After six years and over 10,000 shows Katonga Musical Tales of the Jungle is coming to a close. The announcement was made earlier this summer that the Broadway inspired show housed in the Moroccan Palace Theater at Busch Gardens Tampa would close this weekend. However, the park has remained quiet on what will be replacing the long running African themed musical, which was created exclusively for Busch Gardens Tampa.

Earlier today in a press release Busch Gardens Tampa announced that this winter they would be bringing Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy to the Moroccan Palace direct from Broadway. The show, directed by Neil Goldberg was nominated for "Best Costume Design" by the American Theater Wing and is filled with "spine bending contortionists, acrobats, musicians and spectacular costumes beyond your wildest
imagination."

Sea World Parks and Entertainment (Busch Gardens parent company) has been doing Cirque shows in it's Sea World parks for years, and is wildly successful with shows like Blue Horizons and A Lure. So there is no surprise that Busch Gardens Tampa has decided to go with a Cirque type show. What is a surprise is that this is not an in house production of Busch Entertainment, but an already successful show that they are bringing to the park.

But how does it measure up to Katonga, which features amazing costumes, puppetry, and African inspired dance combined with amazing music and vocal talents? "Cirque Dreams Jungle Fantasy will usher in more of what fans have come to love
and expect from Busch Gardens" according to the press release "incredible stage shows, the likes of which cannot be found at any other theme park in the nation."

There is no word on whether this will be a seasonal replacement, or if this show will have a long run like Katonga had. While Jungle Fantasy will not begin production until sometime this winter, you can catch the last few performances of Katonga: Musical Tales of the Jungle this weekend with the final performance being Monday September 6th (Labor Day). The park's website does not have the times for Monday listed, but the last show of the day has been 4:30 p.m. for the last few weeks. However, the park will also feature a free concert from 80's rockers, Survivor at that time as well (click here for more info on that).

For more information on Busch Gardens Tampa, visit their official site!