Just as I was about to call it a night 5th Avenue kindly pointed me in the direction of a new video on their youtube channel!
Brian Gonzales (Babkak), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Omar), Adam Jacobs (Aladdin) and Brandon O'Neill (Kassim) performed "Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim" at 5th Avenue's Spotlight Night last week. Replaced by "One Jump Ahead" in the original animated classic when Aladdin's friends were cut from the script, the song was later released in demo form in The Music Behind the Magic collection. It's great to hear this song with all the harmonies!
Interesting to note is that whilst the song has gone through a few changes, it still makes reference to Baghdad as the setting. What this means for Agrabah is currently unclear, but I can't see it being cut from the script completely. Maybe Baghdad is the capital city in the kingdom of Agrabah? Then again, I never saw them adding "Call Me a Princess" back into the story, so what do I know!
This blog is dedicated to Disney's Aladdin: Broadway's New Musical Comdey. Following a successful Pilot Production at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in 2011, and regional and international productions in 2012, Disney announced that Aladdin would be coming to Broadway in 2014. Aladdin had it's pre-Broadway engagement at Toronto's Ed Mirvish Theatre and opened on Broadway 20th March 2014.
It's not as clear here as it is in Ashmans recording, however the line seems to be "folks say go earn a living in Baghdad". Which to me makes it sound perhaps like it's another city/or kingdom, not necessarily the one they're in?
ReplyDelete:-)
You're absolutely correct. The line is the same as in the Ashman/Menken recording "Folks say hey go earn a living in Baghdad"
ReplyDeleteBut they also sing "Four guys out poundin' the pavements of Baghdad" which implies they're there.
But I think you're right, in his Broadway World interview Chad Beguelin says they perform on the streets of Agrabah!
Hopefully this will be much clearer when people have seen the show!