughes, who will portray "Dinky the Clown," entertaining youngsters with everything from balloons to magic, at a newly constructed stage just east of the historic carousel. Dinky's show, adjacent to Old Mother Hubbard's larger-than-life shoe, will be called "The Really Big Show by the Really Big Shoe."
Also during the past year, while beefing up the park's entertainment staff, writing new scripts and making long-range plans for Lagoon's future entertainment, Huffman found time to get married. His wife, Christy, is the company's entertainment producer.
He also added several other talented people to his staff, including costumer producer Laurie Haluska of Ogden and well-known Wasatch Front scenery designer Seven Nielsen of Provo.
Huffman is excited about Lagoon's strong commitment to entertainment. Before the park opened for its 1998 season, he had gone out of town on business and came back to find that the old Carousel Stage was being greatly expanded to accommodate larger productions -- and audiences.
And, according to Huffman, 1999 may be the final year audiences will be able to see "Music USA" in the 1,000-seat amphitheater, wedged between the classic wooden roller coaster and the old freeway cars, which date back to the mid-1950s. There are plans for a large indoor theater on the site, which would replace both the amphitheater and the mini-freeway. It would probably seat about 850 on the main floor, with room for a balcony to be added later. The facility will be accessible directly from the parking lot as well as from inside the park, so it could be used year-round, even when the rest of the park is closed.
Huffman noted that the slightly smaller seating capacity would be more than offset by the fact that shows could be performed several times a day in the new hall, while there are only two shows each night in the amphitheater.
"We have more entertainment every year," noted Peter Freed. "Can you believe, our live entertainment budget is nearly $1 million! It's come to the point where our guests are anticipating the shows even more than the rides. If we have a show canceled because of rain or whatever, we get complaints."
Freed said he always takes his out-of-town guests into the old -- and long-vacant -- Opera House in what was originally Gaslight Square, just off the north midway.
"They just love it. It only seats 300, but we could have a really delightful show in there," he said.
But reopening the Opera House is still down the road a bit. It's a budget thing, Freed said.
One show that has really taken off, perhaps with the same meteoric speed as the new Rocket, is the Carousel Stage's "Rock U2 the Top," a production geared to contemporary teenage tastes.
Both Huffman and Freed note that Lagoon's teen show is a rarity among amusement parks nationwide. Representatives from other parks who've seen the Lagoon show are astonished by its success. A couple of large parks have even offered to buy the production rights to the shows rather than attempt mounting their own, but Huffman has turned them down -- for now.
However, knowing that there may be a market for made-in-Utah shows elsewhere opens up the possibility of Lagoon's producing shows and farming them out sometime in the future.
One of the shows Huffman has rewritten from top to bottom is the Pioneer Village shootout. This year it'll be called "Pie Fight at the OK Corral."
Huffman's comedic scenario has the mayor of the town where the OK Corral is located realizing that the site's notoriety is just too good to ignore. He turns it into a such a popular attraction that gunfights must be reserved weeks and months in advance. Plus the mayor is a little greedy, so he intentionally overbooks the corral.
This is why -- four times a day, Tuesdays-Sundays, beginning May 15 -- crowds in Pioneer Village will suddenly discover that Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and three bumpkins from Texas (Cletus, Clem and Shorty) all arrive for overlapping gunfights at the same time, disrupting the Ladies Social Bizarre and Bake Sale in the process.
Naturally, the cream pies at the bake sale end up as ammunition.
(If, as an observer, you end up with a pie in the face, don't worry. It's not real merengue -- it's a washable, soapy substance called Funny Foam. It doesn't taste as good as whipped cream, but it doesn't stain, either.)
Other changes at Lagoon this season include a new Ben & Jerry's ice cream outlet and an expanded outdoor Western buffet adjacent to the Log Flume ride in Pioneer Village, where the menu will include the park's extremely popular barbecued corn-on-the-cob.