Epcot's World Showcase Lagoon is forty-two acres of dark water ringed by eleven countries, and it has been performing since the week the park opened. From the dedication in 1982 until 2019, its nighttime shows were Don's: he composed the suite for the first, supervised and scored the two that followed, produced the music and co-wrote the theme of the fourth, and created and directed the last and longest-running of them all. And because Don also had a major hand in designing the lagoon's sound itself, the shoreline system the shows play through, there is a little of his work in everything the water has carried since.
The complete run of the lagoon's parades and shows is below, in order. The ones that were Don's link through to their own pages.
Hundreds of performers and the giant People of the World figures circled the promenade to the Sherman Brothers' World Showcase March, for the park's opening and the World Showcase dedication. October 1982.
Nine computer-controlled barges, sixty projectors and The Festival of Festivals, performed for the park's dedication. October 23, 1982 to June 1983.
Well-known classical music on synthesizers over the projection barges, with automated moving lights. June 1983 to June 1984.
The score meets lasers over open water, The Skater glides across a water-droplet screen, and the whole shoreline becomes the audience. June 9, 1984 to January 24, 1988.
Airplanes, ultralights, speedboats, dragon boats, colored smoke and daytime fireworks over the lagoon, with a Sherman Brothers song. About 1985 to 1987.
The lagoon's synthesizer years rescored for full orchestra, with the pavilions themselves joining the show. January 30, 1988 to September 20, 1996.
Mickey and the gang in ultralights, kites, daytime pyro, and character balloons inflating along the promenade. 1991 to 1992.
Walter Cronkite, the Boys Choir of Harlem and Let There Be Peace on Earth: the seasonal show that replaced the nightly one each December. 1994 to 1998.
Walt Disney World's twenty-fifth anniversary edition, in three versions: 25A, replaced within a year by 25B after guests made their feelings known, which then lost only its Remember the Magic line to become 25C once the anniversary passed. October 1996 to September 1999.
The Millennium Celebration's giant-puppet parade, circling the promenade nightly before the lagoon show; revised as Tapestry of Dreams in 2001. October 1, 1999 to March 2003.
Nineteen torches, a 350,000-pound Earth, and twenty years of nightly performances to the day. October 1, 1999 to September 30, 2019.
A songbook retrospective that opened the lagoon's next era, and returned twice between its successors. October 1, 2019 to December 4, 2023, in three runs.
The fiftieth anniversary show on five permanent barges. October 1, 2021 to April 2, 2023.
The lagoon's current nighttime show. December 5, 2023 to today.