Aladdin

Reviewed by Kenneth Lyen

Overture

I went out to buy the 1992 Disney cartoon DVD of Aladdin a few days ago and viewed it a day before watching the stage musical. I was totally blown away by the incredible live performance. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed the animation, but watching real actors act, sing and dance, won me over hands down. It was no match!

Introduction

Aladdin, the live stage musical, ranks as one of the top musicals I have seen. For me, to achieve this high ranking, a musical must have several high caliber features. It must have a strong story line that combines pathos with comedy, the characters must be three-dimensional, the music has to vary from emotionally charged to frivolous but it must match the mood of each scene, the performers have to be outstanding, the sets and costumes must wow me. Everything must blend perfectly. Not easy to satisfy me!

Plot

The plot of the stage musical Aladdin is largely derived from the original 1992 Disney cartoon movie. The original creative team, lyricist Howard Ashman and music composer Alan Menken first conceived the idea of Aladdin as a fractured fable, “telling crazy jokes and jokes that were full of anachronisms”. As the creative team converted the story from the Disney movie into a stage musical, the plot underwent many twists and turns.

The story follows Aladdin, a local street-urchin, who lives in the mythical middle east kingdom of Agrabah. While being chased by the police because he had stolen a loaf of bread, Aladdin accidentally bumps into Jasmine, the royal princess. The brief encounter sparks a love interest between them.

In the meantime, the evil royal vizier, Jafar, wants to get hold of a magic lamp that hides an all-powerful Genie with the ability to grant 3 wishes. Jafar learns that only a “diamond in the rough” boy by the name of Aladdin is allowed to enter the cave holding this magic lamp. He therefore finds Aladdin and persuades him to steal the magic lamp.

However, Aladdin fortuitously releases the Genie from the lamp, and is granted 3 wishes. With the help of the Genie, Aladdin is on the verge of securing the hand of Princess Jasmine in marriage. But all is not smooth-sailing as Jafar manages to snatch the lamp from Aladdin and is in turn granted 3 wishes. However, he is tricked into asking the Genie to make Jafar himself to be more powerful than the Genie. This leads to Jafar swapping places with the current Genie, and he therefore gets trapped inside the lamp forever. This opens the path for Aladdin to gain the hand of Princess Jasmine in marriage.

Selected Characters

Genie

Although the title of the musical is “Aladdin”, it is the Genie that steals the show. He behaves like a star comic entertainer, doing magic tricks, and enchanting us with his full-bodied singing. He is always cracking jokes, and some of his jokes are tailor-made for a Singapore audience. For example, he takes out a statue of the Merlion from his pocket to show the audience, and later he makes jokes about chilli crabs.

Aladdin

Aladdin is portrayed as a mischievous, playful petty thief. However, when he sings “Proud of your boy” a soliloquy to his late mother to promise her that he will do something good that will make her proud of him, he shows us that there is genuine humanity in him. During the course of the show, he learns that if he really treasures relationships, he must be totally honest and truthful. He comes of age.

Princess Jasmine

Jasmine’s character evolved from the 1992 movie to the stage musical. She is now more independent, more assertive, more vocal. She is very much like a modern-day feminist, who expresses exactly what she thinks and wants, without being tactful.

Jafar

Jafar is the villainous Royal Vizier, but in the stage musical, he partially redeems himself by having a sense of humour, albeit a bit cruel at times.

Music

Alan Menken

Alan Menken wrote all the music for the original 1992 Disney cartoon movie. He would go on to write all the music for the live stage musical.

Producer Thomas Schumacher had originally thought that the music would be a low-key low-budget school production. He had assumed that composer Alan Menken would not be interested in such an amateur production. But when told by Schumacher “You’re not going to want to be involved in this”, Alan answered: “Why don’t I want to be involved?” In fact Alan was keen to be involved and brought out all the additional songs that he had written with Howard Ashman before the latter passed away. This included 3 songs that were rejected by the 1992 Disney cartoon movie. Alan also went on to write several new songs specially for the stage musical.

As is customary for musical theatre, some of the new songs were rejected because they did not quite fit the new plot line or they slowed the story too much. There is a song, “A Royal Wedding”, meant to be sung by the Sultan that was rewritten 43 times; but eventually this also had to be discarded. In the end, the Sultan sung a reprise of “Prince Ali” for the wedding.

Alan Menken said: “Generally I don’t have a lot of emotional reaction to ‘losing songs’ probably because I’ve lost so many of them. There is a twinge when it happens, and then I just move on. Songs are never lost. They just aren’t used. They can always come back.”

Lyrics

Howard Ashman was the lyricist for Aladdin. He started the collaboration with Alan Menken since 1979 and together they had won several Oscars, including “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid (1989) and “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast (1991). He had suggested that Alan Menken and himself should write a musical cartoon for Disney, based on the story of Aladdin (1988). Although Howard already knew he had AIDS in 1988, he did not break the news to Alan Menken until 1990. They had written several songs for Aladdin before Howard passed away from AIDS in 1991.

Howard Ashman’s original proposal to Disney was to include Aladdin’s mother in the story, and he had written a special song for Aladdin to sing, “Proud of Your Boy”. Both the mother and the song was removed from the Disney cartoon film.

Soon after Howard Ashman’s death, Tim Rice was invited to take over the role of lyricist. Tim had already been working for Disney on The Lion King. He wrote the lyrics for two songs: “A Whole New World”, and “One Jump Ahead”. There were other songs, but they were discarded in the final show. “A Whole New World” won an Oscar in 1992.

Book

In 2009, Chad Beguelin was invited by producer Tom Schumacher to write the script for the stage musical of Aladdin, which he immediately accepted. The first draft was very close to the 1992 cartoon movie and was sent to Alan Menken. The two met and Alan told Chad that the original concept by Howard Ashman and Menken was quite different from the movie. There were several changes. Although Aladdin’s mother was not brought back, the song “Proud of Your Boy” was reinstated and it added a touch of wistful poignancy to the story. Aladdin’s monkey was replaced by three wisecracking friends, and Jafar’s parrot was replaced by Iago, a villainous sidekick.

Songs

Arabian Nights Alan Menken/Howard Ashman

One Jump Ahead Alan Menken/Tim Rice

Proud of Your Boy Alan Menken/Howard Ashman

These Palace Walls Alan Menken/Chad Befuelin

Babkak, Omar, Alddin, Kassim Alan Menken/Howard Ashman

A Million Miles Away Alan Menken/Chad Beguelin

Diamond in the Rough Alan Menken/Chad Beguelin

Friend Like Me Alan Menken/Howard Ashman

Prince Ali Alan Menken/Howard Ashman

A Whole New World Alan Menken/Tim Rice

High Adventure Alan Menken/Howard Ashman

Somebody’s Got Your Back Alan Menken/Chad Beguelin

Dance

Dance is a major constituent of the musical, and many of the ensemble numbers are fast-paced, well-synchronized, and exciting to watch. The entire cast, including the leads, are all well-versed dancers and add to the momentum of the show.

Sets

Kudos goes to scene designer Bob Crowley, and lighting designer Natasha Katz.

Together, they transform the stage into mythical Agrabah, which looks like an authentic middle eastern city. The exaggerated perspective of the sets gives a story-book feel to the scenes. The sets are brilliantly constructed so they can smoothly morph into different scenes right in front of your eyes.

The Cave of Wonders is one of those “wow” moments. It is magnificently lined with gold and sparkling jewelry. To be precise, over 120 pieces of gold, and 500,000 Swarowski crystals.

Costumes

The costume designer is Gregg Barnes, and they are breathtakingly designed, allowing the performers to move and dance with grace and beauty. I am told there are 337 different costumes, created in such a way that allows multiple costume changes in a matter of seconds.

Illusions

Illusions and magic are essential components of Aladdin. When Aladdin rubs the magic lamp, there is a cloud of smoke, then suddenly Genie materializes During the song “Friends Like Me”, Genie conjures up food on the table, and makes a lightning-fast costume change from rags to riches. Towards the end, the villain Jafar goes one step too far and magically vanishes into the lamp

Flying Carpet

I think most of us are totally enchanted by the iconic flying magic carpet. It floats and glides dreamily against a blanket of stars. This is one of those magical moments that steals the show. I looked very hard for wires suspending the carpet but could not find them. Absolutely stunning!

Curtain Call

Aladdin raises the bar for extravaganza musical shows. Everything fits together perfectly. The writing is both humorous, meaningful and touching. The heart of the musical is the love story between Aladdin and Princess Jasmine. It is also the coming of age of Aladdin when he realizes that to gain the trust of others he must be absolutely truthful. Genie steals the show by adding glamour and humour. Ultimately the show is shimmering glimmering and fantastically magical. And I absolutely love the songs. They touch your soul, and you cannot help but keep on hearing them in your head after the show.

I highly recommend you to watch the show before it ends on 1 Sept 2019. Tickets available from SISTIC.

Reviewed by Kenneth Lyen

11 August 2019

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