ALL PHOTOS BY DYLAN DUNCAN
Disney just pulled back the construction curtain on Hurly-Burly, the new dining and live entertainment venue replacing Jellyrolls at Disney’s BoardWalk. Orlando Shine Photo Friend Dylan Duncan (Instagram | Website) was there to catch it all on his fancy camera, so be sure to read to the bottom for the gallery.
As Orlando Shine reported in June, Hurly-Burly is moving into the former home of Jellyrolls, the dueling piano bar that operated for nearly 30 years before closing in April 2025.
Disney has said the venue will open to the public on October 1. The name means “tumultuous uproar” and is a nod to a live audience bursting into applause. So they’re manifesting. The concept follows the BoardWalk’s day-to-night rhythm. Afternoons are family-friendly, with trivia and games led by a host. At night, the room becomes a 21-and-over live music venue featuring local talent, with a different genre each night, including modern vintage, Motown-era music, Top 40 hits, and songs from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s.
Walt Disney Imagineering built the space around the story of the Hurly-Burly Theatre, a fictional vaudeville house that was once home to the BoardWalk’s variety performers. Resident headliner Polly Delmar anchored a lineup of ocean-themed acts known for “maritime melodrama.” When the theater closed, according to the story the PR team is telling us, performers left their personal effects behind, and those props, costumes, show programs, tickets and telegrams now fill the walls and shelves nearly 100 years later as little treasure-hunt opportunities for people who hate to chit-chat at their tables and prefer to wander.
The story unfolds in chronological order as guests move through the room. Hidden details include Pearl, the puppet from ventriloquist Mother Muriel’s act, “Mother Muriel and the Illustrious Pearl,” perched on a shelf. There’s also a suspicious sign-in sheet from the September 14, 1940, Magician Showcase, where only a magician named Prospero signed in, which may be a Shakespeare nod, but we didn’t ask. Backstage notes on a bulletin board reveal that Polly and the Siren Sisters were friends who could not share a dressing room without fighting.
To bring guests closer to the stage, Imagineers raised the floor to create a single level with tiered seating. The color palette pulls from the sea (likely as a nod to the outside BoardWalk theming), with jewel tones and teals in the paint and fabrics, coral accents, and brass finishes on frames, handles, and light fixtures.
Items served at the media preview included a Caramel Corn Old Fashioned and an Overture in Orange mocktail, along with oven-roasted shrimp, roast beef sliders, plant-based meatballs in tomato gravy, and mini apple cider doughnuts.
Hurly-Burly is part of a broader refresh at Disney’s BoardWalk, the waterfront district tucked away behind EPCOT, which also includes the Basin on the BoardWalk bath and body shop and a new quick-service restaurant announced for late 2026.
