I liked it. Quite a lot.
Many of you have already heard much of this before, I suppose, but indulge me.
I had a terrific fourth row orchestra seat (I like being way down front, even for big musicals), and four rows behind me on the aisle sat composer Alan Menkin himself (with wife and friends?) On the other side of the orchestra, also in an aisle seat all alone, sat our director/choreographer for the evening, Casey Nicholaw.
I love going to previews, if only to see guys like this at work. But I can't imagine there'll be many (if ANY) changes, at this point. The show's in great shape, and would appear to be frozen.
Is 'ALADDIN' another blockbuster like 'THE LION KING'? No.
Is it another disaster like 'TARZAN' or 'THE LITTLE MERMAID'? No. No.
What it is is a lavish, big old fashioned romantic musical comedy that will do an 'AIDA'/'MARY POPPINS' and have a very respectable five or six year run, I'd guess.
Tony Award nominations? Yes. Several.
Tony Award wins? To Gregg ('FOLLIES') Barnes for Best Costumes and, for Best Featured Actor in a Musical, James Monroe Iglehart who plays the Genie and practically steals the show, leading the showstopping number to end ALL showstopping numbers near the end of Act One called "Friend Like Me," which is filled up with more sequins and fireworks than should be allowed in any single number on any given stage, ever.
Not only did that song stop the show, the entire audience STOOD for it.
In over fifty years of theatre-going on Broadway, I have personally never witnessed a standing ovation in the middle of a show for any single showstopping number, that I can recall. I've heard about 'em, but never witnessed one. So this was a first for me, and I was rather flabbergasted by it.
There's also a genuine "magic carpet" that the young couple take a couple of rides on. And from my fourth row orchestra seat I could not, for the life of me, see any wires or figure out how exactly they made it fly!? It was like ... magic!
I smell a HIT!
The cast is terrific. I think there was a monkey side-kick in the cartoon version of this piece (which I am not very familiar with), but he's mercifully been eliminated here.
Of course it's a show for kids as well as adults. And a little boy about seven years old sat next to me on my left, and two little girls about ten years of age sat next to me on my right (both sneezing throughout the show - yikes!) And they were all very well behaved and completely attentive to what was happening on that stage, by the way.
For two-aand-a-half hours.
They enjoyed it, their parents enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it.
Very entertaining.
Another winner for Disney.
|