Alan Menken confirms "Aladdin" musical is in the works! — Page 2

They altered The Little Mermaid on stage. I'm pretty sure that the Vanessa subplot in the film was very important and that was completely scratched for some contest that came out of no where. Also, in the film, they made a very big point that Ariel couldn't speak (or sing) after giving her voice... And she definitely has more songs as a mute than she has "with" her voice on stage.

In the article, if you read it, he says that he's going back to what he and Ashman had intended for the piece. Ashman was never in the picture with Jasmine as we know her, a monkey friend, no mother, and only one genie. Those script changes came from Disney after his death which is why Menken tried to do lyrics himself at first and ultimately needed Rice to come in and help because THAT much material needed to be scrapped due to the changes in story line.

The only things salvageable of Ashman's are the Arabian Nights reprises that narrate the story ala Facade in Jekyll. Now... those have been added back into MTI's version, so maybe that's all we get. Even "Proud Of Your Boy" doesn't work without an actual mother character... and the One Jump Ahead reprise serves the exact same purpose without need for a parent.

As long as Aladdin is hot, I will be there!

How about Wayne Brady for Genie?

Also, as exciting as this is, as long as they release a cast recording so I can FINALLY get all those amazing cut songs with full orchestrations instead of demos I'll be happy (even though I adore the demos - off to listen to Disc 4 of Music Behind the Magic again!)

I've been waiting for them to do something with these songs since I was 12 -- SOOO EXCITED for this! :)

Ehh. If they're not going the ethnic route I vote Matt Doyle for Aladdin.

"There is so much they can do with make-up for Aladdin, just finding a dark hair'd athletic guy with good vocals is the key."

Let's not go down that road. If they do go with a non-ethnic actor I hope they just own it and let it be what it is. As somebody else stated, my biggest fear if they go that way is an orange Aladdin.

However, I wouldn't mind seeing Adam Jacobs as Aladdin.

"but could we PLEASE get Hercules on stage?!?"

Oh lord. They'd have to hold a cage brawl between Spencer Liff and Nick Adams to determine who gets to play Hercules!

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"All those elephants at once can quite unnerve one" is possibly my favorite Ashman lyric for some reason (although it's hard to pick a favorite - there are too many good ones! But I always thought it was a shame they didn't use that verse of the song, so I hope they manage to work it in!

They won't be using any of the production team from the DCA Aladdin for the same reason they didn't use the production team from the Animal Kingdom's Tarzan for Tarzan on Broadway, it's a theme park show. A very good theme park show, but a theme park show.

Ricky Gervais for the Genie.

Didn't that effect sort of rely on the fact that whatever mechanism was lifting the carpet was out of view of the camera? They can't really do that on Broadway.

Aladdin!

Updated On: 11/17/10 at 11:33 PM

I third Hercules the Broadway Musical, and I'm sorry (not trying to be mean) but I don't think Charice is pretty enough to play the role of Jasmine. I do however think she could bring the house down with her vocals though.

Greg, is that what actually happened in the production situation, or was it part of the plot? Either way, it would be epic to include as a framework in the final version.

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