- Friday, August 19, 2016 8:52 AM
- DisneyDan
Hello everyone,
On the 1st July Jon and I were fortunate enough to see the then recently debuted Disney's Aladdin musical, at the Prince Edward Theatre in London.
Before I get into my review, here are some photos of around the Prince Edward Theatre, including the outside, the store and even a Magic Lamp that was set up for photo opportunities!
One other thing before I get into my review, a few days later we were at the Disney Store inside Harrods and they also had some Aladdin Musical merchandise there, including an Aladdin plush that wasn't available at the theatre store.
Between the theatre store and the Disney Store, here are some of the items we ended up coming home with:
For those who have seen other Disney West End and Broadway productions, you will know that they don't always strictly follow their movie counterparts, with changes to songs, scenes and even characters. Aladdin was not immune from this, and certainly had its fair share of original content, and classic parts that we know and love.
The most striking difference, for me, was the absence of Abu, Aladdin's monkey friend. Instead, Aladdin has three friends who he uses to reflect his thoughts and concerns off of. Babkak, Omar and Kassim feature prominently throughout the production, and even have their own musical number, which if I am honest, wasn't the best part of the show. I didn't feel that they helped move the story on and their main musical scene felt like it dragged on a bit too long. The show does make a small reference to Abu though, during the "95 white Persian monkeys" part, they hold up a flashcard with a white version of Abu on it, which was both funny and sad all at once.
Another significant difference was making Jafar's sidekick, Iago, a human, and not a parrot. While this didn't really make any real difference, sometimes he could linger and loiter around Jafar and some of the other characters in an awkward fashion, and honestly, I found the actor who played him a little irritating. Harsh, maybe, but not everyone can like everything, and I didn't like this portrayal of Iago.
Carpet was barely in the production, and only really appeared during the A Whole New World sequence, again, relegating one of Aladdin's trusty sidekick friends to a significantly lesser role. The A Whole New World scene itself was spectacular, and really well designed. The night sky effect was really pretty.
Without completely ruining the musical for anyone who hasn't seen it, I will just say that the way Carpet arrives, and the way in which Jafar locates Aladdin to help him acquire the lamp are also very different in this production, and not like the cartoon movie at all.
The production had decidedly British influences to it, and the Genie in particular referenced a lot of things that a West End audience would have been more familiar with than a Broadway one (and I am certain the opposite is true on Broadway also). As well as the British references, there were a lot of in-house Disney references, which made the fan in me smile and laugh whenever I caught one.
There is a scene during the production where there are some magic tricks, and again, without giving too much more away, they are pretty impressive. Not because they are really "magic", but from a production value point of view, the technical wizardry involved to make one of them in particular appear seamless, is quite remarkable.
On a similar note, the sets themselves were really neat, and I loved how they produced the rooftop chase scene; very smart and effective.
The costumes were really very good, and I gained a much higher appreciation for the work that goes into costuming and costume changes while watching this show, because of the Prince Ali scene. When Aladdin arrives as Prince Ali, of course the show only has a limited number of performers, but the seemingly endless stream of people who make up his entourage is nothing short of incredible. The sheer volume of costumes and costume changes that happen during that scene is mind blowing, and everyone involved in that part really needs a major applause.
Finally, it is very worth mentioning that a lot of the music for this production that was not in the classic Disney movie was actually original music that was created by Howard Ashman when he worked on the Aladdin movie at the very start of the 1990s. Howard Ashman sadly died in March 1991, but to this day they credit him in the programme for the musical as having produced some of the music. I think that is a really nice touch and it makes me really happy that his work still lives on.
Over all I really enjoyed this show and I would recommend you seeing it, especially if you are a Disney fan.
If you have any comments, you can leave them in the Disqus section, below.
Have a great day everyone,
Dan.