Alex on Aladdin: ‘a wild and colourful spectacle’

A world premiere in Toronto last night, as Mirvish Productions launched a pre-Broadway run for Aladdin: The Musical.

The stage production, expanded from Disney’s 1992 animated film, is a wild and colorful spectacle, soaring like a flying carpet.

Courtney Reed plays Jasmine. “I grew up with the film, so it’s hard to not remember the film. But when you’re bringing a cartoon to life, you have to bring reality to it, you know.”

Adam Jacobs plays Aladdin: “It’s the same plot, you know, three wishes, the whole thing but we also have added for example Aladdin’s friends, and they also serve as narrators in this show, so they’ll be breaking the fourth wall constantly and there’s some really surprising comedy that comes along with that.”

The show not only uses music from the film, but adds some original songs.

Johnathan Freeman is Jafar. “It’s a bit more real, the show is slightly more adult, the characters of Aladdin and Jasmine are slightly older, there’s a lot of new material and there’s a lot of material that was in the original treatment when I started working on it that went away from the film and now it’s back again, happily back again because there were a lot of things that were really lovely, that are still really lovely.”

James Monroe Linglehart plays the Genie. “The Genie is there to grant the wishes of the master that rubs the lamp, and that’s what I provide for Aladdin. But I also know that people come in with a pre-conceived notion of what the Genie is, has been in previous incarnations of the story, and definitely the classic Disney cartoon you know with the great, amazing Robin Williams.”

Artistically, this Aladdin is top grade. It will become a classic.

Grab the next flying carpet to the Ed Mirvish theatre for a night of fantasy fun adventure, and maybe bring along your lamp.