The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Song List Revealed!

Normally we don't get the song list of a show until after the first preview, but La Jolla Playhouse have posted a Know Before You Go guide to the show giving us a tantalising first glimpse at Disney's next musical masterpiece.  You can download the full PDF (including a fantastic interview with Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz, Peter Parnell and Scott Schwartz) at the link.  Here are the highlights;

The Cast (in order of appearance)

Erik Liberman as Clopin Trouillefou
Patrick Page as Dom Claude Frollo
Lucas Coleman as Jehan Frollo
Samantha Massell as Florika
William Michals as Father Dupin
Michael Arden as Quasimodo
Andrew Samonsky as Captain Phoebus de Martin
Ian Patrick Gibb as Lieutenant Frederic Charlus
Ciara Renee as Esmeralda
Richard Ruiz as King Louis XI
Beth Kirkpatrick as Madam
Neal Mayer as Saint Aphrodisius

The Congregation (ensemble) includes Lucas Coleman, Ian Patrick Gibb, William Thomas Hodgson, Beth Kirkpatrick, Samantha Massell, Neal Mayer, Nora Menken, William Michals, Anise Ritchie, Vincent Rodriguez III, Richard Ruiz and Brian Smolin

Choral Ensemble - Sacra/Profana

Male Swings - Julian Decker & Christian Villanueva
Female Swing - Mary Joe Duggan

The Creative Team

Book by Peter Parnell
Music by Alan Menken
Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
Directed by Scott Schwartz
Choreographed by Chase Brock
Music Supervisor/Arranger - Michael Kosarin
Music Director - Brent-Alan Huffman
Orchestrator - Michael Starobin
Dance Music Arranger - Rob Berman
Scenic Designer - Alexander Dodge
Costume Designer - Alejo Vietti
Lighting Designer - Howell Binkley
Sound Designer - Garth Owen
Hair & Wig Designer - Charles G. LaPointe
Fight Director - Steve Rankin
Vocal Consultant - Ursula Meyer
Casting Director - Tara Rubin Casting
Local Casting Director - Teresa Sapien
Production Stage Manager - M. William Shiner
Assistant Stage Managers - Becky Fleming & Jennifer Kahn
Producing Director - Judith Richardson
Artistic Director - Shirley Fishman
Production Manger - Audrey Hoo

For the La Jolla Playhouse Christopher Ashley is Artistic Director and Michael S. Rosenberg is Managing Director.

Musical Numbers

Act One
The Bells of Notre Dame - Clopin, Frollo, Jehan, Father Dupin, Congregation
Sanctuary - Frollo, Quasimodo
Out There - Quasimodo
Topsy Turvy - Clopin, Congregation
Rest and Recreation - Phoebus, Frollo
Rhythm of the Tambourine - Esmeralda, Frollo, Phoebus, Quasimodo
God Help the Outcasts - Esmeralda, Congregation
Top of the World - Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Congregation
The Tavern Song (Thai Mol Piyas) - Gypsies, Esmeralda, Frollo
Heaven's Light - Quasimodo
Hellfire - Frollo, Congregation
Esmeralda (Act One Finale) - Company

Act Two
Entr'acte - Choir
Flight into Egypt - Saint Aphrodisius, Quasimodo, Congregation
Rest and Recreation (Reprise) - Phoebus, Quasimodo, Congregation
The Court of Miracles - Clopin, Gypsies
In a Place of Miracles - Phoebus, Esmeralda, Quasimodo, Clopin, Gypsies
Someday - Esmeralda, Phoebus
Made of Stone - Quasimodo, Congregation
Finale Ultimo - Company

And since the Know Before You Go guide includes the set rendering by Alexander Dodge I guess it's safe to share the Broadway World photos from the other day (big thanks to Sotiris2006 for actually saving these!)

It looks like an interesting mix of songs from the film, songs from the original Berlin production, all new songs for this production and even a song that was written for the film but cut.  But even if you recognise the names, don't expect to recognise the lyrics as Stephen Schwartz confirms "in addition to the brand new songs, there are a lot of songs in which there are new lyrics, or parts of the song are restructured."

Indeed this looks to be, much like Aladdin, a complete reimagining of the film for stage.  Whilst Aladdin went back to Howard Ashman's original concept, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is going back to the book.  The guide even states that this production is "Based on the Victor Hugo novel with songs from the Disney film".  Like Aladdin lost Abu, Quasimodo has lost his gargoyles (at least in the sense of the individual characters they were in the film), but whilst Aladdin  uses the latest special effects to bring the magic of the movie to life on stage, the story of Quasimodo will be a much more human take.  Director Scott Schwartz says "My guiding principle for the production is: if they couldn't do it in 1482, we shouldn't be doing it now.  In other words, the physical production is based all on period techniques that have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years.  This is not a technological version of the story.  It's a human one."

Everything I hear about this production just makes me more and more excited to see it!  Next March can't come soon enough!

The Hunchback of Notre Dame begins this Sunday, 26th October, at La Jolla Playhouse.  Tickets are available here.

Aladdin Toronto Previews Update and Song List

Disney's Aladdin has been taking audiences in Toronto on a magic carpet ride for just over a week now, but if you were there last night then you weren't seeing exactly the same show as previous audiences.  Like with all good preview runs, Aladdin's creative team is watching, seeing what works and what can be improved.

Yesterday afternoon Adam Jacobs (Aladdin) posted on his official Facebook page "New lines, new changes! C'mon brain! #AladdinTO #PreviewRealness"

This is an incredibly exciting and creative time for any show and I'd love to be there to watch Aladdin as it evolves from that first preview last week to the show that will be coming to Broadway next year.

And speaking of exciting and creative, here's a short interview that Alan Menken did with The Canadian Press during Toronto rehearsals.

A very favourable early review can be found here and discussion on the Broadway World message boards is generally positive.  However it's important to remember that the show is still in previews and still changing (as evidenced above) so these comments, whilst certainly valid and interesting to read, are based on a "work in progress" production.

For me the most exciting thing to come out of these early reviews and discussions has to be the new song list for the Toronto production (if you want to compare, the Seattle song list is here);

ACT 1
Arabian Nights - Babkak, Omar, Kassim and Company
One Jump Ahead - Aladdin and Crowd
Proud of Your Boy - Aladdin
Arabian Nights Reprise 1 - Babkak, Omar and Kassim
Call Me a Princess - Jasmine and Attendants
Call Me a Princess Reprise - Jasmine
Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim - Babkak, Omar, Aladdin and Kassim
A Million Miles Away - Aladdin and Jasmine
Diamond in the Rough - Jafar, Iago and Aladdin
Friend Like Me - Genie and Company
Arabian Nights Reprise 2 - Babkak, Omar and Kassim
Act 1 Finale (Friend Like Me Reprise/Proud of Your Boy Reprise 1) - Genie and Aladdin

ACT 2
Prince Ali - Genie, Babkak, Omar, Kassim and Company
Arabian Nights Reprise 3 - Babkak, Omar and Kassim
A Whole New World - Aladdin and Jasmine
High Adventure - Babkak, Omar and Kassim
Somebody's Got Your Back - Genie, Aladdin, Babkak, Omar and Kassim
Proud of Your Boy Reprise 2 - Aladdin
Prince Ali Reprise - Jafar, Sultan and Company
Genie's Exit (Somebody's Got Your Back Reprise) - Genie
Finale Ultimo (Arabian Nights Reprise 4/A Whole New World Reprise) - Company

There's definitely been some interesting changes since the original 5th Avenue Pilot Production and last year's regional productions.

Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim has been moved to later in the show.  This used to follow Arabian Nights so Aladdin's introduction is now more in line with the film with One Jump Ahead (and I have to wonder if this means they've added in the original "It begins on a dark night..." Cave of Wonders scene as well).

One Jump Ahead Reprise is missing from the song list.  It could simply be that they're counting it with Proud of Your Boy as the original production used it as a lead in, or it could be cut as it's no longer needed with Proud of Your Boy in the show.  Personally I liked it as a lead in but I can also understand why they would cut it as Proud of Your Boy covers the same emotional beats.

Why Me (the only "new" Menken/Rice song in the Pilot Production) has been cut.  This was sung by Jafar and Iago as they cast a spell searching for the Diamond in the Rough.

Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim now takes place in the marketplace before Aladdin meets Jasmine.  Thinking about it this actually does work better.

The original Arabian Nights Reprise 2 has been cut (Toronto's Reprise 2 was Seattle's Reprise 3)  This Ashman/Menken verse was sung by Babkak, Omar and Kassim as Aladdin's "uncle" Jafar led him to the Cave of Wonders.  It has been replaced by the new Menken/Beguelin song Diamond in the Rough.

In Act 2 new reprises of Arabian Nights and Proud of Your Boy have been added.  I'm not sure about Arabian Nights Reprise 3 but I'd guess that Proud of Your Boy Reprise 2 takes place after Aladdin breaks his promise to Genie and realises he needs to tell Jasmine the truth about who he really is.

It appears that the pre-wedding reprise of High Adventure has been cut and that Sultan and the crowd have been added to Prince Ali Reprise (unless the Wedding Day Suite which included High Adventure Reprise and Prince Ali Reprise has just been renamed to the more well known Prince Ali Reprise)

That's all for this Arabian Night ;)

Edit - Thanks to Everdream0's comment below we can now confirm that (at least at the moment) One Jump Ahead Reprise is still in the show and serves as a lead in to Proud of Your Boy like it did in the Seattle Pilot and the subsequent regional and international productions.  We can also confirm that High Adventure Reprise is indeed cut from the show.

Thanks again Everdream0.

More Auditions, Preview Tickets, a New Poster and a New Song for Jafar?

Firstly, if you went to any of the Aladdin auditions over the last week then I hope they went well and that you had a good time.

It looks like Disney is casting a pretty wide net for this show as Playbill have added another four open chorus calls for Orlando (March 2nd/3rd), LA (Feb 26th/27th), Chicago (March 12th) and Toronto (March 16th).  If you're going - good luck!

Toronto's The Star has published an article entitled Aladdin, Once, Les Miserables highlight new Mirvish season.  According to the article this is the Mirvish's 50th year and they're celebrating by presenting their largest subscription program ever, including "the world premiere of the new Disney stage musical Aladdin".  The article goes on to state that "Aladdin will have its premiere tryout here at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, on its way to Broadway, as previously reported in The Star, with Tony Award winning director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw helming the proceedings."

This week also saw The Mirvish launching their own page for Aladdin complete with a new poster and banner for the show!

The poster's a little small (hopefully a larger version will turn up soon) but it's great to see new artwork turning up so soon!

The Mirvish's page includes the following description of the show;

"In an exotic, faraway land, one man’s life is about to change with the lucky rub of an ancient lamp—and you’re invited to join the magic carpet ride.

Welcome to ALADDIN, Disney’s new Broadway-bound musical, adapted from the hit film and featuring some of the best-loved music by Academy® and Tony Award®-winning composer Alan Menken and lyricists Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin, with a book by Beguelin.

Brought to you by the producer of Toronto’s record-breaking hits The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, ALADDIN will be directed and choreographed by Tony® -winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon) and will feature the award-winning and acclaimed design team of Bob Crowley (sets), Gregg Barnes (costumes) and Natasha Katz (lights), with illusions by Jim Steinmeyer.

With its timeless story, extravagant sets and costumes and a host of memorable characters and songs, ALADDIN will transport you to a place you only know in your dreams. Go ahead, make a wish. And discover a whole new world, in a whole new way… at ALADDIN."

Individual tickets aren't on sale yet (I'll update as soon as they are), but if you live in Toronto and love theatre then why not consider getting a season subscription for all 7 of the 2013/2014 season shows?  Information on the Mirvish's 2013/2014 subscription can be found here.

And finally, Playbill has published an interview with none other than Alan Menken himself at the Junior Theatre Festival.  The full interview can be found here and Mr. Menken talks about Newsies, the process of adapting his film work for the stage and, of course, bringing Aladdin to Broadway;

"At the same time Howard Ashman and I were writing "The Little Mermaid," we were writing "Aladdin." So we had a whole score that involved Aladdin's mom, and his sidekicks, Babkak, Omar and Kassim, and it had a lot of plot elements that we don't have in the movie. And the movie was great, but I said, "If we are going to do this theatrical adaptation, for me, the perk would be to try to bring in the songs that Howard and I wrote for the movie that never made it in.

So we have "Proud of Your Boy," a number that Aladdin was originally to sing in the movie to his mother directly, but now it's to his mother in heaven. There's a number "Babkak, Omar, Aladdin and Kassim," which is kind of the friends' Vaudeville number that they do in the streets of Agrabah. There's a song called "High Adventure," where they perform a rescue at the end of Act Two, which is so much fun. It's one of those numbers I was dying to see on stage. There's "Call Me Princess" for Princess Jasmine, which was a real early throw-away, but we were able to make use of that thanks to my new collaboration with Chad Beguelin (Elf, The Wedding Singer), who wrote the book.

He was brilliant in finding ways to adapt songs we had originally written into the new book, and we also wrote three new songs together with him as my lyricist. We wrote one new song for the Genie, one new song for Jafar and a new duet for Aladdin and Jasmine — and we still have all the original songs from Howard Ashman and Tim Rice from the film. So much creative energy has gone into this new Aladdin, I love it. We had a production in Seattle that was one of the highlights of my life and we've even improved it since then."

Now, I may be reading too much into this, but have we just had the first bit of information on a new song for this new production?  In the above quote Alan Menken mentions 3 songs written by himself and Chad Beguelin for the show; a song for Genie (Somebody's Got My Back), a duet for Aladdin and Jasmine (A Million Miles Away) and a song for Jafar (???).  Sure Jafar had a "new" song in the 2011/2012 productions, but Why Me is one of the unused Menken/Rice songs that was done for the movie, not a new song by Menken/Beguelin.  So is the Jafar song he mentions a new one for this production?  And if so, what does that mean for Why Me?  Is this going to be an addition or a replacement?  I guess we'll have to wait until November to find out!

And it's always great to hear Alan Menken call the 2011 Pilot Production of Aladdin one of the highlights of his life :)

It Begins on a Dark Night...

Actually it's July and it was early evening, so it probably wasn't all that dark, but I'm running out of appropriate quotes so it'll do!

Aladdin: The New Stage Musical will be raising the curtain on it's second performance soon, but here's a quick look at what some people have been saying about the opening night starting with Princess Jasmine herself, Courtney Reed;



Courtney Reed as Princess Jasmine, Photo by Mark Kitaoka

 "The audience is going wiiiiiiillllld!!!!!" - Courtney Reed (@RhodesReed) via Twitter

"Our first preview last night was THRILLING! It's obviously too early to celebrate but I've never heard an audience go that wild!" - Andrew Keenan-Bolger (@KeenanBlogger) via Twitter

And here's a taste of what people are saying on 5th Avenue's facebook page;

"Saw the performance last night - it was a great first show! Sound was good, costumes are fantastic and love all of the cast especially Mr. James Monroe Iglehart"

"Saw the show last night!!! AMAZING job! Can't wait to come back! :)"

"Absolutely love Aladdin! ... Cast was great and the big numbers were fantastic!"

"What a magical carpet ride of a show! We enjoyd ourselves so very much! It was delightful to see so many captivated young theatre goers...truly a show for all ages!"


Tsom over at Ultimate Disney has also found a song list for the show, posted here!!!

ACT ONE
Overture
Arabian Nights
Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim
One Jump Ahead
One Jump Ahead, Reprise
Proud of Your Boy
Arabian Nights, Reprise 1
Call Me a Princess
Call Me a Princess, Reprise
Why Me
A Million Miles Away
Arabian Nights, Reprise 2
Friend Like Me
Arabian Nights, Reprise 3
Act 1 Finale (said to be a reprise of Friend Like Me for the Prince transformation followed by a reprise of Proud of Your Boy)

ACT TWO
Prince Ali
A Whole New World
High Adventure
Somebody's Got Your Back
Wedding Day Suite (said to be a bit of everything including an extended Prince Ali, Reprise)
Finale Ultimo (said to be reprises of Somebody's Got Your Back, Arabian Nights and A Whole New World)

Now obviously things can change between now and when the show officially opens in 2 weeks.  Songs could be altered, cut, extended or replaced depending on how well audiences respond, but right now that's the show!

It's interesting to see how close together "One Jump Ahead, Reprise" and "Proud of Your Boy" are.  Given these could both be seen as Aladdin's "I want" song, where the character bares his soul and reveals his inner desires, I'd expected them to be further apart.  But thinking about it I can see the sense in having them next to each other.

I LOVE that the "Arabian Nights Reprises" are in the show! The first could be the same as the demo (or totally different, I don't know!) but the second would need some tweaking (unless the fake uncle plot has been restored) and the third would need to be totally diffrent given the original demo featured Aladdin in prison and sang about "rats in your cell"!

I was kinda hoping that Jasmine's solo "To Be Free"  from Aladdin: The Musical Spectacular would be in the show, but I'm sure "Call Me a Princess, Reprise" fills the same spot in the story and probably flows better than a completely new song at that point.  Also notable by its absence is "How Quick They Forget", with the return of Babkak, Omar and Kassim, I really thought they'd add all their songs back in.

I'm practically bursting to hear the new songs (especially the reprise of "Proud of Your Boy" in the "Act 1 Finale").  Here's hoping The 5th release official previews soon!

"High Adventure" must have gone through some changes given the original demo features the characters riding back to Agrabah to save Jasmine (or I guess Abby could be the "damsel in despair" refered to in the original story) which would probably have placed it after "Wedding Day Suite" as Aladdin heads back (is the ends of the earth even in this version?) to rescue Jasmine.  Whatever changes I really want to hear this song, it's one of my favourites from The Music Behind the Magic!

And I can't wait to hear "Finale Ultimo" (please release a CD!!) and listen to how they've combined the original "Arabian Nights, Reprise 4" (eventually used in Aladdin and the King of Thieves and being used at the end of my wedding reception!) and the film's finale version of "A Whole New World"!  What I'd give to have a copy of that to play at the end of my wedding reception next week!

Well it's 1am here, so "I'd better go home and rest"!  But before I do there's one last comment I want to share with you.  This one says it all;

"First preview of ALADDIN last night. Soooo much fun! Everyone is so happy. Howard lives again thanks to Casey, Chad and the whole team..." - Alan Menken (@AlMenken) via Twitter