Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and today, we continue our Return To The Theater as we look at the show that preceded Frozen Live at The Hyperion as we travel from Arendelle to Agrabah to look at Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular in our first Screen To Stage blog of this theaterical event. Now, as I explained in the introduction, I am doing this version and not the Broadway production of Aladdin for the mere fact that I have seen this show and have yet to seen Aladdin on Broadway. Now, there is some interesting history with this show because it closed last January to make way for Frozen Live at The Hyperion, which opened in May of 2016 but it was almost replaced with something else. Something much worse, perhaps the worst thing that I've ever looked at on A Look at Disney (next to Too Smart For Strangers).....
Yes, it was almost replaced by Toy Story: The Musical.
I'll let this quote from the Disney Wiki explain.
A land debut had been planned in the Hyperion Theater at Disney California Adventure in early 2011, however Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular was later extended indefinitely until 2016, and no new premiere date for Toy Story was announced.
That's part of it but another big part is that at the time that Disney was planning to bring Toy Story: The Musical in to replace Aladdin, this was one of the most popular shows at Disney California Adventure and fans fought to keep it there and in the end, they won and the show's run was extended to January of 2016. And boy, am I glad that it was as this allowed me to see it in person before it left the park.
What's The Same
Overall, the story of Aladdin is kept intact albeit a bit condensed but considering that it had a 45 minute runtime that can be forgiven. Overall, the show was very faithful to Aladdin and I can't say for certain but I think that they may have learned from the Broadway production of The Lion King as Iago was performed by a puppeteer in this production whereas in the Broadway production, he's now human.
Overall, not much is changed in terms of the production. Speaking of, let's move onto What's Different
What's Different
Perhaps the biggest difference is the omission of Abu. Something that the Broadway production would follow suit with this omission but they are replaced by the characters of Omar, Babkak, and Kassim. The omission of Abu actually does change one of the lyrics in One Jump Ahead as instead of Al stating that Abu is his only friend, he now says...
I can take a hint, gotta face the facts
I could use a friend or two
Now, there is one other change to the show that is interesting and it comes in the term of Genie. Overall, this take on The Genie takes a lot of cues from Robin Williams (RIP) but he was allowed to improvise to keep the pop culture references relevant. Such as when I saw it, he made references to Force Awakens,The Bachelor (Okay, mostly relevant) , and Trump. Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Friend Like Me is the biggest showstopping number and it ended with a chorus line of Genies dancing onstage.
New Music
To Be Free
Now, it's a bit of a stretch to call this new as it was originally written as a number for the movie that was meant to be sung by the Genie And here is why it was cut.
The song however was cut, as its location, during the Oasis scene, was in between two major other songs for the Genie, Friend Like Me and Prince Ali, respectively.
Though the instrumentals of the song remained but the song would eventually find new life, thanks to this show. However, it is not sung by Genie but rather by Princess Jasmine.
And I'm not sure, how I feel about this change partially because Genie is one of my alltime favorite Disney characters and I feel like he was kinda cheated. And I would have loved to heard a more somber tune from Robin Williams as Genie but as the song is in it's current state, this sounds more like a Jasmine song. Probably because it's been a Jasmine song since 2011. It's a good song and the theme of wanting to be free fits Jasmine as well as Genie because she wishes for freedom beyond the palace walls. Which became a song in the Broadway production but at the same time, I feel like this would have brought a quieter moment for Genie and I would have been curious to hear what a Genie version of this song would have sounded like in this show. Overall, it's not the best Aladdin song nor is it the worst and I find it serviceable but I feel like it could have been so much more.
My Final Thoughts
I can say that when I saw this show, it was an absolute treat as the cast put their all into giving one heck of a performance. This was one of the best shows that I saw at a Disney Park and it was clear that the cast wanted to give a grand performance knowing that they were about to close. I'm sorry for those of you that never got to see this as I'd put up there as one of the best shows that Disney Parks have ever produced. Join me tomorrow for a special Music Fridays as I count down my Top 6 Broadway Exclusive Disney Songs.
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