Cinthya Luna
The Paw Print
A classic Disney movie is coming to Broadway sooner than you think. Based on the 1992 musical movie, “Aladdin,” the show will be having a pre-launch run at the Mirvish Theatre in Toronto before debuting on Broadway. This pre-show will start Nov 13 and run for nine weeks ending on Jan. 12, 2014. On Feb. 26, 2014, there will also be a Broadway preview at the New Amsterdam theatre before officially going on Broadway. The show is directed and choreographed by Tony winner Casety Nicholaw. Nicholaw co-directed and choreographed “The Book of Mormon” in 2011.
Adams Jacobs will play the lead role of Aladdin. He was in the 2006 Broadway of “Les Miserables” as Marius. Playing the role of Jasmine is Courtney Reed from “In the Heights.” “Aladdin” will also star James Monroe Iglehart from “Memphis” as the comedic Genie. Finally, a Tony Award nominee, Jonathan Freeman, will reprise his villainous role of Jafar; Freeman was the original voice for Jafar in the Disney movie.
The show will include several songs from the movie. This includes the Academy Award-winning song, “A Whole New World.” One song in particular titled “Proud of Your Boy” was cut from the original movie, but will be brought to Broadway, because it was highly regarded by the Disney producers. The song was performed by Clay Aiken. Also included are a few new songs that were written specifically for this show. The music is composed and written by Oscar and Tony Award winner Alan Menken (known for many other Disney classics), with accompanied lyrics by Howard Ashman and Rim Rice.
Chad Beguelin, who wrote books for Disney about Aladdin will also be incorporating his new book into this Broadway spectacular. Beguelin will also create new lyrics for the musical. His work includes “The Wedding Singer” and “Elf.” The budget of “Aladdin” is expected to cost between $12 million and $15 million. These numbers are expected to return high dividends, akin to the big budget Disney shows of old that include two favorites such as “The Lion King,” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Disney Broadway has also recently produced two shows that did not succeed: “The Little Mermaid” and ”Tarzan.”
The play is set to take place in the New Amsterdam theatre located in New York on March 20 after it previews its performance in Toronto. The show will take the place of “Mary Poppins,” which will close on March 3, 2014. Tickets are currently on sale for the preshow and are going quickly. In the summer of 2011, the musical had its premier at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle and had another production of the show which ran in St. Louis in the summer of 2012. According to Disney, this is a brand new “Aladdin,” redesigned since its staged performance in 2011.
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