Rewind the clocks a year, the first Thursday in July saw the World Premiere performance of Aladdin: The New Stage Musical at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. Tonight, The Muny's stage will come alive as America's oldest and largest outdoor theatre presents the world's third production of the Aladdin!
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| Book writer and new lyricist Chad Beguelin |
The Muny's production is only running from tonight until Friday 13th July (so if you're in the area and haven't got tickets yet make sure you grab them fast here!) and at least 1 night during that short run they're going to be having a very special guest, the show's writer and new lyricist Chad Beguelin! According to BND the Centralia native is returning home to see the show! It's a really nice article about Chad's history and how he went from Centralia to bringing Aladdin to the stage, so make sure you give it a read. It ends with the extremely optimistic line
For now, "Aladdin" is not destined for Broadway. But ...
"It's always a possibility," he said.
Can't hope for more than that! All that remains is for me to say I wish the very best of luck to all the cast and crew at The Muny for tonight's premiere and the rest of their run. If anyone reading is going, I'd love to hear what you think, so please leave a comment below!
I like the changes made to the story and the acting was good but I think more effort in the special effects and stunts would make the play perfect.
ReplyDeleteHey Syed, really glad to hear you enjoyed the show and the changes made to the story.
ReplyDeleteI've not seen The Muny production so I can't compare it with the effects/stunts at Tuacahn (which I thought were amazing), but I'd guess this may be due to the production's extremely short run which might mean it probably has a pretty tight budget.
I'm happy to hear that you think with these improvements the show could be perfect. If the reviews reflect this and The Muny receives positive reviews like the Tuacahn, then this could encourage Disney to be more willing to at least consider a Broadway run in the future.
Greetings from Chicago AND St. Louis.....Had the chance to catch the show with basically SOLD OUT houses for their run. They should be ever so proud of the show and what a ride it was! Among the show, its' sets were truly some of the best that stage has seen in years. The cast all did a great, fantastic job, not to mention battling the 105 degree weather and prob pouring the sweat off their flip flops! Opening with a grand entrance upon camels and sad to say, their only time in the whole show-the cast, stellar all around did a great gang buster of a performance. With working in the theatre world, not to mention my days with Disney as well, felt though that what could have been polished upon or added/deleted were....throw in 'To Be Free' for Jasmine, a little too much schtick from the narrators and the boy band genre that kinda takes away from Aladdin's focus and who he is, since he is and should be the star of the show, with Ken Page being in the show and for any other male performer slated for a possible future run, give Sultan a song as well....Biggest failure, in my eyes though, was with the massive, gorgeous sets on stage, great moments and music that filled the night sky, the song that catapulted into the heavens being 'A Whole New World' was performed against a black wall, with barely any true magic to accent it and looked as if its 'rise' was done by forklift and was presented not in a lush orchestrated version, but toned down. HUGE drawback for yours truly and with the beautiful 'Million Miles Away' that was done with great orchestration and pizazz earlier in the show, the one song that everyone looked forward to,fell flat, way, way flat and needs an extra rub of the lamp for a better fit and facelift.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, all should be involved, cast, crew and staff did a great job in presenting and performing. Its' future will be up to Disney and would not be surprised that NEWSIES shows up on that grand stage next summer with hopefully a new partnership-homework was done and this show passed with flying colors!