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| James Monroe Iglehart as Genie, Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann |
Plus there's a lot of stuff I didn't post in my initial coverage of the awards, so here's a quick Tony Award news round up;
Courtney Reed talks with George Brescia about her Disney Princess pink dressing room.
Just before the main event Broadway World posted rehearsal footage from Friend Like Me's Tony Award performance along with a brief interview with Chad Beguelin
Playbill has a replay of the Tony Awards Red Carpet that you can watch right here.
NY Times' Arts Beat gives a running commentary of the evening (and Friend Like Me a score of 31 on a scale of 0 to 10!)
Courtney Reed posted a reaction video on Instagram (this you just have to see!)
Playbill posted a write up of the winners, noting "Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical was presented to an ecstatic James Monroe Iglehart for his hilarious performance as the Genie in Aladdin, and he made sure audiences would remember it by spicing it up with an effervescent "praise shout" in celebration."
The NY Times also posted a full write up of the show which included some wonderful comments from JMI; "The praise shout was not planned," he said. "If it's planned, it's not real. I had to give praise because my mama told me to keep God first and blessings would happen." He also added, "The Tonys is the most dignified awards show, and I wanted to undignify it a little." Speaking of not too dignified, Mr. Iglehart said he would not be having dinner at a fancy restaurant Sunday night. He and his wife were going to hit McDonald's because it keeps him humble, he said. Then "we go back to our house, and we kick it with our cats, and this lets us know that this is still real life." (and he posted the proof of his McDonald's on Twitter). LA Times also shared some comments from James following his win.
San Jose Mercury News has posted an article on James' Tony win entitled "Cal State East Bay Grad Nabs Tony Award"
Courtney Reed featured on Vogue Italia as part of their Tony Awards coverage, looking gorgeous in a stunning blue dress. It's no wonder that she and James both made the New York Observer's Best Dressed List and Courtney made it onto The Gloss' list as well.
With the official Tony Awards over Broadway.com wanted to give out a few more, including the "Disney Dudes Clean Up Nice Award" to Adam Jacobs and Chad Beguelin and "The Most Blinged-Out Dude Award" to James Monroe Iglehart (who looks awesome with his Tony!).
As for JMI? He's feeling a little crazy right now :o)
I'm not sure if I missed this or if it was awarded after I went to bed but watching the winners video above I just realised that Aladdin's Natasha Katz won Best Lighting Design of a Play for her work on The Glass Menagerie so congratulations Natasha! And congratulations to all the other winners as well.
And on a lighter note - following the Tony's Adam Jacobs gain a lot of new fans, so many that he took to Twitter to thank them for crashing his website! Saying "Thanks for crashing my website fans!! Bandwidth exceeded. We're back online now. #UltimateCompliment #TonyExposure adamjacobs.net"
Ok, moving on from the Tonys. I mentioned two weeks ago (wow time flies) that Merwin Foard was playing the role of Jafar as Jonathan Freeman was off that Sunday, well here's a great picture of him along with the fabulous Don Darryle Rivera as Iago that he posted on Twitter;
If you want to see Merwin as Jafar then be sure to check out the show on the 22nd or 24th June when he'll be playing the villainous Vizier again and on 26th June he'll be trading black robes for white and taking to the stage as the Sultan (you have to have a good memory to be a Stand By!) And if you've seen Merwin and wondered why his voice sounded familiar it's because he was the singing voice of Aladdin's father Cassim in Aladdin and the King of Thieves!
The Seattle Times has posted a fantastic piece on Don Darryl Rivera and Brandon O'Neill who were both part of Aladdin's Pilot Production in 2011 and made the leap from regional stage to the Great White Way with Aladdin earlier this year. The Seattle Times also published a 2nd piece looking at Seattle talent in all of the Tony nominated shows which also featured DDR and Brandon O'Neill.
WDW Radio has published an exclusive interview with ensemble member Daisy Hobbs who has been with the show since 2011's Pilot Production.
Buzzfeed has included Aladdin in it's countdown of the top "16 Spectacular Musical Numbers from the 2013-2014 Broadway Season". Yes, it's Friend Like Me, and yes it's number one!!
Playbill has posted an interview with Vocal Coach Liz Caplan
On 16th June Courtney Reed and Michael James Scott (Stand By Genie and Babkak) both took part in Broadway World's concert series performance The Lord & The Master celebrating the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Stephen Sondheim. The event was live streamed so hopefully some videos of the event will soon be posted to the Joe's Pub YouTube channel.
Playbill reports that Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Omar from Aladdin's 5th Avenue Pilot Production) and Michael Midlin (a Swing/Dance Captain in the Broadway production) are amongst the Broadway performers supporting the Heart NYC Gallery's photo exhibit seeking to help place LGBT foster children in new adoptive homes. The event is part of National Pride Month and runs through 20th June.
Disney's official blog, Oh My Disney, teamed up with Pixar animator and singer Nick Pitera (who is best known for his YouTube musical tributes) to create a one-man tribute to Aladdin.
Ensemble member Andrew Cao talks with StageLight about being a father and on Broadway.
ABC News has posted a short video of James Monroe Iglehart meeting the kids of Disney Musicals in Schools and, hopefully, inspiring the next generation of Disney's Broadway stars.
Last night James Monroe Iglehart joined Julie James at 54 Below as her guest on The Julie James Show. Hopefully some videos will be released soon!
What else happened this week? Oh yeah, this came out!!
Sure I've had the digital copy for weeks now but it's so good to finally have the physical CD in hand with a beautiful foreword by Alan Menken, a summary of the show by Chad Beguelin and, of course, all the lyrics! And to celebrate Disney Music released a very special video of Adam Jacobs and Alan Menken recording one of the album's bonus tracks;
Oh how I wish I could sing like that!
As I reported earlier this week, to promote the launch of the physical cast album the stars of the show took part in a special signing event at Barnes and Noble. Fortunately Broadway World and Playbill were on hand to take photos of the event!
And now for some upcoming events!! Adam Jacobs will be taking part in tomorrow night's The Broadway Musicals of 1990-2014, part of Town Hall's Broadway by the Year series. More information and ticket details can be found at Broadway World. And James Monroe Iglehart has joined the cast of Black Stars of the Great White Way along with Clifton Davis (Sultan), the concert takes place tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall and you can find more information and tickets here. All the best to Adam, James and Clifton for tomorrow night!!
Vacation Alert - Courtney Reed will be away from 1st July to 6th July, Jonathan Freeman is away 22nd and 24th June and Clifton Davis is away 26th June.
And finally, the next block of tickets for Aladdin is now on sale! Tickets can now be bought through to 4th January 2015 from www.aladdinthemusical.com! Speaking of tickets, D23 is hosting another Members Night at Aladdin for its Gold and Silver members on 27th September. Tickets for the event are $199.50 per person and include a VIP ticket (premium seating, a complimentary non-alcoholic beverage in a commemorative cup, souvenir lanyard with pin, exclusive gift), a D23 members gift and, best of all, a Q&A with the cast after the show! Tickets go on sale at 10am tomorrow.
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