Elton John has reached the final U.S. stop on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, and one with personal significance. In 1975, he famously played two sold-out shows at Dodger Stadium wearing a sequinned baseball uniform. The three-hour concert would go on to be considered one of the greatest in rock and roll history. To wrap up his farewell tour stateside, he will perform three shows at Dodger Stadium with a global live-streaming event on Disney+ on the final night, November 20th, titled Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium. I recently got to speak with the Emmy-winning team at Fulwell 73 Productions (Adele: One Night Only, THE GRAMMYS) about how they’re preparing for the big night. Here is my interview with executive producers Gabe Turner and Ben Winston.
(Fulwell 73 Productions/Disney Plus)
Alex: This is the end of Elton John’s farewell tour in the U.S., a journey that began in 2018. Will the Disney+ live stream be a reflection of what the tour has been thus far, or will there be special moments just for this worldwide streaming event?
Gabe Turner: Well, for starters, he's doing “Don't Go Breaking My Heart” with Kiki Dee. I would say it's the biggest hit that he doesn't usually do. And also he is doing it with Kiki Dee, so that will be magical. He's got a duet with Dua Lipa and Brandi Carlile, but we are very much filming his show. I think that he and David [Furnish] are very, very proud of this tour and this show and so they wanted to film it. We get all the brilliance of a well-rehearsed, slick final tour show, but with a bit of extra sprinkling of magic. But we're super-excited, and really Elton's on fire at the moment. He's so, so good. So we're just really excited to be the ones to point the cameras and send Elton out to the world.
Alex: Awesome.This performance will be the last of three nights at Dodger Stadium in LA. Fom a production standpoint, does that give you two dress rehearsals to plan out the live event?
Gabe: Yes, one hundred percent. We're very, very lucky and very, very happy to have those days beforehand to rehearse and to try and get it right because, obviously, live telly is frightening. Live telly with an icon, even more frightening, Disney+ and a global streaming audience, even more frightening. So any rehearsal time and any practice we can get beforehand, we're very excited to have them.
Alex: In addition to this live concert, there's a documentary film being made about this time in Elton's life. Is there any overlap for you between this live event and that project?
Gabe: So that's R.J. Cutler, he's making that film. We've spoken a bit because Elton is the thing, and we're all trying to do our bits around Elton, so we've spoken to R.J. I'm a huge Elton fan anyway, so I'm very, very excited to watch that documentary, but that's very much a thing that's happening with R.J. who's a great guy. We've spoken because we're both going to be there doing stuff and trying to make sure that everyone gets what they need for their respective roles and jobs. I’m very excited to see what he comes up with, but it's not us, it's not our show.
Alex: Nice. I’ve been to other concerts before that later had a live broadcast and they always felt like somewhat different shows on TV vs in the audience. Are there things that you’re working towards that will be different from what the live audience sees at Dodger Stadium, or will this really just be a faithful depiction of the live show for Disney+ viewers?
Gabe: It's going to be like you've got a front-row seat. We really want to respect the fact that this is a really impressive tour that David and Elton have put together, and we just want to do that justice and try and respect that this is an amazing show that people have loved all over the world. We want to put it on camera in the best possible way, give people a front row, and send it out to the world because it's being globally streamed across multiple territories, so we want everyone to feel like they were there.
Alex: This event is somewhat of a homecoming for Elton John, who performed two legendary shows at Dodger Stadium in 1975. Does the fact that the venue is a baseball stadium and not necessarily a concert venue create any benefits or challenges for you? Is it easier because it has a broadcast center for the Dodgers?
Gabe: We always have the truck, which is mobile, but I think the fact that it's set up, the fact that it's a place that's friendly to cameras, that is used to having lots of the infrastructure for filming does help. But all of our team are able really to shoot anywhere, and in this day and age, everything's quite mobile and you can kind of go anywhere and do anything. But yeah, obviously there's been plenty shot there, so they know how to facilitate this kind of thing.
Alex: Elton John has a long history with Disney, going back to the Totally Minnie special in the 80s, writing music for The Lion King, and Broadway shows like Aida. Are we going to see nods to any of his Disney moments? Songs from The Lion King haven’t been on this tour’s setlist, will this show be an exception?
Gabe: I would love that, Alex, I am a huge Lion King fan. I think the music he wrote for that is astonishingly good, but I don't know. think everyone's trying to respect what Elton's show is and really just let him do his thing and us just be there to film it… We want him to play the show that's been on tour, that stuff won't be in there. But I do think that would be pretty sensational.
Alex: Is there anything about this experience since you're still doing it, where that working with Elton has been a particularly special or meaningful experience for you?
Ben Winston: When you get into this business, it's your dreams come true really, that you get to produce something that's so iconic and so historic. I was thinking about the 1975 gig at the Dodger Stadium earlier and how that's such a huge part of music history and it shows what a big part of music history it is because I love it so much and I wasn't even born yet. And so to be able to be producing something that people all over the globe are going to love and share and enjoy and is going to be historic in the nature of where it is and the fact that it's his final time, I just think it's a really amazing thing. So on this specific show, Gabe and I aren't spending a huge amount of time with Elton. He's on his tour. We are getting ready for him to come to LA and perform at Dodgers, so it's not that we're spending a lot of time with him at all, although we've really enjoyed our collaborations with David Furnish, who's been an incredible producer of this show. But I just think for any producer you want to make stuff that people all over the world are going to love and enjoy and share and that's what I think it will be.
Alex: It definitely will. Thank you both so much, I know you’re very busy and I can’t wait to tune in to the live event on Sunday.
Don’t miss the live-streaming event of the year Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium exclusively on Disney+ this Sunday, November 20th, starting at 11:00 pm ET/8:00 pm PT.