Aladdin on Broadway

[Lady Cluck]

LMAO @ the nostalgia critic shaping that many people's opinions. Most people don't even know who he is. Don't give him too much credit.

Frollo has the biggest percentage of airtime of any Disney villain and is easily one of the most complex while also being one of the most sinister. Some of us noticed this from the beginning You'd have to be an idiot not to, like many of HOND's haters are.

[ProfessorRatigan]

Your snappy, condescending tone in your reply to me was disrespectful

So you can hear what I can type ? What magical powers you have, and can I have them ?

I responded tit-for-tat. That's all there is to it.

LOL no.

You got all bity emotional because I mentioned that this is Aladdin's movie and not Jafar's. You must be really sensitive yourself if you can't handle that.

You bit at me all because I said that this Jafar singing less song complaining is stupid because it's not even his movie. You saying that it was snappy and whatever proves how sensitive you were towards it and how much you dislike it when somebody disagrees with your opinion.

And besides, Scar's role in the Broadway show was EXPANDED from the film, including a whole added sub-plot involving him trying to marry Nala (through a great new number, The Madness of King Scar, which, in addition to setting up that plot point, also included his paranoia over Mufasa 'haunting' him...) AND he got a Reprise of Be Prepared!

Scar is a popular character though, Jafar is close but not even. So keep dreaming. There's no way they would increase his songs and showtime unless his character got a bigger and larger fanbase like Scars.

So, this comparison is stupid.

You know what's REALLY stupid ? This. Why ? Because I've already mentioned that I was upset about Why Me ? Not being included before on the forums. I just believe that this " They Removed His Songs So It Sucks " attitude is really dumb, when Jafar isn't even the lead, and this is sounding like a good show and deserves a chance and shouldn't be tossed aside just because a Forum Favorite got the short end of the stick.

Edit- I actually said that this is for Aladdin fans, not John Freeman fans, but my point still stands.

Also this is like the second time you've like attacked me for my opinion ProfessorRatigan. So please leave me alone.

Nobody remembered Frollo or HOND until NC gave it some attention and then everybody was like " Omg Frollo " ! Before that Frollo and HOND was pretty much ignored or forgotten. :/

I'm sorry, but that is COMPLETE bullshit. The film has ALWAYS had its fans and its champions. And it's ALWAYS been popular among a certain segment of the population who grew up with it. The reason it's suddenly talked about is, quite simply, because we who saw it as kids and have been fans of it ever since grew up and now TALK about it online and through social media. Promote it, encourage discussion. Doug Walker gets way too much fucking credit. Just because he says something, doesn't make it gospel truth and doesn't mean people, LOTS OF PEOPLE, weren't saying it before him.

I live in rural Arkansas. I graduated high school in 2009. In my freshmen and sophomore years, ALL of my friends and acquaintances had heard of it, had seen it and loved it just as much as I did. We talked about it, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and, yes, The Lion King ad nauseam. Doug Walker did most certainly NOT foment every shred of appreciation for this film and it is insulting to fans like me, who have fought for this film since day one, to suggest that that is the case.

I view it as akin to Alice in Wonderland and Fantasia. Both were written-off when they first came out. Both were 'forgotten.' But the people who loved them kept them alive, kept championing them and, eventually, the general public came to a consensus that they were masterpieces. Hunchback is, in my opinion, on a similar path. It has its detractors, but its popularity and appreciation are only going to grow from here on out. Doug Walker MIGHT have a small bit to do with that, but he does NOT deserve all the credit.

And, yes, Frollo has ALWAYS been the most talked up bit of the film, since 1996. http://articles.philly.com/1996-06-16/e ... ale-frollo Your argument is invalid.

As for Broadway shows, I agree completely with Disney's Divinity. The Lion King IS the best Broadway show. You have to be fair and admit that, while The Lion King, as a film, is quite overwrought, flawed and vastly overrated, the stage version DID improve upon its source material, fixing big problems and making a real spectacle at the same time. The added songs were BETTER than the original score. The Madness of King Scar, Shadowland and They Live In You were both 100 times better than anything in the actual film. Beauty and the Beast, while a superior film, had an awful stage show. The Ashman/Menken songs are, still, amazing. But they couldn't save the show from those turgid Tim Rice diddies that actively RUINED some of the most beautiful moments of the film. I watched the stage show for the first time and it got to the scene where Beast lets Belle go, one of the most beautiful and somber moments in the film. A very quiet scene. "I let her go," the Beast says. "Why!?" "...Because I love her." Chilling in how simple and how effective it is. What do we get in the stage version? "If I Can't Love Her!" This big, stupid, clunky, moapy ridiculous song that saps ALL the emotion out of the scene like a vacuum and has the audience checking their watch. When the Beast DIES they PUT AN AWFUL FUCKING SONG THERE as if beating us over the head with how 'sad' we're supposed to feel! I was angry. ANGRY watching it. It completely destroyed EVERYTHING that was beautiful about that moment. So, yeah. Beauty and the Beast's stage show kind of sucked balls, actually. And don't get me fucking started on The Little Mermaid...

So leave me alone Prof Ratigan okay ? Just leave me alone.

Um... Wow. I...okay. Hmm. I hate to be insensitive, but, man, you need to do some serious growing up if you get this butthurt over someone on a DISCUSSION forum responding to a point you made. I didn't 'attack' you. Anyone can see my tone was anything but hostile in the above response... And yes, TONE can be inferred from print... And, besides, you yourself described my first response to you in this thread as, 'the rudest thing you've ever HEARD,' so you're in no position to be saying this:

So you can hear what I can type ? What magical powers you have, and can I have them ?

Apparently, you and I share the same magical gift, eh? We should submit ourselves to scientific study! HUMANITY NEEDS WHAT WE HAVE!

Either way, I'll try to restrain myself and not respond to you from here on out if you're going to blow up and act so petulant about anything I write.

[rubyslippers]

A few sneak peek photos. When I saw the show, there wasn't a moon in Jasmine's window--either it's been removed (or added) or it didn't shine that night! I wish these were fuller pictures, they really don't do the set justice! Everything was very vibrant, colorful when it needed to be, and great to look at. Jasmine's bedroom was really breathtaking, shame the photo isn't more zoomed out to get the full effect of her enormous window letting in the night sky!

[DancingCrab]

[rubyslippers]

[ChrisLyne]

Same pictures but much higher quality;

http://aladdinmusical.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... addin.html

I tried to post the images here but got a message saying they were too big.

[Disney's Divinity]

@DancingCrab: He is gorgeous; and it's very appropriate for Aladdin.

[thelittleursula]

LMAO @ the nostalgia critic shaping that many people's opinions. Most people don't even know who he is. Don't give him too much credit.

Frollo has the biggest percentage of airtime of any Disney villain and is easily one of the most complex while also being one of the most sinister. Some of us noticed this from the beginning You'd have to be an idiot not to, like many of HOND's haters are.

I wrote that ages ago when NG was a pretty big Internet star, and yeah it was pretty naive. But he did have a influence. ( I'm not a HOND hater btw if you think that imo the movie is sadly underated and deserves more love~ )

Um... Wow. I...okay. Hmm. I hate to be insensitive, but, man, you need to do some serious growing up if you get this butthurt over someone on a DISCUSSION forum responding to a point you made. I didn't 'attack' you. Anyone can see my tone was anything but hostile in the above response... And yes, TONE can be inferred from print... And, besides, you yourself described my first response to you in this thread as, 'the rudest thing you've ever HEARD,' so you're in no position to be saying this
Either way, I'll try to restrain myself and not respond to you from here on out if you're going to blow up and act so petulant about anything I write.

Fair enough, now can we please just let this go ? Thanks don't really want to fight or dislike anybody here and I apologize if you didn't mean anything wrong, just thought that you were attacking me because of different opinions.

And yeah I did feel like it was rude because all I said that the story and the musical is about Aladdin's story and adventure and not john Freeman, it sucks that he's getting rejected with so many songs, because like you've mentioned he can sing really well, but at the end of the day it's Aladdin's story, but knowing Disney right now a Jafar movie is possible :/

Why Me ? Could of been great, but yeah, it was sadly dropped. Even Humiliate the Boy could of been thrilling, but yeah.... dropped.

Well I did ask to be left alone since I felt like you personally attack me, but kay, fair enough.

K.



So Cute !

[ProfessorRatigan]

Fair enough, now can we please just let this go ? Thanks don't really want to fight or dislike anybody here and I apologize if you didn't mean anything wrong, just thought that you were attacking me because of different opinions.

That's fine with me. I really don't like fights or anything like that either, especially over something as ultimately petty as opinions on Disney films or Broadway shows. I do have strong opinions on things, though, and I can be a little...forceful in stating them. So, if I do come off like a prick sometimes, I really don't mean to. I'm just passionate about certain things.

ANYWAY, back to Aladdin!

I really like the principle cast! I think they all look, and, more importantly, SOUND great for their parts! And I like that the costumes (so far anyway) aren't so far removed from what the characters wore in the film. But, like I said, I do hope the climax is tweaked... It wouldn't do to have a big, exciting show have such a rushed ending.

That's why I like the idea (from the original Ashman version) of Aladdin becoming a jerk after he gets the Genie. (The Genie's song is, after all, "you ain't ever had a friend like me!") Now that Aladdin actually HAS friends, that song could come off a little different... And that is why I think Aladdin needs to go through a bit of a change after that. He gets sucked into having this Genie and all this power and, temporarily at least, forgets what's important. That was a big theme in the original Ashman storyline. In fact, it was the moral! And I think that moral works better in this story than 'be yourself.' It was only after being 'humbled' again by his humiliation at Jafar's hands and nearly getting himself, and his friends, killed that Aladdin realized his wrongdoing and had to make up for it (by stopping Jafar, saving the kingdom, admitting the truth and freeing the Genie.) Honestly, Aladdin was more of a flawed, dynamic character in the original draft. In the final film, he's...pretty much perfect. Yeah, he tells a few lies, but they aren't so bad in that context. Yeah, he steals, but only to eat and even then, he gives his food away to starving kids.

Aladdin is more comparable to Ariel in the final film, really. He's adventurous, charismatic, he made a deal with a magical being, (in this case the Genie,) in order to win the heart of a someone he fell in love with at first glance... And so on. It's kind of funny that Ariel gets all this flak from feminists but they've never had a problem with ALADDIN as a character that represents men or that little boys would look up to. He does nearly everything Ariel does, and, in the film, just like Ariel, doesn't REALLY have to pay any consequences. I think female characters are just held to a higher standard. But, anyway.

The idea from the film that all these characters, even Jafar, feel 'trapped' by their current positions is something that I hope gets expanded on in the play, too. (And that's honestly why I enjoy Why Me? so much, because it does clue us in that Jafar feels that way, too, which, I think, makes it an interesting character piece.)

[rubyslippers]

RE: "Trapped"

There is an underlying theme in the show about being trapped in certain roles. Jasmine is trapped in the role of a princess that her father is forcing on her because of tradition and "the law." Aladdin is trapped in the role of a thief/street rat because that's all he's ever been. The song A Million Miles Away touches on how, because they're trapped in their respective roles, they don't even know who they are. "After a million miles or so, we'll find out who we are." "We'll never turn back/we'll just keep on going/vanishing from view/becoming someone new." "Leave everything behind." etc.

Even when Aladdin is given the guise of a prince, he's still trapped--first by the fact that he thinks he needs to act like a snobby, entitled prince in order to come across like royalty, and then eventually trapped by his deceit. Jasmine agrees to marry him--he can't marry her unless he continues to lie. He can't continue to lie, and so he tells Genie his final wish will be used to make him a real prince. Genie is trapped by the fact that he is bound to obey other people's wishes, and has no say in the matter. Not only does it make him literally trapped in a lamp, but it essentially keeps him from trusting people or having any friends.

Aladdin was a bit of a jerk to the trio after the Prince Ali wish, but it's mainly Kassim who reacts because he feels like Aladdin is choosing a fake life with Jasmine over a real life with them. The other two are just annoyed that he's lying and trying to act like a snob to impress Jasmine, but not to the extent that Kassim is angry. Genie says (like he does in the movie IIRC) that Aladdin should just "be himself."

With Jafar, the theme of trapped only extended so far in that he wanted power throughout the whole show--he wanted the lamp so that he could have the power to be Sultan and rule with fear and terror and make everyone listen to him, in other words he wanted to be his own master. And then his desire for power--to be "all powerful" like Genie--finally literally trapped him inside a lamp.

[ChrisLyne]

Don Darryl Rivera has dedicated his performance as Iago to those affected by Typhoon Haiyan;

http://aladdinmusical.blogspot.co.uk/20 ... go-to.html

[ChrisLyne]

Opening night tonight! Fingers crossed for great reviews tomorrow!

[Super Aurora]

when is a soundtrack for this Broadway show coming out so i can buy it?

[disneyprincess11]

when is a soundtrack for this Broadway show coming out so i can buy it?

Not for a long time, unfortuanely. I'm guessing between June-September. Cinderella opened in March and Pippin opened in April and the soundtrack for them didn't came out until June.

[disneyprincess11]

Uh oh...

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/st ... magic.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/the ... e15558576/

[rubyslippers]

Uh oh...

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/st ... magic.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/the ... e15558576/

I want to dig into these reviews later but this is sticking out to me in the Star Review right now:

"Beguelin weighs her down with a mixture of outdated feminist clichés and snappy comebacks that never coalesce into a character."



Did the reviewer watch the film version? Because the majority of Jasmine's dialogue regarding being forced into marriage, her status as a princess, feeling trapped, etc, are from the film. The added dialogue is mostly at extension of the film's themes--bringing up her mother when her father confronts her after Call Me a Princess ("Don't you want me to be happy?") and her father more or less saying "your mother was forced to marry, HER mother was forced to marry, etc." I think her reply was something like "You don't care if I'm happy. As long as I obey."

I'm genuinely confused as to why that would be his criticism of Jasmine--especially since he is specifically laying the blame on the revised scriptwriter--since her characterization was more or less true to the movie, with some added playfulness in Call Me a Princess.

Edit:]

Another head-scratching comment from the same review.

"Even in the movie, [Aladdin] was a cunning, crooked street rat who had to learn the error of his ways to grow into a man. Here he’s an appealing guy from the start..."

In the movie, Aladdin is shown to be a 'street rat' who steals because he can't afford to buy food, but he isn't really depicted as crooked? He gives his bread (which he just risked his life for) to two children who need it more, and defends them from the prince. He saves the disguised Jasmine when she unwittingly steals from a street vendor. The townspeople are a mixed bag of treating him with contempt and appearing to like him.

In the musical, Aladdin is shown to be a street rat who used to steal because he couldn't afford to buy food. He steals the bread because there's a starving beggar woman who needs it more, but he can't afford to buy bread to give to her as charity in the first place. He flirts with Jasmine (which fails spectacularly since he's essentially just using flattering pick up lines, at least when they first meet) and saves her when she, like her film counterpart, unwittingly steals from a street vendor. And here, again, the townspeople are a mixed bag of treating him with contempt and appearing to like him.

I honestly don't see that big of a difference between the personality of "either" Aladdin. The stage Aladdin does have more to work with, since he is struggling to live up to his promise to his dead mother, but I wouldn't say that the stage Aladdin is any more appealing than the film Aladdin.

There are some things that the show needs to work before Broadway on but I'm just... at these criticisms in particular.

[TsWade2]

See, I knew it! Critics hate it! Stupid critics! You know what? I don't think this is going to be a tony winner because of those critics and tony voters are anti-disney jerks. Aladdin will possibly be a hit on Broadway, but all they care is controversial rock musicals like Hair, Spring Awakening, American Idiot (Even though it didn't win for Best Musical, Praise God.), et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I'm cool with Rent and Next To Normal, but those controversial rock musicals that has, sex, nudity, drugs, miserable people, and etc. Even if Aladdin is not going to win a Tony Award for Best Musical, then I hope this time they pick a normal broadway musical like Bullets Over Broadway, even though I'm disappointed that they don't have original score and songs of their own. If Aladdin won't win, then Hunchback of Notre Dame will be their plan D for the Tony Awards. Instead, of Broadway, it should be called Badway. I'm sorry, but I feel that Broadway hates Disney. And now, Toronto hates Disney. If I were Disney, I would stop adapting animated movies into Broadway musicals and come up their own musicals. Maybe that's the reason why the critics and the Tonys hates Disney. The Lion King is a stroke of luck.

[rubyslippers]

The show was an amazing crowd pleaser. I loved it. But that doesn't mean it will be a critical success. (Even if I disagree with some of the criticism being handed out so far.) But just because something isn't a critical success doesn't mean it can't be a success. Wicked received mixed to poor reviews from critics, it didn't win the Tony award for best musical, and yet it's one of the most popular shows in the world.

Success and quality aren't, and shouldn't be, measured in Tony Awards.

[TsWade2]

The show was an amazing crowd pleaser. I loved it. But that doesn't mean it will be a critical success. (Even if I disagree with some of the criticism being handed out so far.) But just because something isn't a critical success doesn't mean it can't be a success. Wicked received mixed to poor reviews from critics, it didn't win the Tony award for best musical, and yet it's one of the most popular shows in the world.

Success and quality aren't, and shouldn't be, measured in Tony Awards.

Well, if it's going to be beaten for Best Musical, then I hope other musical who might win will be a normal musical like Bullets Over Broadway.

[rubyslippers]

Well, if it's going to be beaten for Best Musical, then I hope other musical who might win will be a normal musical like Bullets Over Broadway.

I wasn't aware that there were abnormal musicals?