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| Don Darryl Rivera at Aladdin's Opening Night, Photo by Broadway World |
Happy 30th birthday Don! I hope you have an amazing day!
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.
Monday, 30 June 2014
Happy Birthday Iago
Happy 30th birthday Don! I hope you have an amazing day!
Artist Spotlight - Gregg Barnes
It's been a while since Disney posted one of these so I was really pleased to see a new addition to the Artist Spotlight video series released last week. This time the focus is on Gregg Barnes and the absolutely stunning costumes that he created for the show.
This one's worth watching in HD just to see the incredible detail in the costumes. They're just beautiful.
This one's worth watching in HD just to see the incredible detail in the costumes. They're just beautiful.
Broadway News Round Up 9
To start this week's news round up here's one final piece on the Tony Awards and this one is rather special as it's written by Aladdin's own Marisha Wallace - True Story: I'm a Black Girl from North Carolina & I Performed at the 2014 Tony Awards! Marisha is part of the ensemble and one of Jasmine's attendants, but if you're really lucky you may also get to see her playing the part of Babkak (I love this as it shows incredible gender equality by Disney for these supporting roles and it's also a nice call back to Howard Ashman's original treatment where there was a female member of Aladdin's gang).
Continuing the theme of great female performances, Courtney Reed took part in Broadway Sessions on May 23rd and Broadway World have now posted a video of her singing Gravity.
The New York Times has published an article focusing on the work of Glen Kelly that's well worth a read. Glen Kelly provided the dance music arrangements for Aladdin and this article provides a fascinating insight into an area that I admittedly had no knowledge about.
We Blog the World has posted a short fan review of the show. They even used the photo manip of Genie holding aloft a Tony Award that I made which, I have to admit, is kinda cool!
Emerson College's Entertainment Monthly has also posted a positive review, calling James Monroe Iglehart's Genie "one key player that elevates it to Broadway stardom", Adam Jacobs "everything you want in the character of Aladdin" and Don Darryl Rivera "a standout ... his comedic moments have the entire audience laughing out loud".
Last week Merwin Foard took the stage as Sultan Hamed. Since I posted a photo of him as Jafar I figured I'd post this one as well (any excuse to post a photo!)
And finally another Vacation Alert! Adam Jacobs will be away from 7th-14th July, and a quick reminder that Courtney Reed will be away from tomorrow (1st July) until 6th July.
Ok, one last thing! On a more light hearted note JMI's Genie topped Broadway.com's weekend poll as the most wanted guest at a 4th July BBQ party!
Continuing the theme of great female performances, Courtney Reed took part in Broadway Sessions on May 23rd and Broadway World have now posted a video of her singing Gravity.
The New York Times has published an article focusing on the work of Glen Kelly that's well worth a read. Glen Kelly provided the dance music arrangements for Aladdin and this article provides a fascinating insight into an area that I admittedly had no knowledge about.
We Blog the World has posted a short fan review of the show. They even used the photo manip of Genie holding aloft a Tony Award that I made which, I have to admit, is kinda cool!
Emerson College's Entertainment Monthly has also posted a positive review, calling James Monroe Iglehart's Genie "one key player that elevates it to Broadway stardom", Adam Jacobs "everything you want in the character of Aladdin" and Don Darryl Rivera "a standout ... his comedic moments have the entire audience laughing out loud".
Last week Merwin Foard took the stage as Sultan Hamed. Since I posted a photo of him as Jafar I figured I'd post this one as well (any excuse to post a photo!)
And finally another Vacation Alert! Adam Jacobs will be away from 7th-14th July, and a quick reminder that Courtney Reed will be away from tomorrow (1st July) until 6th July.
Ok, one last thing! On a more light hearted note JMI's Genie topped Broadway.com's weekend poll as the most wanted guest at a 4th July BBQ party!
Sunday, 22 June 2014
Broadway News Round Up 8
Firstly, sorry there was no news round up last week, real life got in the way. That said, it's time to pick up where I left off last time... When was that again? Oh yeah, that was Tony Sunday when a certain Genie named James Monroe Iglehart won a TONY AWARD!!!!
I know I already did a big post on the Tonys but I just had to say it one more time!
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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| 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.
Monday, 16 June 2014
Aladdin CD Signing
Adam Jacobs (Aladdin), Courtney Reed (Jasmine), James Monroe Iglehart (Genie) and Jonathan Freeman (Jafar) will all be at Barnes and Noble from 3pm to 4:30pm for the signing so if you're in the area make sure to check it out!
Sunday, 15 June 2014
Aladdin Celebrates 100 Magical Performances on Broadway!
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| Adam Jacobs as Aladdin, Photo by Deen Van Meer |
Last night Aladdin celebrated its 100th magical performance on Broadway!
I just want to say a massive congratulations to the cast and crew who bring this show to life every night at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Keep making magic everyone, here's to the next 100!
Sunday, 8 June 2014
James Monroe Iglehart - Tony Award Winner!
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| James Monroe Iglehart as Genie, Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann (now with added Tony) |
It was 2am here in the UK and I was sat up wide awake with a massive grin on my face. I'm so happy right now!! I'll update this post properly tomorrow with JMI's acceptance speech and (hopefully) the performance of Friend Like Me, I just wanted to post this now!
James - congratulations, I know this is a dream come true for you and I'm so happy for you. The award couldn't have gone to a nicer or more talented guy, you truly deserve this. Congratulations!!!
And here's the update I promised!
The night started on a carpet, since the Tony's didn't have a magic carpet a red one had to do;
The gorgeous Courtney Reed (along with Adam Jacobs and Chad Beguelin) joined JMI on the red carpet on The Tony Awards online second screen;
Then the one and only Hugh Jackman bounced his way through the opening number, greeting many of the nominated casts as he went (including cast members from Aladdin as the orchestra plays A Whole New World);
After the first interval came the performance I was waiting for as JMI and the cast of Aladdin danced like they were on the Tonys!
Then, finally, came the moment of truth;
Get him a doggy bag, he's takin' it home!!
James Monroe Iglehart took home the award and celebrated with a Praise Shout, the first I've ever seen and probably the first on the Tonys as well!
And at the end of the night James and the rest of the 2014 Tony Award winners joined Hugh Jackman on stage for one last celebration;
Disney's never had a winner like him!
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