Developing an MFA track in Themed Experience at the University of Central Florida

by Jasmin Jodry

This shift from passive storytelling to active Storyliving reflects a cultural appetite for immersion: multisensory experiences that remove the fourth wall and invite audiences into participation, making familiar narratives feel newly alive.

As an immersive creative director specialising in Storyliving Experiences, I focus on transporting participants into themed worlds that foster connection, create lasting memories, and spark transformation. Many musicals remain locked in tradition. I see an opportunity for them to embrace immersive staging to unlock experiences that deliver intimacy, agency, and unforgettable moments.

Two recent productions are great examples. Masquerade, a reinterpretation of The Phantom of the Opera, operates like a walkable dark ride, guiding audiences through scenes and encounters. Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical from Secret Cinema scales immersion to fairground size, blending screening, live performance, and festival energy.

Wish fulfillment: musicals in location-based entertainment

Masquerade and Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical show how musicals can extend beyond the stage into location-based entertainment, inviting audiences to step physically inside the story. Unlike a linear movie screening or theater staging, where fans remain passive spectators, LBE offers active Storyliving: the chance to inhabit beloved tales and fulfill long-held wishes of being part of them.

For Phantom fans, wandering the bowels of the Paris Opera at night, exploring the Phantom’s lair by candlelight, or standing under the chandelier as it shatters overhead. Holding a lantern as Christine and the Phantom glide through the mist in a gondola, or dancing in masks at the masquerade ball.

These are the moments that let audiences step into the gothic romance, danger, and intimacy they have dreamed of for decades.

For Grease fans, wish fulfillment is about freedom, fun, and rebellion. Imagine joining the Pink Ladies for a slumber-party pillow fight, eating burgers in a candy-colored Cadillac, or lining up with the Firebirds for a car race. It could be walking through the halls of Rydell High, competing in the school dance under glittering lights, or singing along at the carnival finale as the Ferris wheel spins overhead.

These kinds of participatory moments cannot be replicated on screen. They sear themselves into memory because they allow audiences not just to watch, but to live the story.

Immersive musicals transform nostalgia and fandom into embodied experiences, giving guests the thrill of stepping into the worlds they love most.

Grease: from screen to LBE

Secret Cinema’s Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical was a joyous plunge into 1950s Americana, a playful, sense-saturated world where fairground rides, candy-colored Cadillacs, and glittering stages brought Rydell High to life.

From the moment guests stepped through the high school gates, complete with carousel and Ferris wheel, the ambition was clear. This was not a themed screening but a world designed to transport audiences inside the film.

Secret Cinema leaned into its strengths, extracting iconic elements from the film and extending them into a themed party and environment that brought Grease to life for its guests. It was a perfect pairing of dressed-up audiences, hospitality, music, party, live performance, movie screening, and socializing.

This combination allowed fans to inhabit the fantasy of Grease rather than simply re-watch it.

The format itself marked a departure. Instead of projecting the film in full, multiple smaller screens carried key sequences while live performers punctuated the action with live performance, playful ads, and theatrical effects.

The result was a highlight reel that poured off the screen and into the room, transforming the film into an immersive world audiences could step inside. The film provided the narrative backbone, but it was no longer the main event. Actors shifted fluidly across stages throughout the night, ensuring audience members could experience both intimacy and spectacle.

The finale brought the entire audience outside to dance with 30 performers, turning the fairground into one electrifying, infectious collective high.

Bringing fan favorite musicals to life

Guests could sit during the performance or move around between environments, from a glittering stage to a retro diner, to drive-in seating inside Cadillacs.

Participation was voluntary: during the main indoor staging, guests who wanted to participate positioned themselves in the front row, while others further back could watch undisturbed. Some audience members were even invited onstage for pillow fights, the slumber party, or the car scene.

With the audience so dressed up, I kept wishing for two things: a short dance lesson to engage the costumed crowd earlier, and more in-world photo ops across the grounds. Opportunities like these could have amplified the atmosphere, celebrated the crowd, and driven organic marketing. The audience was ready to do half the marketing for them.

Set design was a highlight: Beaming headlights cutting through smoke, a car descending from the ceiling, a rolling bed for the slumber party sequence. These elements reimagined iconic moments with theatrical surprise while maintaining the film’s aesthetic.

Choreography pulsed with energy, from the electrifying boys-on-cars routine to the raucous pillow fight. The female leads radiated charisma and vocal power, while casting overall reflected diverse body types and ethnicities, making the world feel inclusive. Costumes stayed true to the film, though the real highlight came from the audience’s own dress-up.

The power of merch

Merchandise under-delivered. While fun accessories like fans and sunglasses were available, many guests had already bought Pink Lady jackets on Amazon, a clear missed opportunity for Secret Cinema. Affordable Pink Lady or T-Bird jackets would have been easy wins. Instead, the only jackets on offer were £90 and largely unsold.

Accessible, authentic costume pieces could have boosted both revenue and immersion.

Overall, the production delivered impressively at scale. For a six-week run, hosting between 1,500 and 2,500 people per performance, the event carried the polish of a multi-million-pound spectacle without losing a sense of play.

Grease: The Immersive Movie Musical shows Secret Cinema evolving beyond themed film screenings into full-fledged location-based entertainment, transporting audiences into the story and making it unforgettable.

I’ve seen many of their stagings over the years, but this felt like a new format, one that leaned fully into their strongest trait: transforming the film into a living party and world to inhabit. The movie remained as the narrative backbone, punctuated by live elements, but it was no longer the main event. Guests ate, drank, socialised, and danced their way through the story.

I hope Secret Cinema continues down this path. It was so much fun, I’d go again in a heartbeat.

Masquerade: from stage to LBE

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Masquerade is an ambitious reimagining of The Phantom of the Opera that fuses Broadway polish with immersive theatre.

Rather than passively watching from fixed seats like in standard musicals, audiences step inside the story. They wander through sets with live effects, meeting characters in close-up scenes, and experiencing iconic moments at arm’s length. Songs are felt as much as heard, making the production cinematic, alive, and unexpected.

It is like if Sleep No More and Broadway had a baby and turned it into a walkable dark ride version of Phantom of the Opera.

Gone is the traditional proscenium. Eighteen elaborately designed sets unfold as six vignettes, ranging from gondolas gliding through mist and crashing chandeliers to dressing rooms, carnival tableaux, and New York rooftops.

Guests walk seamlessly from one vignette to the next, encountering stagecraft magic and world-class voices only inches away. They shift between large gatherings and small encounters, sometimes splitting for intimate moments before reconvening for grander scenes. This fluid staging eliminates the pauses of Broadway set changes, and turns the story into a seamless, immersive journey.

This feels radical for Broadway yet familiar to fans of immersive theatre and theme park design.

Some of the strongest moments occur when spectacle meets intimacy. Outdoors, performers sing from the rooftop under the stars, voices soaring across Manhattan’s night sky.

The deepest emotions came from the music, not from the staging. Christine’s voice was hauntingly beautiful, fragile yet strong, moving me to tears. The intimacy of the bedroom and dressing-room sets magnified her vulnerability. By contrast, the Phantom and Raoul carried less emotional weight, with performances that felt underwhelming.

Musicals meet immersive entertainment

New scenes inject surprise and edge into a familiar story. A cage prequel shows the Phantom’s discovery with raw intensity, while a circus vignette adds a dark, risqué energy. In a tight space, audiences sipped cognac as a sword swallower and a tattooed fire blower performed in burlesque attire.

The heat, danger, and sass infuse spice into the velvet brocade of Broadway, refreshing a tale audiences know by heart.

A few scenes invited subtle audience interaction. In the magical gondola sequence, guests held candles that illuminated the mist as the boat glided past. Sightlines were carefully managed so every spot had a good view, avoiding the aggressive pushing that plagued Sleep No More and became unbearable at Life and Trust.

I also saw a guest pulled into a one-on-one and another instructed to carry a fake head. These gifts of participation make shows unforgettable. I am curious if there are more hidden one-on-ones waiting to be discovered.

Reflecting on the direction of the show, I’d love to see Broadway directors team up with immersive directors to better choreograph flow, guide attention, and keep the arc alive while moving people.

Transitions could have been smoother. At moments of high tension, such as Christine unmasking the Phantom, audiences were steered onto escalators, breaking momentum. Movement could feel more dramaturgical, less logistical.

Transmedia storytelling is needed

Sound design also faltered, with voices abruptly shifting to overhead speakers. Immersive directors often use light or sound cues to guide attention; here, moments like a violinist, a lit podium, and an offstage voice compete for attention, leaving audiences unsure of where to look.

Lighting design took inspiration from installation art, with the Phantom emerging from a smoke-filled illuminated box in the chandelier scene. It is refreshing to see Lady Gaga’s stylist, Nicola Formichetti, influence the costume design. Costumes mix classic opera attire with his surreal provocations.

Yet in a show where audiences stand inches from the performers, cheap brocade breaks suspension of disbelief. Fashion-level craftsmanship would be key.

The audience itself heightened the atmosphere. Many arrived in Victorian gowns, lace dresses, and ornate masks, creating a sense of occasion even before the show began. Those without masks received one on entry in a ritual at Lee’s Art Shop, beautifully staged.

I wish the show had extended its world beyond the performance. Merchandise was limited to two T-shirts, a missed opportunity. Where are the masks, gloves, or opera-inspired attire? Where are VIP packages with premium masks or pre-show cocktails?

The post-show bar with its candelabras became the only backdrop. More thoughtfully integrated in-world photo ops, for example, at the mask shop on entry or at the finale, could drive viral marketing. Audiences put effort into dressing up and need opportunities to celebrate that.

Broadway could borrow from immersive entertainment here, extending the experience through thoughtful touchpoints and transmedia storytelling.

More than reimagining musicals

The logistics are staggering. Each performance lasts two hours and fifteen minutes, with six shows during the week and twelve on weekends. Overlapping casts cycle through staggered tracks, synchronized by cameras and operators so every group meets the same Phantom at the right time. That Excel spreadsheet must be a piece of art.

I bought tickets on the same night I saw it for the first time to see it again, despite the price tag! It’s that good. With Phantom’s global fanbase primed to return again and again, the show is built for repeat visitation and strong word-of-mouth.

Overall, Masquerade is more than a reimagining of Phantom. It is an experiment in reimagining Broadway itself. Its rooftop arias, candlelit gondola ride, intimate dressing-room scenes, and spectacular chandelier sequence represent a bold fusion of traditions, merging Broadway-scale and vocal brilliance with the intimacy and novelty of immersive theatre.

While transitions, audience cues, and costumes need refinement, the production’s ambition and achievement are absolutely amazing.

Everyone in this industry should see it.

Comparative analysis

Masquerade and Grease share the ambition to reimagine the musical as a lived experience. Both move beyond the proscenium into environments audiences inhabit, but with different emphases.

Masquerade heightens intimacy with rooftop arias, misty gondolas, and dressing-room encounters that bring the Phantom’s world close enough to touch. Grease amplifies social energy with fairground rides, multiple stages, and mass dance parties that transform nostalgia into a festival of collective joy.

Seen together, they show how immersive design can shape musicals at both intimate and spectacular scale.

These productions mark a shift from musicals as live performances to musicals as lived storyworlds, moving us closer to Storyliving, where audiences no longer passively watch a show, but physically inhabit its world.

Immersive musicals merge Broadway’s vocal brilliance and storytelling with the intimacy and novelty of immersive theatre and the audience focus of themed entertainment. They transform emotional intensity into participation, turning fans into co-creators of the story.

If Here Lies Love cracked the Broadway box, Masquerade has shattered it. It sets new boundaries of what a musical can be within location-based entertainment.

Top image courtesy of Secret Cinema. Other images courtesy of Jasmin Jodry.