Doofyland

A Theme Park Musical by Mike Hadge

SYNOPSIS

Welcome to DoofyLandSeaRideFarmWaterPlace - outer Tampa’s premiere theme park - where longtime park obsessive Annabelle Champlain has finally reached her lifetime goal of playing the park’s mascot, Doofy C. Horse the Groovy Seahorse. However, after meeting a misfit band of her fellow park characters, Annabelle quickly learns that backstage life at “the Doofiest place on land” is decidedly less than magical, and that immersing yourself in fantasy can come with a price. Will she truly become Doofy? And more importantly...should she?

The world’s first immersive theme park musical and a comedy about the escapes we carve for ourselves in order to survive. Featuring a slate of addictively catchy original pop/rock songs and musical homages to all things "magical.”

Designed by Michael Maglio (@michael.maglio.art)

Development

DoofyLand was first written during COVID-19 lockdown, when we all just wanted an escape of SOME kind and the state of the world had plunged me deeply into “Disney adult”-dom! In fact, the demos for it were presented to my now-fiancee on our THIRD (virtual, remember - 2020) date. The first ever reading of DoofyLand took place over Zoom in early 2021. This led to several rewrites, as readings often/always do. An in-person developmental reading took place in Los Angeles in October 2022, which coincided with Off-Broadway director Jen Wineman (Dog Man: The Musical, Five) taking an interest in the show.

Once the next draft for DoofyLand was named a Finalist and Top Musical in the 2023 ScreenCraft StagePlay Competition, I realized maybe this thing was worth, you know, making. Working with animation pros through my day job at Fox’s The Great North, I created designs for the in-universe characters, park, sets and logos. Good stuff! In April 2023, the aforementioned Jen Wineman set up a reading of DoofyLand with her Dog Man cast. Enthusiasm for the show grew among the attendees that day, and we got down to business about seeing how this thing played in front of an audience. After a summer of working with arrangers and master orchestrators to spruce up the music, DoofyLand: A Live Concert Reading was put up at Three Clubs in Los Angeles in November 2023. The presentation featured a live band, pro performers, and a quasi-immersive theme park atmosphere. The two sold out nights were hugely well received.

Today, development continues on the next iteration of DoofyLand. Hey, while I have you here, want to produce a new show?