Aladdin on Broadway

[blackcauldron85]

Meet Telly Leung – now playing Aladdin on Broadway
http://thedisneyblog.com/2017/06/26/mee ... -broadway/

[Disney's Divinity]

Meet Telly Leung – now playing Aladdin on Broadway
http://thedisneyblog.com/2017/06/26/mee ... -broadway/

Cute.

[ce1ticmoon]

This is coming to LA early next year! Glad to finally get a chance to see it!

[Sotiris]

Arielle Jacobs sings These Palace Walls during The Broadway Princess Party at Feinstein's/54 Below.

[Sotiris]

Menken wants to add "How Quick They Forget" to the show. If Newsies can add a song for the tour so can Aladdin.

Reviving the story as a musical was a chance for Menken to resurrect three songs he wrote with Ashman which were cut from the movie. There's the Aladdin solo Proud of Your Boy, and two songs written for Aladdin's mates: High Adventure and Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim.

"Once I knew we were bringing it back to Broadway, I said 'Okay we have this treasure trove of lost songs Howard and I wrote and we've got to get as many of those in as possible'. It was the agenda for me," Menken says.

"We still have other songs in the trunk that would fit right into the show. I'm hoping, maybe for the five-year anniversary, I can convince Thomas Schumacher to put in a song called How Quick They Forget. It's a barber shop quartet but only three of them are singing because Aladdin has dumped them."

Source: https://www.dailymercury.com.au/news/me ... n/3368236/

When the 2014 Broadway version of Aladdin was developed, Proud of Your Boy was reinstated even though the mother was not. Now Menken is keen to get another of the film’s rejected songs, How Quick They Forget, into the stage version: “Maybe I will on the fifth or 10th anniversary of Aladdin.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/ ... hamildrops

[Sotiris]

Disney created a new logo and poster for the Indian production of Aladdin.


Source: https://in.bookmyshow.com/entertainment ... how/120019

[Disney Duster]

FREAKING AWESOME POSTER!!!! How clever and creative! Every necessary element connected by shape and smoke.

[JeanGreyForever]

I like the poster. I also like the logo although it's a bit too thick for my taste. But better than the live-action one.

[D82]

I thought it wasn't too special until I noticed the lamp hidden between Aladdin and Jasmine's faces. That was clever.

[JeanGreyForever]

It reminds me of this BATB poster where Belle and the Beast's silhouettes are hidden in the petals of the red rose. I never noticed that until someone pointed it out.

[D82]

^It reminded me of that poster too. I also didn't notice their silhouettes until much later.

[Sotiris]

Aladdin in the West End is closing. Last performance is on August 31, 2019. Mary Poppins will be taking its place. I believe this marks the first international production of Aladdin that's concluding its run.

Disney’s Aladdin to Close in West End
https://britishtheatre.com/disneys-alad ... -west-end/

[ChrisLyne]

Yeah, I'm still a bit in shock. It's the first production to close (though Australia has moved location a few times so I'm not sure if that counts as multiple productions or an extended tour at this point).

To be fair when it closes it will have run over three years (almost 3 1/2) which is a good run for Disney in the West End. It over takes Mary Poppins as the second longest running after Lion King before it closes (though Mary will take that title back pretty quick if they add the two runs together).

My thoughts (and this is just pure speculation on my part) is that Mary Poppins is a limited run between Aladdin and Frozen. Mary's already had three years in the West End and at least two or three national tours, I just can't see it having another long West End run. That said, Mary Poppins' last tour broke regional box office records. Aladdin, whilst clearly still making money or Disney would be pulling it now not later, seems to be getting lower returns now (they're offering free seat upgrades this month so it's not selling out anymore). Add to that the fact that Mary Poppins' is a co-production with Cameron Mackintosh, who owns the Prince Edward Theatre where Aladdin plays, and Disney's costs would be significantly less. Aladdin will be paying CM for the use of the theatre, for Mary it's likely that rent will be significantly less or even none-existent. Then the running costs are split between Disney and CM. So even though profits will be split, the costs for Disney are a lot lower. Then they already have the set and costumes from the tour that can be re-used.

Mary Poppins will get a sales boost as the tickets go on sale in January right after the new movie opens. Aladdin will get a needed boost in spring with the movie, then another over the summer as they market it as your last chance to see the show in the West End. Mary then gets the opening boost of a new shop opening. Aladdin closing in London also frees up the sets and costumes for a national tour.

Much as I want Aladdin to stay, I have to admit it makes a lot of business sense to do this.

The reason I think Mary Poppins will be a limited run is for two reasons. One, Frozen is coming. Whether or not it takes the Prince Edward is open to debate (it was rumoured to be looking at a different theatre last year but availability can often change), but Disney tend not to want a lot of shows running at the same time to avoid competing with themselves and, as mention above, Mary has already had her West End run. Secondly, if it wasn't a limited run, taking advantage of things like the available tour set, I'd really rather expect Disney to open something new that hasn't been seen in the West End before. They have plenty of options.

[Disney Duster]

Mary then gets the opening boost of a new shop opening.

What shop?

[ChrisLyne]

Sorry, typo. Should have said show.

[Disney Duster]

Oh, ok lol

[Sotiris]

Aladdin is coming to Singapore!

Disney's Aladdin musical to fly into Singapore in 2019
https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/ ... re-in-2019

Story of Aladdin will come alive on stage in a musical at Marina Bay Sands in 2019
https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/ ... ds-in-2019

[ChrisLyne]

Aladdin Celebrates 5 years on Broadway with 5 Genies!

And James Monroe Iglehart finally gets the ballad he wished for on the cast recording

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl-QHl0dGWo

[Sotiris]

Congratulations Aladdin! And many more!

[JeanGreyForever]

Finally got a chance to see the Broadway show and I absolutely loved it! Having watched the live-action remake a month ago, it was nice to be able to directly compare Disney's three different adaptations.

The actor portraying Aladdin was like straight out of the animated film. Disney's really great at casting Aladdins it seems because I felt the same way about Mena Massoud who also sounded just like the animated Aladdin. Jasmine was also great and I felt like she was a composite of Linda Larkin and Naomi Scott and thus bridged the two different cinematic portrayals of the iconic princess. Genie was hilarious and of course stole every scene he was in. I could hear people in the audience comparing him to Will Smith now rather than Robin Williams. Friend Like Me really is the breakout number of the show and I wish I could watch it again and again (and thankfully thanks to YouTube, I can). Jafar wasn't Jonathan Freeman but he was a good impersonation and much more of what I would have liked in the live-action film. The humor between Jafar and Iago is really key imo and it was impressive how well Iago worked as a human flunky despite no longer being a parrot. Having never seen Babkak, Omar, and Kassim before, it was nice to see how they would have worked in the original story and Abu really isn't missed (although I heard people lamenting his loss and Rajah). I'm surprised Disney never tried to bring these three characters into the TV series or Aladdin sequels especially since they have pre-ready songs.

Act 1 was basically perfect, but Act 2 was a bit clunkier. While Friend Like Me is able to adapt really well to the stage, Prince Ali is far more limited and I take back what I said about Prince Ali being understated in the live-action remake. It felt really lacking here which isn't something I felt in the old Hyperion show in Anaheim.

A Whole New World was a huge letdown although I already knew that was coming from the cast recording. They try to make it into a soft lullaby, perhaps because unlike the films, there are no soaring visuals of the actual journey that would call for a bold and powerful ballad, but the final version simply didn't work for me. The whole audience is especially waiting for this song so the moment demands for something stronger. Expanding the song doesn't work either because the additional lyrics aren't new so this was a wasted opportunity for Menken and Rice to come up with new lyrics for the new part. After having seen the visual projection screen for Anastasia, I can't help but wonder if something like that would have been better for this flying sequence, showcasing all the places they visit.

The climax is also a disappointment, even moreso than in the live-action film, although that was the case in TLM Broadway show as well. I think Jafar is defeated just two minutes after he shows up at the end and he never really does any magic at all in the whole show, besides when he's in his lair (which is mostly about his magical book anyway). Would have liked to have seen him as a sorcerer and duel Aladdin even if the snake transformation wasn't feasible. The staff is pretty much useless as well, since he doesn't hypnotize the Sultan here, and since he doesn't ever become a sorcerer, there's no magic for him to perform with it. I did enjoy his clothing transformations from black to white, to become the sultan, and then white to red, when he becomes a genie.

Anyway, I enjoyed seeing something a bit closer to Ashman's treatment of Aladdin, especially his unused songs. I was never a fan of Call Me a Princess so I didn't really miss that although I would have liked to have seen To Be Free (or even Speechless now which it seems the audience was expecting) to be included. We never get to see Jafar meet the Genie when he takes the lamp which was a wasted opportunity not to include one of his old songs like Why Me (just restructured to not resemble the Prince Ali reprise) since his one sole song isn't really that impressive. I do love how Proud of Your Boy is such a central song of the show and its theme constantly pops up so that was a heartwarming ode to Ashman from Menken. If for nothing else, I'm glad this show exists so the public could hear some of Ashman's "lost" works as a final tribute to him.