Recap: The Magic and Music of Disney...or Disney on Broadway?...or Disney Animation? as Disney Night Takes Over "Dancing With The Stars"

There's Disney fans and there's fans of Dancing With The Stars. While the two meet more often than they may have in the past, it's this night every season that Disney fans enter the ballroom via their television as the stars compete while dancing to various Disney songs. This season, the idea was to celebrate Disney On Broadway (don't tell the team dances to songs from High School Musical or Zootopia 2, though) and special guests were also in the ballroom for the celebration. Serving as a guest judge: Cynthia Erivo, who brought her talent and wisdom to the ballroom - all of which was overshadowed by her playful relationship with Bruno at the Judge's desk.

As with each episode of the show, the whole shebang opened with a special dance, this one featuring a number of tunes from Disney on Broadway hits and performed by some Disney On Broadway stars, including Heather Headley and Kyra Belle Johnson. Music from The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, and The Greatest Showman were all featured.

Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov

The first dance of the night featured Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov, inspired by the Disney show currently playing on the West End, Hercules. Together, they each channeled Herc himself for the performance, set to "A Star Is Born" from the musical. The quickstep was upbeat and fun, and had a small costume mishap that was more Aladdin than Hercules, but the judges (nor the audience!) seemed to mind.

Judges Scores:

Carrie Ann - 8

Derek Hough - 9

Cynthia Erivo - 9

Bruno Tonioli - 9

Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas

Next up, Maura and Mark brought Peter Pan to the ballroom with a jive set to "You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!" So, it seems there is definitely some confusion as to whether it's just Disney night, or Disney on Broadway night. The jive proved to be quite challenging, with Maura calling her role as the iconic pixie a sort of "Tinker Hell."

The dance earned 8s from each of the judges.

Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik

Performed by Heather Headley once again, Tatyana and Jan performed a stunning contemporary dance to "Easy As Life" from the Disney on Broadway presentation of Aida. After the beautiful dance, Judge Carrie Ann Inaba said it gave her chills and showed "true emotion." She was the only judge to give the performance a 9, while the rest gave the dance 8s.

Harry Shum, Jr. and Jenna Johnson

Up next, Harry and Jenna took a little bit of inspiration from Dick Van Dyke for a Jazz number set to "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins, with the classic tune performed by Kyra Belle Johnson - the current Belle in the touring production of Beauty and the Beast. The upbeat performance had your toes tapping - or, in Harry's case - toe touching, as the actor launched into the air in a way that caused Judge Derek Hough to proclaim, "get this man on Broadway, stat!" The whole performance was practically perfect in every way, and scored the first full set of 10s from the judges for the night.

Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach

Since some have pointed out on social media that the Paralympian Ezra Frech looked like he could be Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid, Daniella tapped a samba to "Under the Sea" for their performance tonight. Despite concerns of challenges given his prosthetic, the pair did remarkably well, backed by the music of Michael James Scott (Genie in Aladdin on Broadway) performing the classic calypso tune. However, the cameras (some will point out the cinematography is notably lacking this season) seemed to focus a good portion on the singer during this number, as opposed to the actual dance. Regardless, the judges saw the dance, with Derek reverberating something that Frech had said previously: "It might look a little different, but I can do anything." The judge emphasized that Ezra can, in fact, do anything and gave the dance a 10. The rest of the judges came back with 9s.

Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa

Performing to "Satisfied" from Hamilton, the 10 Things I Hate About You star had a lot to make up for after last week's scoring and the pressure was on. The dance was stunning, and the audience even learned that Lin-Manuel Miranda had been rooting for Julia on socials since the season started.

The judges were all agreed and gave the pair a set of 8s, save for Bruno who gave the dance a 9.

Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy

I hate to say that I got invested in the drama that occurred a few weeks ago with this particular pairing (one half of it at least), so I'm already going into this number with a bit of bias. That said, the upbeat quickstep set to the arguably overdone "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast surely captured the eyes and hearts of audiences everywhere and definitely captivated the judges. This dance was another clean sweep of 10s tonight.

Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold

In case you forgot, Disney is currently working on a live-action adaptation of Tangled and what better way to remind viewers than to get Connor's buddy (and new Flynn Rider) Milo Manheim on the phone! That's because Connor and Rylee will also be dancing to "I See The Light" from the hit animated feature - which apparently is also in the works for a theatrical adaptation.

The song helps build this pair's Shameik Moore/Hailee Steinfeld energy in my opinion, and compared to the other numbers tonight - this Waltz felt like the slow, chaperoned prom dance - but the performance of the song by Heather Headley once again was also a standout.

Judges gave the dance a series of 8s.

That was the final pair to dance tonight, but Disney night also featured two team dances. As the teams got ready, we were treated to a performance of "Friend Like Me" as performed by Sherri Shepherd, who is taking a turn portraying the classic character in Aladdin on Broadway until January of next year.

Team Slaytopia

Using some "Leo-Pard" prints to bring the team to life, this team - which also featured host Alfonso Ribeiro - performed a team dance to "Zoo" from Zootopia 2.

The judges gave the performance straight 9s.

Team Wildcats

Using the unfair advantage that nostalgia has over something as current as a song from Zootopia 2, Team Wildcats (surprise!) performed a number to "We're All In This Together" from High School Musical. Fans will recognize many of the dance moves lifted from the original Disney Channel movie, but Dancing With The Stars fans might also recognize, "Hey, there's a lot of dance moves lifted from the Disney Channel movie!" and wonder how it was original. Alas, the judges gave the dance another set of 10s.

By the end of the night, we couldn't save the last dance, and Julia Stiles and her partner Ezra Sosa go home.