Hello 2014 hope it is finding my readers well, and that Santa was good to you! This year has been interesting thus far and started off with a bang. On January 2nd I damaged the grill and licence plate holder of my car, that is a $218 mistake, it will be fixed tomorrow. Stupidly I wasn't paying as much attention as I should and didn't break in time, insurance isn't involved, but I am okay which is the main thing.
I still owe a blog post from my December trip to New York City, but for now we'll focus on the first show I have seen of 2014. Yesterday I went to see the musical adaptation of Disney's Aladdin. This will probably come as a shock, especially because I am a HUGE Disney fan, but I have never actually seen a Disney musical before (No Lion King, Beauty and the Beast or Mary Poppins, nothing, even though they have all played in Toronto within the last few years) I think I have been hesitant, because I tend to be purist, and I know they tend to change stuff, the movies are masterpieces and if it's not broke, don't fix it.
I think it was the chance to see Aladdin, before Broadway audiences that really pushed me to see it before it leaves (Today is actually the last performance). When I was in NYC I saw the theatre marquis of where it is transferring to. I was curious to see what they would do with the Genie and how they would do the magic carpet for the number A Whole New World.
My first mistake was deciding to go to a matinee, because there were a lot of children. The kids were tearing up and down the aisle loudly during intermission and one child had to be taken out because they were bawling loudly. I was way up in the mezzanine and the little girl two rows ahead of me kept on moving around during the first act blocking my view. Grrr. I also had to bitch out of the usher's because she was letting people go back to their seats in the middle of a musical number a big no no. Everyone knows you have to wait until after the song or during a scene change, because it disrupts the other patrons. I have to admit, one of my most unpleasant theatre going experiences EVER. On to the show: minor spoilers ahead.
Parts of the show were great. I absolutely loved the sets, they were beautiful especially the palace sets and the costumes sparkled all the way in the back row. I don't know why all the reviews seem to skewered the sets, especially with the cave of wonder's scene, when Aladdin becomes trapped. I wasn't even put off by the fact that the part of Abu the monkey was cut out and replaced by three friends of Aladdin, and that Iago the parrot was just human henchman of Jafar's. Or even that they cut out the subplot of having Jafar conspiring to marry Jasmine so he can be Sultan. I think enough of the original story remained, a lot of lines were taken verbatim.
One of the highlights for me was seeing Jonathan Freeman play Jafar, he actually voiced him in the original movie! How cool is that? I didn't stage door after though. I loved Adam Jacobs who played Aladdin, he came across as sweet and charming and had a great voice. Vocally I found the casting of Courtney Reed as Princess Jasmine questionable, her acting was fine. I think she really only had three big numbers in the whole show and I found her really weak during the show's iconic number A Whole New World. (Weak to the point where I was wincing) Sadly the majesty of that song's staging wasn't enough to distract me from her singing. I loved the starlit background and the carpet that really did seam to fly through the air as the ensemble danced around almost invisible with glowing planets.
I don't know what I am missing, but everyone is apparently loving the James Munroe Iglehart portrayal of the Genie. Granted Robin William's left some big shoes to fill, and it isn't Iglehart's fault. I blame the book writers for taking the character in a different direction at the risk of sounding racist more black then Jewish. I found him over the top. I didn't like the way they had him break the fourth wall and sing snippets of the composers other works from Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, it takes me out of the story and typically that is not what you want for your audience.
Overall the show was okay, I don't regret going. It makes me glad I didn't go see my favourite Disney movie show of all time The Little Mermaid when it was on Broadway, if this is what I can expect from the adaptations. I will stick to the original going forward, but I might make an exception for The Lion King when it is back in Toronto later this summer.
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