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 time to celebrate in truly magical style tonight as Disney Theatrical bring the magic of Disney's 100th anniversary to the Royal Variety Performance!
The fabulous new cast of Aladdin's UK and Ireland Tour join the West End casts of The Lion King and Frozen alongside the German cast of the brand new production of Hercules for this once in a century performance at London's Royal Albert Hall!! And that's not all as the performance also sees the return of Samantha Barks as Elsa, ahead of her West End return next year, and Aladdin's own Trevor Dion Nicholas in a duet with Grace Swaby-Moore!
This promises to be a truly magical performance so don't miss it!!
The Royal Variety Performance airs in the UK tonight at 8pm on ITV.
The Disney D23 Expo is back! Today sees the return of the massive fan event to the Anaheim Convention Center just a few blocks away from Disneyland itself.
The expo opens, as always, with the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony. This year's ceremony will be hosted by Tamron Hall and give fans an early look at the upcoming Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration. And that's not all!
This year the opening ceremony, which will be streamed live, will feature an extra special performance from the casts of Broadway's Aladdin, The Lion King, and the National Tour cast of Frozen!! Now that's how you open a show!
If you're lucky enough to be at D23 then the Disney Legends Awards Ceremony takes place in Hall D23 and (if you haven't got a reservation) you'll want to head straight to the standby line when the show opens.
For the rest of us, we can watch the opening festivities, along with select other panels over the weekend, at the official D23 website and on YouTube:
The Ceremony begins at 10:30am (PT). It's going to be a magical show!
Who's up for an Instagram take over? Aladdin's resident Genie, Michael James Scott is hosting a fierce take over of Disney Theatrical's official Instagram account TODAY!
Taking place at 4:30PM EST, Michael will be going live with special guest Ciara Renee (Hunchback of Notre Dame's Esmeralda and Broadway's new Elsa). In these dark times this is bound to be a bright spot of Disney magic so don't miss it!
Disney on Broadway at Broadway in Bryant Park 2019, Photo by Broadway World
Last month Disney Theatrical put on quite a show at the 20th annual Broadway in Bryant Park as the casts of Aladdin (Arielle Jacobs, Michael James Scott, Brian Gonzales, Brad Weinstock, Mike Longo, and Jacob Gutierrez), The Lion King (Bradley Gibson, Tshidi Manye, Grant Braddock, John Benthal, and Pearl Khwenzi) and Frozen (Ryann Redmond, Aisha Jackson, Alyssa Fox, Jacob Smith, Jake David Smith, Lauren Nicole Chapman, Nicholas Ward, and Nina Lafarga) came together for a musical tour de force celebrating 25 years of Disney on Broadway!
And you can enjoy the full half hour performance right here!
From Beauty and the Beast to Frozen, that 25th anniversary finale is epic!!
If you've been near London's Covent Garden this summer then you've probably noticed that Disney's West End Summer Pop Up is back!
So come on down, come on in, and let the magic begin with Disney's current and upcoming West End productions.
Costumes from The Lion King line the entrance way, with Aladdin's magic lamp sitting proudly in the centre of the room as the show plays it's final summer in the West End. Next year Frozen will make it's West End debut and a special photo experience allows you to "Let It Go".
But if you grew up in the 90s then you'd be more rewarded to consider, this;
Yes! The original Sega game is free to play on these special arcade machines! And yes, I still totally suck at it.
The Pop Up is open seven days a week until Sunday, 1st September, and features live performances from the casts of The Lion King and Aladdin at 4pm on Thursdays and Fridays respectively (please note there is no Aladdin performance on Friday 30th August). You can find more details and a full schedule of activities at Disney on Stage. And yes, the bear in the Aladdin cast jacket can be bought at the Pop Up along with a Lion King version.
Thursday 18th April was a very special day for Disney Theatrical as they celebrated 25 years of bringing Disney magic to Broadway!
That's right, it's been 25 years since Disney first brought Beauty and the Beast to the Broadway stage. Disney's first stage adaptation ran for an incredible 13 years, helping to revitalise Broadway and bring in a whole new generation of theatre goers. Since then Disney Theatrical have adapted many of Disney's most famous animated classics, live action movies, and even crafted entirely new productions just for the stage.
To celebrate 25 years of theatrical magic, the casts of Disney Theatrical's current Broadway hits, Aladdin, The Lion King, and Frozen, took part in a very special medley on Good Morning America that spanned 25 years from Beauty and the Beast to Frozen.
Caissie Levy as Elsa and Patti Murin as Anna with the Broadway cast of Frozen, Photo by Deen van Meer
After last year's Denver try out and a month of previews in NYC, tonight Disney's Frozen officially opens on Broadway!
Here's wishing the cast, crew and creative team at Disney Theatrical and St. James' Theatre a truly magical evening as they celebrate this incredible event and all the best for a long and successful run!
Adam Jacobs & Courtney Reed as Aladdin & Jasmine, Photo by Matthew Murphy
Salaam worthy friends, happy Valentine's Day and welcome to the second Aladdin musical news round up of 2016! It's an exciting time in Agrabah as the West End cast are preparing to start rehearsals and the original Broadway cast are rapidly approaching the end of their current contracts (fingers crossed they extend again!) so expect to hear some casting news very soon!
Aladdin Broadway - Show News
Aladdin tickets for $45? It sounds too good to be true but it's not! There is a catch though. Broadway Roulette offers you the chance to see some of Broadway's greatest shows, including Aladdin, for an amazing price. The only catch is you can't pick your show! If you're like me and travelling thousands of miles to see a specific show then this probably isn't for you, but if you don't mind what you see (or you have a free night after seeing your main show) then this is incredible value for a Broadway show! You can find full details and a list of all the shows available on their website.
Last year Rodney Ingram appeared on the Tyler Mount Vlog, this time it's Courtney Reed's turn as Tyler challenges our Disney Princess to a game of "Disney Name That Tune" that will have you grinning from ear to ear;
Aladdin's Nathan Lucrezio (who did that amazing tap video on YouTube) returned to Penn State to join other alumni in We Are... On Broadway!, a one night only concert to help raise the profile of the theatre school and encourage students to study the creative arts. You can read some articles on the event here and here.
Last week saw the world premiere of Alan Menken's newest musical, A Bronx Tale, which officially opens tonight at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. The show reunites Alan with lyricist Glenn Slater (Tangled, Sister Act, Galavant) and is directed by Robert DeNiro and Jerry Zaks. Last week Alan spoke with North Jersey about what attracted him to the show, the style of music and the creative process for the show and this week Glenn Slater spoke with Playbill about 20 years of making music with Alan Menken! You can learn a bit more about the production here, go behind the scenes at rehearsals right here and see production photos right here.
John Tartaglia, who played Genie in The Muny's production of Aladdin is returning to The Muny this year as the director of their production of The Wizard of Oz. The show will run from June 13th-22nd this summer.
Big news for Samantha Massell! After seeing her first cast album, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, released this month its just been announced that the new production of Fiddler on the Roof will release a cast recording next month. Two cast albums within two months has to be some sort of record! Samantha isn't the only Aladdin alumni to feature on the recording as Brandt Martinez is also part of the cast! Congratulations both!
Last month saw London's Aladdin and Jasmine, Dean John-Wilson and Jade Ewen, visit Broadway's Agrabah ahead of the upcoming West End production and met their Genie for the first time!
This week Trevor left the bright lights of Broadway;
Trevor Dion Nicholas, Photo by James Monroe Iglehart
Hope he brought that umbrella with him!!
Of course when you're a Genie, there's only one way to travel!
Yes, something truly magical is coming to London and I can't wait for it to arrive!!
London's Aladdin, Dean John-Wilson, has one final stop to make before donning Aladdin's famous fez and vest. He's starring in the world premiere of Miss Atomic Bombalongside Catherine Tate at the St James Theatre from 7th March until 9th April. So if you want to catch Dean before he comes to Agrabah then this is your chance!
The big news this week was, of course, the official announcement of Frozen: The Broadway Musical! Yes, Elsa, Anna and everyone’s favourite snowman will be joining Aladdin and The Lion Kingon the Great White Way!
Directed by Alex Timbers the show will reunite writer Jennifer Lee with song writers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. The Broadway production will feature choreography by Peter Darling and will reunite the Aladdin team of Natasha Katz (Lighting Design) and Bob Crowley (Scenic Design), with Crowley also designing the costumes for this production. Given how amazing Aladdin looks I can’t wait to see what they come up with for Frozen!
There were two big surprises for me with this announcement. First, how far away it is! Aladdin was announced in January 2013 and officially opened on Broadway in March 2014. Frozen won't even begin it's out of town preview run until Summer 2017 (at the Denver Centre for the Performing Arts) and isn't set to reach Broadway until Spring 2018. Which leads nicely to my second surprise - how long the preview run potentially is. The Little Mermaid had a similar summer preview run in Denver (July-September 2007) before starting Broadway previews in November that year for a planned December opening (which was ultimately delayed to January by the stagehand strike), whilst Aladdin, which had a March opening on Broadway, didn't being it's Toronto run until November.
To me this shows that Disney have learnt a lot from their recent successes and failures. The Little Mermaid was the last Disney show announced straight for Broadway. It and Tarzan, which didn't even have an out of town try out, are generally considered Disney Theatrical's biggest failures (here's where I have to add that I loved Mermaid, I wish I could have seen Tarzan, and both have had success around the world and regionally since so "failure" isn't really the right word). Even Aladdin, which is a record breaking success, needed a lot of work between it's Toronto run and it's Broadway debut. Disney have recognised this and given themselves time to make sure they get Frozen right. They have a long creative window before the show begins it's Denver run (presumably July/August 2017) and with the show not scheduled to hit Broadway until Spring 2018 they'll have plenty of time to enjoy a longer preview run in Denver and a bigger break during which they can do any retooling required before the show opens on Broadway.
I'm really excited to see what Disney and this creative team come up with for Frozen. I loved the film but musically it was very front loaded so I'm looking forward to hearing all the new material that will have to be created. I also think that visually this has the potential to be absolutely stunning and the creation of Elsa's ice castle will rival The Lion King's Pride Rock and Aladdin's magic carpet ride. Disney Theatrical have been on fire recently, with Newsies, Aladdin and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (even if the last one didn't make Broadway) so I have every hope that this will be something very special as well.
