Broadway News Round Up 36

James Monroe Iglehart as Genie, Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann

Welcome to the latest news round up for Broadway's Aladdin!  Finally back on a weekly schedule (let's see how long it lasts this time!)

First off I just want to say a massive congratulations to last week's Tony Award winners, including Aladdin's Bob Crowley who won Best Scenic Design of a Musical, along with Benjamin Pearcy and Leo Warner, for An American in Paris, and Natasha Katz who won Best Lighting Design of a Musical for the same show.  Casey Nicholaw's Something Rotten! may not have taken home Best Musical (check out their fantastic new poster below) but, like Aladdin, it did take home Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical so congratulations to Christian Borle!

Something Rotten's new poster, image from @RottenBroadway on Twitter

And speaking of the Tony Awards, CBS may not have screened the Creative Arts Awards (which James Monroe Iglehart co-hosted) but you can now watch all of the awards online right here!  One day I hope JMI gets to host the Tonys.  I don't care about the time difference, that I would stay up for!  James even made Fashionista and AM New York's looks at the glitz and glamour of the red carpet!  He also hit the nail right on the head when discussing the appeal of live theatre with Ralphie Tonight on the red carpet and just when you think it couldn't get any better, the Genie meet the Little Mermaid;

Last week Broadway's Aladdin featured on ABC's The Bachelorette.  Now Wetpaint has some more photos from the episode, Business 2 Community has posted a short article on the episode and if you live in the US you can watch the whole episode right here on Hulu.  Or if you just want the Aladdin section Good Morning America has posted a special behind the scenes look at that part of the episode and Broadway World has the video of the Aladdin part of the show featuring Adam Jacobs and Courtney Reed (both videos are sadly only viewable in the US).  Finally, the Bachelorette herself has also posted a blog about her Broadway experience over at People!

Finally this week, James Monroe Iglehart discussed his recent 54 Below show with Playbill as he and other Broadway stars talk about how they put their cabaret shows together.

Disney's Aladdin Nominated for Best Musical!

Boy does it feel good to be writing that title!  I woke up this morning to the news that Aladdin has been nominated for 8 Outer Circle Critics Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Musical!  You can see a full list of all the nominations by clicking the link but here's a list of Aladdin's nominations;

Outstanding New Broadway Musical - Aladdin
Outstanding Book of a Musical - Aladdin
Outstanding New Score - Aladdin
Outstanding Choreographer - Casey Nicholaw
Outstanding Set Design - Bob Crowley
Outstanding Costume Design - Gregg Barnes
Outstanding Lighting - Natasha Katz
Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical - James Monroe Iglehart

And if that wasn't good enough, this afternoon the Drama League announced the nominations for the 80th Drama League Awards where Aladdin has once again been nominated for best musical!

Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical - Aladdin
Distinguished Performance Award - James Monroe Iglehart

Whilst this may look like a shorter list of nominations, the Drama League only gives 5 awards - Best Musical, Best Play, Best Musical Revival, Best Play Revival and the Distinguished Performance Award (which an actor or actress can only win once in their career) so Aladdin is actually represented in all possible categories.  The awards are also much more competitive, with 9 musicals competing for the Best Musical award and an incredible 50 actors and actresses nominated for the Distinguished Performance award.  That James has even been nominated for this is an incredible testament to his performance and it puts him in amazing company (this years nominations include Broadway and West End stars such as Idina Menzel and Ramin Karimloo and household names such as Bryan Cranston, Patrick Stewart and Denzel Washington).  And sure I'm a little biased but I honestly think he has what it takes to win :)

I just want to say a massive congratulations to the cast, crew and creative team of Aladdin, and especially to James Monroe Iglehart.  You've all earned this and I wish you every success when the winners are announced.

Broadway Rumour Report #1

Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be doing a lot of these over the next few months? :o)

Hot on the heels of Monday's initial rumour, that Mary Poppins was to close in March to make way for Aladdin, and yesterday's confirmation that Mary Poppins would indeed end its impressive 6 year run on March 3rd, comes another rumour regarding Aladdin!

The New York Post's Michael Riedel is reporting that Aladdin is to receive an extensive re-working with the book being rewritten, Alan Menken working on new songs and six time Tony Award winning set designer Bob Crowley (Mary Poppins, Aida, Once, The Coast of Utopia, Carousel, The History Boys) being brought on board to design the new production which is said to be much more elaborate than 2011's Pilot Production in Seattle.

The report does not mention if Tony Award winning director/choreographer Casey Nicholaw and book writer/lyricist Chad Begulin are involved with the new production, but considering that they both worked on revising the production between its 5th Avenue premiere and last year's regional productions I don't see any reason to assume that they aren't involved with the upcoming Broadway production.

In another exciting development Riedel is reporting that Disney is also rewriting another of their Alan Menken musicals - the long in development The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Peter Parnell is said to be writing a new book (James Lapine wrote the original book for the Berlin production) and Alan Menken is reported to be working with Stephen Schwartz on new songs for the production.  I'll admit I'm a little sad to see the original book being replaced, I never saw the show but the cast album sounded  gorgeous and what I did see on YouTube looked incredible and very emotionally powerful.  I know the general belief is Disney felt it was too dark for a family show, but it was just so moving even on a small YouTube video that the idea of changing it does worry me a little.  I'd urge anyone reading to have a look at some of the subtitled videos on YouTube if they've still available.  Done well, I honestly think that The Hunchback of Notre Dame has the potential to be Disney's greatest show (even if my favourite will always be Aladdin) and I appreciate that they are taking the time to get it right rather than rush it to Broadway.