Reviews 2013
Reviews 2013
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music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice & Chad Beguelin, book by Chad Beguelin, directed by Casey Nicholaw
Disney Theatrical Productions, Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto
November 21, 2013-January 12, 2014
“Diamond in the Rough”
Disney’s new stage musical based on its 1992 animated film of Aladdin is filled with spectacle. It features excellent singing from all the leads and an out-of-this- world performance by James Monroe Iglehart as the Genie. All the favourite songs from the film are part of the score in addition to songs written by composer Alan Menken that were dropped from the film. All this should make the new Aladdin a sure-fire hit except that the director and producers have not decided what kind of show it is they want. Is it a kiddie show with very high production values or is it also supposed to be a fantasy that will appeal to adults? At present it is the former with attempts to broaden its appeal largely ineffective.
The musical’s narrators/chorus are three member of Aladdin’s street band, Babkak (Brian Gonzales), Omar (Jonathan Schwartz) and Kassim (Brandon O’Neill). They set the scene and introduce and participate in the action. As characters they can be reduced to one trait each. Omar is the macho guy, Kassim is the wimpy guy and Babkak is the tubby guy who can think only of food.
Through the opening song “Arabian Nights”, the three introduce us to an Arabia that is a compendium of every hokey Hollywood cliché about Muslim countries from old movies like The Sheik (1921) to Road to Morocco (1942), Lost in a Harem (1944) and Kismet (1955). This is a fictional place where women wear belly-dancing outfits on the street, bare-chested guards wield enormous scimitars and merchants are free to behand thieves for stealing without recourse to judges. Even Princess Jasmine (Courtney Reed) walks about the palace in a harem outfit. Don’t look for any sort of social realism. There’s not a veil, hijab, niqab much less a burqa in sight. Religious references are completely banished except of allowing the Sultan (Clifton Davis) to exclaim “By Allah” once.
Clichéd design of this time is what we expect from an 1992 Disney movie. What we don’t except is a story nearly devoid of conflict. Aladdin (Adam Jacobs) wants to fulfill his dead mother’s belief that he is destined for something special. Jasmine battles her father because she wants to marry for love not rank. The trouble is that these conflicts are resolved without struggle. The evil wazir Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) finds that only a “diamond in the rough”, namely Aladdin, can enter the Cave of Wonders. Thus, Aladdin is fated to be special without having to do a thing. Jasmine finds the man she loves the first time she exits the palace and the tiff she has with Aladdin when he is disguised as a prince is purely manufactured. In the movie Jafar gains powers from the lamp much earlier on and puts Jasmine in danger from which Aladdin must rescue her. Here, Jafar’s acquisition of power and loss of it happens in the space of about five minutes.
Lack of character conflict means that all that holds our interest is spectacle. The transformation of the forbidding exterior of the Cave of Wonders to the glittering interior is truly dazzling and a triumph for set designer Bob Crowley. The magic carpet ride through a starlit sky for the song “A Whole New World” is so visually inventive you hardly pay attention to the singing. Nicholaw has also incorporated many standard magic illusions designed by Jim Steinmeyer to imbue the show with an atmosphere where anything can happen.
As Jafar, Jonathan Freeman has the distinction of being the one actor in the show who voiced the same character in the 1992 film. His over-the-top acting and theatrically evil laugh are really no different from Ross Petty’s when he played the role in his 2006. It’s just too bad that since this is supposed to be a musical rather than a panto, little kids can’t participate by booing him.
As Aladdin’s three amigos Gonzales, Schwartz and O’Neill have numerous opportunities to show how well they sing separately and together, especially in close harmony. It’s too bad the creators allotted them only one characteristic each since their main function is to make the show appeal to adults by commenting not just on the action but on how well each actor is performing and on what purpose various sections of the action play. They thus point out the conventions of the musical while in the musical to coddle the adult viewers in their superior knowledge that the show is only a musical. This technique, however, can only have some purpose if we were involved in the story or characters in the first place.
There are only six songs in the original movie. There are twice that in the musical. While songs like “Proud of your Boy” and “A Whole New World” gave the movie an adult contemporary sound, the effect of the additional music is to turn the show into a faux-1930s musical. The Genie’s big number “Friend Like Me” even includes a massive tap-dance finale. There are occasional excursions into the 1950s as with “Call Me a Princess”, but the overall impression is of seeing an old-fashioned musical given a high-tech remount.
This poses problems for Casey Nicholaw as choreographer. Other than belly-dance moves for the women, he never settles on a style that could be called “Arabic” to suit the tale from the Arabian Nights. He has the men do various moves from Cossack dances and even imitate the Bottle Dance steps from Fiddler on the Roof. When men and women dance together as a group, he resorts to the bhangra style of Bollywood movies, yet when Aladdin and Jasmine dance together he has them do a waltz. Nicholaw seems most at home when he can imitate 1930s dance moves for the Genie’s production numbers.
As a Disney musical Aladdin does not have the close character interaction and poignancy of Beauty and the Beast (1993), the consistently inventive spectacle of The Lion King (1997) or the easy wit and humour with an undertow of melancholy of Mary Poppins (2004). It is reliable family entertainment for the holiday season, but might have been a much finer musical if the creators had paid as much attention to character and dramatic conflict as found in these earlier Disney musicals.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: (from top) Courtney Reed and Adam Jacobs; Adam Jacobs as Aladdin; James Monroe Iglehart as the Genie. ©2013 Cylla von Tiedemann.
2013-11-22
Aladdin