Trivia / Pokémon Live!

• Colbert Bump: A spike in interest in this musical occurred when it was discussed at length during a portion of OneyPlays's Super Mario Sunshine series as well as Chadtronic's videos about the play.
• Creator Backlash: Andrew Rannells, who played James, said in interviews that he deeply regrets being involved in the show, and that he only did it because he needed the money. According to him, a big reason why he detested the show was the fact that he had to play James as a goofy Camp Gay character; being a gay man himself, he felt that it painted a bad image of the community in front of the show's young (and impressionable) audiences. He goes into greater detail about his experience in his 2019 memoir, Too Much is Not Enough: A Memoir of Fumbling Toward Adulthood.
  I'd literally, in retrospect, would have rather done, like, a Snuff Film or porn than do this show.
• Cut Song:
  • The intro song and two short reprises of "It Will All Be Mine" and "Double Trouble" are present in the stage show (and on the internet) but cut from the CD release.
  • The Dubai version cut out several songs and much of the story as a result of nixing Delia's relationship with Giovanni.
• Dawson Casting: The characters are pre-teens. The actors... aren't. Kind of inevitable, really.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The soundtrack CD had a very limited release and is impossible to find anywhere. The show itself was supposed to get a home video release, but it never materialized, leaving the Internet the only way to watch.
• Money, Dear Boy: Andrew Rannells admitted that he was having a critical shortage of money at the time of the play's production, so he took on the role of James for the paycheck.
• The Other Darrin:
  • None of the human characters are portrayed by their anime voice actors.
  • In the filmed performance by Chris Mitchell, Heidi Marie Weyhmueller, who normally played Misty, was sick and was replaced with her understudy Abbey O'Brien, though Misty's solo song was lip-synced to Weyhmueller's vocals.
• Role Reprise:
  • The voice actors for the costumed Pokémon reprised their roles from the anime, including Ikue Otani as Pikachu and Maddie Blaustein as Meowth.
  • The Spanish version brought back the Spanish voice actors to voice the characters instead of live actors (since they wore masks).
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the first draft, The Reveal would be made that Giovanni was Ash's father, rather than Delia dating him before she met Ash's father. The final product tones it down to subtext; it's implied, but never confirmed, that Delia was pregnant when she left Team Rocket.
  • A professional recording was planned but never released. A professional of the Dubai version exists; however, it's different from other versions in many respects.
  • Pikachu and Meowth were initially intended to be played by little actors in costumes (à la Baby Bop and BJ from Barney & Friends), but the idea had to be dropped, as it would've been too difficult to see a small character in the tour's huge venues (the show mainly played in large arenas during its run). Instead, the production team opted for the larger Pokemon costumes.
  • This sound effects list shows the Venusaur was originally going to use more moves, including Vine Whip and Solar Beam, and a Lapras would also battle MechaMew2 with Bubble Beam. It was subsequently cut due to the puppet's bubbles being too tiny for such a climactic fight. The Lapras prop was instead placed in the theater lobby, bubble machine and all, and used as a photo op attraction for the kids.
• Word of God: According to the show's writer, the Delia-Giovanni plotline as seen in the finished version was meant to suggest Giovanni was Ash's biological father, though not outright say it.

---