REVIEW: Aladdin (National Tour)
Preview: This website also being a platform for my animation aspirations means I have some Opinions™ on Disney, so I tried my hardest to forget those while writing this review. (If, some day, a Disney hiring person comes across this post, let me just preface by saying I had fun at Aladdin! (Also, please hire me)). But one thing I do think about when seeing shows are the budget. I see a lot of shows, such as the Les Miserables tour at the Kennedy Center right now (which I’m not reviewing), and I wonder how these productions ever plan to recoup with such elaborate stages. Usually touring productions are pared down versions of their bigger-budget cousins in New York so the economics become easier while making sacrifices for tour-ability (see: recent My Fair Lady non-eq tour). But I had high hopes for this; Disney isn’t exactly short on cash. In fact, they’re so endowed, their tour trucks are branded with the show name and Disney wordmark. That’s bougie stuff for this industry, so the expectations are all the loftier. As for the material, I think I’ve seen the titular Disney Renaissance film…once? Twice, maybe? As iconic as they are, the lot of those never really stuck with me. As my interest in animation grows, I feel more inclined to go watch them again. I definitely want to watch Aladdin having seen this now.
Acting: This is the Genie show. Sure, there might exist a gaggle of characters like the regular, scrappy titular hero, or his similarly bland love interest Princess Jasmine. Or even the shallowly performed Jafar, and his rather annoying, formerly avian sidekick Iago. Or perhaps even the surprisingly enjoyable trio of thieves that surround Aladdin during his pre-princehood shenanigans (replacing the monkey and magic carpet persona from the film). But the flamboyant, wall-breaking charisma of Marcus M. Martin as the Genie is the performance to see. Disney knows this as well, having him open the show. I knew there was a reason James Monroe Iglehart won a Tony, beyond a loud comic relief role. Which, while this was it, the energy Martin gives actually manages to match the glitz and glam that comes with the elaborate staging. Compared to the unsaturated supporting cast, he sticks out like a sore thumb and injects life into the acting performances each time he’s onstage. 5/10
Production: Did you ever go to an ice cream or candy shop with your parents as a kid, and they just let you run loose? Let you get anything you want? A pound of taffy, a large milkshake with oreo bits, you name it? That’s how Bob Crowley’s indulgent scenic design feels. There’s so many details and movable set pieces that deliver no less than three total showstoppers, with absolutely deserved standing-O’s. An unsung hero of the production is Natasha Katz, whose jewel-toned spectra flood the stage at all times. Director-choreographer Casey Nicholaw’s signature style is there, with lots of bubbly group numbers that are fun to watch, but pretty basic. The book’s lack of focus on the villain is prevalent in the set design as well. While the other characters get dimensional, mobilized scenes, nearly all of Jafar’s take place in one hallway that is represented by Islamic-style arches. Pretty, but definitely an afterthought. And yet, the Disney budget is in full force. Your eyes will never get bored. 7/10
Book/Music: Have you seen the film? Yes? Feel free to skip to the next section.
…you’re still here? Alright then. The book follows the film pretty exactly…meaning it isn’t particularly strong. A scrappy young lad seeks to make his dead parents (classic Disney) proud by giving up his life of crime, and is wrapped up in a scheme to usurp the sultanate by Jafar, but ultimately strives to be a better person and win the heart of the Princess and those around him. The classic songs are here, such as “Prince Ali”, Grammy-winning “A Whole New World”, and the seven-and-a-half minute showstopper of “Friend Like Me”. The latter, I might emphasize, was stunning. I go over it more in the Production section, though. It made the rest of the show worthwhile, and was a rare case of the 11-o-clock number happening at about 9pm. Not everything is the same, though. Since I’m assuming Disney Theatrical Group blew the puppet budget on Lion King, there’s no puppet monkey like I expected. Instead, Al’s homey connection is the trio of Babkak, Omar, and Kassim, which were welcome additions and added a new layer of characterization to Aladdin. In fact, their solo number where they go rescue Aladdin from Jafar — literaly the only number in Act II that isn’t a reprise — was a lot of fun. But sadly this is where the highlights end. Most of the book and music remained unchanged, and with the limited orchestrations of a touring productions, were limited in impact. Jafar, as the villain, was comically under-written. The climax of the musical, when he becomes sultan and then a genie, lasts about….5 minutes. And there’s not even a musical number. Just two, in-place costume changes. It’s Arya-killing-the-Night-King levels of poor plot device usage. 3/10
VisDev: Marketing sticks with a lush, royal purple and gold theme. The luster sticks out royally, and the purple is a nice jewel tone that insinuates royalty and exoticness, which are themes within the piece. However, the gold is in the shape of the Genie, which is absolutely the draw of the show. I honestly think it could give more information, especially with the level of detail that goes into the production design. Pre-show staging is creative but limited. The only thing you see is a curtain that consists of various quilted Persian-ish rugs, which to me seemed too “generally brown”. This could fly with the average bear who doesn’t necessarily know the difference, but having been surrounded by Arab and South Asian people my whole life, it felt sloppy. The show isn’t supposed to be PC by any means but given this hit Broadway in the mid-2010s, this sort of detail-oriented inclusion would have been a welcome breath of fresh air. 6/10
