Aladdin Reviews — Page 3

I saw Jacobs in ZORRO. He's got talent and charisma in spades. He plays young on stage.

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^Me too

Aladdin is a lot better than The Little Mermaid musical was. It could use further adjustments though. Even MP had its detractors.

The climax definetly needs to be fixed and I think perhaps They need to add in a new song for Jasmine, maybe replace Call Me a Princess reprise with To be Free or something along that lines.

I was just about to ask what Jonwo basically said... to those that have seen it... WOULD putting in "To Be Free" for Jasmine be enough to balance her out? Or is her character so messed up it would take more then that at this point to save her?

I do hope they're able to fix the show before opening on Broadway. I grew up in the Disney Renaissance with Aladdin and all its contemporaries, so it makes me incredibly sad to think that this show will be disappointing.

They've got a lot of work to do before Feb. and I'm sure they won't do it. Sounds like they need to restructure, re-design, re-cast, re-choreograph, etc.

I don't think Disney so much cares for the reviews, they just want it to be a hit, and I think it will sell well in NYC at least for the first couple years. People will go because of the Disney brand.

Mary Poppins was great, but even that show, I didn't feel like Mary Poppins had much to do. Maybe it was the actress I saw, but I felt like she was always in the background. But it was a gorgeous show.

And Peter/Starcatcher was a success by its measure, if we want to count that. Though Disney Theatricals played down its involvement so that it would be perceived as more legit/artsy/independent.

Aladdin just got a rave and compares it to TLK.
Theatre review: Forget the Lion, this Aladdin is king of the stage

It sounds like what they have a California Adventure is a hell of a lot better than what they are going to be bringing through the Lincoln tunnel in a couple months. Disney has just really taken a turn to all style and no substance, and it's not working.
Mary Poppins, Aida, and Beauty and the Beast are the only Disney on Broadway shows I enjoyed. Lion King, Tarzan, and Little Mermaid are all clunkers of epic proportions IMO.

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bwaypheak, what about newsies?

^There are a lot of reasons why they can't just put the movie on stage. The reviewers would almost certainly criticize the show more if they just gave the cast the movie screenplay and staged that. I think they took on too much by trying to combine elements of what the film became with the original road show concept in addition to additional elements for the stage adaptation. They're trying to combine three different concepts and make it cohesive and that would be a challenge for even the most seasoned book writer.

Just got back to the states from Toronto where I caught the matinee of Aladdin. I purposely stayed completely away from these message boards and didn't read one official review. Aladdin is one of my favorite Disney movies of all time and I have always loved the character because he is one of the only Disney characters I looked like as a kid. I went up to Toronto just to see this production and had excellent seats second row center mezzanine. I could not have been any more disappointed, really a let down. I've previously seen just about all of Disney's theatre pieces in NYC and this just didn't do it for me.

I'll start with a positive, the costumes are STUNNING. The colors are beautiful and bright and they really feel like a Disney film right in front of your eyes. The set is also pretty beautiful for the most part, but there are some pieces that look extremely cheap and tacky. I did not like "A Whole New World" at all, they are sitting on this weird carpet that has lights IN it so they look like they're on a space ship. Then out come some weird LED stars that looked like a cheap movie scene, then people holding lights on sticks like from Mary Poppins come out and dance around, THEN people holding rainbow planets come out and they dance too. The vocals over all were fantastic, Alan Menken is just a genius and MOST of the score is really catchy, except for that cheap Disney medley during "Friend Like Me." Genie sings Part of Your World, Go The Distance, Under The Sea, Colors of the Wind, and another piece during "Friend Like Me." It was random and just seemed like a poorly played gimmick for the tourists.

For the actors, Adam Jacobs as Aladdin is really wonderful. Great vocals, wonderful mannerisms, and I think he has the perfect charm for the character. Courtney Reed is not the best, but because she was so wonderful in In The Heights I'm guessing it was just the jumbled book that makes her look bad. As a poster before said, "Call Me A Princess" is not the best first impression of a such a "strong female character." The rest of the principles are pretty great as well. I really don't know how I feel about the 3 friends, they just seemed fake to me. Like they were just thrown in to make sure the audience knew what was going on, we're not that stupid...

I would not pay $130 to see this version again. I much prefer the theme park version, having caught that live several times. I seriously hope they re-work this before NYC.