Fil-Am Adam Jacobs performing in Aladdin. (Photo by Deen van Meer) Special to the Filipino Reporter The magic of Aladdin is the lantern and the flying carpet. 1/6
We were granted wishes at Disney s Tony Award winning hit musical and were swept away on a flying carpet in the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York City! Our best wish is that there are many more Filipino-American actors performing on Broadway! Have we been rubbing the magic lamp for a while now? Mabuhay! Fil-Am artist Adam Jacobs plays the title role of the poor young man who discovers a genie in a magic lantern. James Monroe Iglehart, who won the Tony for his performance as the Genie of the Lamp, gives Aladdin the powers to woo Princess Jasmine (Courtney Reed) he loves. Families love this musical! It was brightly entertaining! It was brilliant Broadway! It was glittering magic! How can you resist this musical? 2/6
We ve got this muy guapo poor boy charming the heart of the precious princess. The princess is almost a modern woman fighting age old customs of ritual & regal marriage arrangements, insisting on choice. Arabian Nights Men. (Photo by Deen van Meer) 3/6
Most enjoyable are the song and dance numbers. Performers are lively and light on their feet. The songs shine like the glittering sequins. Truly an Arabian Night at the New Amsterdam Theatre. This writer remembers the story of Aladdin from the One Thousand and One Nights, the Arabian Nights book of collection of stories and folk tales of the Middle East and South Asia. It was amusing and delightful to catch the 1992 Disney animated film featuring the voices of Scott Weinger as Aladdin, Robin Williams the Genie, and Linda Larkin Princess Jasmine, among others. It was absolutely brilliant to see the characters come to life in person on Broadway. We get to appreciate not only Aladdin, Jasmine and Genie dazzle on Broadway but also the colorful folk who complete this wonderful tale. It was almost a secret delight to relish the evil machinations of Jafar (Jonathan Freeman) and his sleazy sidekick Iago (Don Darryl Rivera the best of Pinoy sleaze)! Tony Award nominee Jonathan Freeman brings Jafar to the stage the role he indelibly created in the animated film. 4/6
The show also stars Steel Burkhardt, Brian Gonzales and Brad Weinstock as Aladdin s sidekicks Kassim, Babkak and Omar, Clifton Davis as Sultan and Don Darryl Rivera as Iago. Major Attaway and James Moye stand by for several principals. In a cast of 36, Aladdin also features Kathryn Allison, Tia Altinay, Giuseppe Bausilio, Sam J. Cahn, Mike Cannon, Andrew Cao, Lauryn Ciardullo, Joshua Dela Cruz, Yurel Echezarreta, Tiffany Evariste, Daisy Hobbs, Rodney Ingram, Donald Jones, Jr., Nathan Lucrezio, Stanley Martin, Michael Mindlin, Amber Owens, Khori Michelle Petinaud, Jennifer Rias, Trent Saunders, Jaz Sealey, Angelo Soriano, Dennis Stowe, Kathryn Terza and Travis Ward-Osborne. Granted wishes aside how was the magic of this flying carpet ride? There are those who say that the wonderful weave of the flying carpet Director Chad Beguelin and Choreographer Casey Nicholaw is less than the magnificent magical tapestry of the 1992 Disney film. For this writer, the threaded drive was an exuberant celebration of one of the most endearing tales. Indeed this journey will bring to the audience the fanfare and fabulous, glitz and glamour the magic of Broadway! Tickets are available for purchase through AladdinTheMusical.com, by calling Ticketmaster s Disney on Broadway hotline at 866-870-2717, or in person at the New Amsterdam Theatre box office (214 West 42nd Street). For more information on Aladdin, visit AladdinTheMusical.com. 5/6
Connect with Aladdin on Facebook.com/Aladdin and Twitter.com/Aladdin. James Monroe Iglehart, Adam Jacobs and company. (Photo by Deen van Meer) 6/6