Trevor Dion Nicholas & Gregg Barnes Win What's On Stage Awards for London's Aladdin!

Trevor Dion Nicholas and the cast of London's Aladdin, Photo by Deen Van Meer

There was a party in Agrabah this weekend as the West End production of Disney's Aladdin celebrated not one but two What's On Stage Award wins!

First Gregg Barnes took home the award for Best Costume Design for his beautiful work.  I still think it's a crime that he wasn't nominated for the Tony Award back in 2014, his work on this show is simply exquisite, every piece is unique and the colours just breathe so much life onto the stage, so I'm delighted to see his work rewarded here.

Then, in what will hopefully be the first of many awards this season, Trevor Dion Nicholas was awarded Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his show stopping portrayal of Genie!  If you've seen the man live then you know that there's just no words to express how well deserved this award is.  Trevor is a star in every sense of the word and his energy and joy lift everyone in the theatre whenever he is on stage.

Massive congratulations to you both!  What a fantastic start to the awards season, here's wishing for many more to come!

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.

Courtney Reed, James Monroe Iglehart and More Take Home Awards!

Whilst the Tony Awards are still a few hours away, Aladdin has already brought several rewards this week.

I reported on Monday, James Monroe Iglehart took home the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical, but that's not all.  On Tuesday he followed it up by bringing home the Broadway World Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical!

James Monroe Iglehart as Genie, Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann

And JMI wasn't the only one celebrating a BWW Award win as Casey Nicholaw and Gregg Barnes took the awards for Best Choreography and Best Costume Design respectively.  If you've seen the show then you know that all three of these awards are well deserved.  James brings the house down and the audience to their feet every night with Friend Like Me and Casey's fantastic choreography plays a big part in that (and is equally fantastic in the rest of the show as is JMI) and even if you've only seen pictures you know that Gregg Barnes' costumes are simply breathtaking.  A full list of winners can be seen at Broadway World.

Then on Wednesday there was even more reason to celebrate as Courtney Reed won Broadway.com's Audience Choice Award for Favorite Breakthrough Performance (Female) for her portrayal of Princess Jasmine!

Courtney Reed as Princess Jasmine, Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann

You can see Courtney and the other winners deliver their "Fill-in-the-Blanks" acceptance speeches in this video but be warned of some strong language (it's censored but you can make it out, though Courtney manages to maintain her Disney princess innocence).

Massive congratulations to you all on your well deserved awards!  Now go make some magic at the Tonys tonight!!

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.