Aladdin Previews- Page 7

[ak72090]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 1:28pm

lets make sure this thread doesnt die. anybody else go to the re-worked previews?

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 7:02pm

I saw this today. Happy to answer specific questions if people are curious about any changes, etc.

Well, I love Disney, I love the film, and I absolutely adore Howard Ashman. I dearly wish he was around to shepherd these films to the stage and write the books. As it is, the creative team has an enormous amount of work to do if they don't want another Little Mermaid on their hands.

First, the good:

The costumes are BEAUTIFUL. Frankly, they define character and provide spectacle more than any other element of the show. The carpet looks cool. Some of the choreography is charming, "Friend Like Me" is a great, big, show-stopping number. It was really fun to see Jonathan Freeman as Jafar live--he's a true character actor. It was a treat to hear some new Ashman lyrics for the first time, especially "High Adventure." And it's always nice to see the New Amsterdam.

The rest:

I honestly find it kind of astonishing that the material is in this shape after two out-of-town runs. The book is ATROCIOUS. There are no stakes. This is easily the worst book of a major musical since Spider-Man. Seriously, the jokes are on par with the Green Goblin navigating through a phone menu. Consistently groan-inducing from beginning to end. Not even the kids were laughing when the Genie wasn't chewing the scenery. The movie was schticky and filled with slapstick, but it was genuinely clever. If I were at Disney, I'd beg Rick Elice to come in and work a little Starcatcher magic on this dusty, dragging panto script. He is capable of the kind of anachronistic one-liners this show fails at over and over. I understand the desire to add a lot of material to pad the length and justify the ticket prices, but boy, the pacing was just deathly slow for what is meant to be something of a romp. The new ballads were especially pointless. Juxtaposed against sharp Howard Ashman lyrics, and even Tim Rice's efforts, some of these were just embarrassing.

Very little attempt is made at defining characters or giving them sincere moments. The lead characters are hopelessly generic, though part of this has to do with unfortunate casting. Adam Jacobs is fine, but he's a bland hunky Musical Theatre BFA type. Why are we so deathly afraid of characters now? Why does a starving orphan who steals for a living have to be portrayed as an utterly benign, well-waxed, personality-free gym rat with a whole lot of vibrato? His performance of "Proud of Your Boy" (which is here rushed through as if to say "We know, you didn't come to hear about this character's motivation") has no pathos. And I love that song. Enough has been said about Courtney Reed's performance, and I don't want to be vitriolic.

The Genie's understudy, Michael James Scott, was on. He gave a spirited performance. The character basically has to carry the entire show, and the audience was clearly relieved whenever he was on. But I did find myself realizing how much of the character's success in the film had specifically to do with the visual aspects. Eric Goldberg's animated shape-shifting is obviously impossible here, but I think they would do well to give the Genie more of those character-bending moments. Most of the humor involving him here borders on minstrelsy, but it gets appreciative laughs.

The design has some nice moments, but it ultimately feels shockingly flat for a big Disney musical. There were no levels...there was no opportunity for interesting spacial relationships or movement. Just a lot of standing around on the stage level. I kind of felt like I was watching a second national tour with the unwieldy set pieces streamlined. There's no real unifying style or feel or concept, which makes the lack of "wow!" moments far worse. The film had that really loose, fun, Hirschfeld-esque look. I wish there was some sense of fun to the design here. Also, nearly the entire show was over-lit. From the first moment, there's no sense of mystery or enchantment or magic, like in the film. It's just bright and garish. The flying carpet sequence looked fairly lovely, though the performance of the song was extremely weak. The carpet got big applause.

Lastly, the finale of the show. What. The. Hell. I sat through all of that, and quite literally NOTHING happens? To be fair, Jafar's intentions are always a little unclear. He's a sneering cartoon beard-twirler who just wants more power. But the most evil thing he does in the entire show is change his clothes real fast a few times. Come on! You KNOW the audience is expecting at least a little spectacle, or ANY sense of conflict. The third act of Aladdin is one of the most memorable of the entire Disney canon. The freaking theme park show was able to pull off some of those elements.

Actually, the theme park show was generally a much better adaptation of the film...and a lot more fun. And it was free with admission. There is also a Team Starkid riff on Aladdin called Twisted, which gives Jafar the Wicked treatment--check it out on YouTube if you haven't seen it. It's extremely clever and even a little poignant. Both these shows surpass what is playing at the New Amsterdam in its current form.

I really hope they take full advantage of the preview period, but I have a hard time imagining that I'd spend another $115 on this show unless there was a massive overhaul. It should have been a home run for me, and it just made me miss Mary Poppins.

We miss your wit and heart and storytelling smarts, Howard Ashman.













Updated On: 3/3/14 at 07:02 PM

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 8:00pm

One last thing. Incessantly referencing everything that ISN'T in the show that people liked about the movie? Not a smart move.

Posted: 3/2/14 at 9:38pm

I'm seeing the show on March 18th, I'm hoping by then it'll be "opening night ready" and the show will be frozen by that time. I'm very excited.

[finebydesign]

Posted: 3/2/14 at 11:57pm

So VERY funny you mention Rick Elice he is the one who wrote the treatment for Hunchback! Yikes... how did you know he was the guy

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 12:37am

I just thought that Starcatcher had the exact tone a stage version of Aladdin should have...smarmy and jokey and full of pop anachronisms, but sincere and sweet and extremely intelligent. Didn't know he was working on Hunchback. Why yikes? Have you heard poor things about his Hunchback treatment? (I DO think the scaled-down story theatre thing might be wrong for that epic score/story...)

[finebydesign]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 12:04pm

Well Rick's a vary talented and smart guy. I'm not certain if he is working in any capacity on Hunchback any more but they are supposedly using his concept for the show. I haven't heard much more than what I have posted on here.

Disney is just not interested in doing a lumbering Phantom/Beauty style epic out of it. Above all they want to profile the score and the show will be the opposite of what people expect. It's also a huge risk for them to mount a multi-million dollar production of a franchise that is not as popular as an Aladdin or Beauty and the Beast. I'm not sure if it's common knowledge but the original workshop of Hunchback was at the behest of Michael Eisner. It was not a popular project at Disney Theatrical with really anyone. Most of their projects come from the brass or consumer demand and Hunchback went from film to stage in record time. Hunchback has really only had one cheerleader. While Rick Elice was a brain trust there, he put forth this notion of a scaled down show. His ideas weren't exactly inline with what Disney was doing (at that time).

ANYWAY with the success of the LuPone Sweeney revival, Starcatchers, Stephen Schwartz's work on Wicked, Disney has dusted off the concept and is moving forward. That German production may have worked on Broadway in the 80s but times have really changed. Who knows the project may actually gain critical acclaim this route.

[Wildcard]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 1:13pm

"I just thought that Starcatcher had the exact tone a stage version of Aladdin should have...smarmy and jokey and full of pop anachronisms, but sincere and sweet and extremely intelligent."

I was incredibly bored by Starcatcher. I felt that it tried to hard. In terms of wittiness, I'd rather get what The 39 Steps had.

"Disney is just not interested in doing a lumbering Phantom/Beauty style epic out of it."

And yet these two shows are still successfully playing around the world. It may be expensive to produce these types of shows but it doesn't mean it's not what people want. If the show is good, it may be worth the investment.

[jeffsam16]

Posted: 3/3/14 at 4:00pm

I pretty much agree with everything that Scarywarhol said. The show needs A LOT of work before opening night or the critics are going to rip it apart. There are a few one liners that were funny. But I found the 2nd act to be very BLAH. The finale was boring and very unexciting. I was also surprised at the sets. Very nothing - which is surprising for a Disney production.

Updated On: 3/3/14 at 04:00 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 10:59am

The remark re cheering the carpet reminds me of the recent comment made by a reviewer of the movie Pompeii. There it was said people cheered for the volcano

Pass on by folks - nothing happening here

To think they closed Mary Poppins for this.

Updated On: 3/4/14 at 10:59 AM

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 11:04am

"I was incredibly bored by Starcatcher. I felt that it tried to hard. In terms of wittiness, I'd rather get what The 39 Steps had."

Thank you! I walked out of Starcatcher wondering what I missed. Not my type of humor I guess. I am not sure how Hunchback will work with a similar concept and writing.

[RW3]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 11:09am

I thought Disney was is an upswing after the success of Newsies. I guess not. Now, we will just have to wait for Hunchback.

[Scarywarhol]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 11:11am

"To think they closed Mary Poppins for this."

I know that Poppins had its detractors, and I wasn't completely sold on everything (those lousy orchestrations, the removal of some of the best Sherman Brothers songs for inferior replacements...) but it certainly was a far more complete show than this is right now. It made me want to come back, and I did--twice. And it really gave you your money's worth as far as staging went. It's incredible that Aladdin had the same set designer. I get the sense that most of the budget here went to the costumes for...crystals? Especially a pity since there's so much renewed interest in Mary Poppins lately... Updated On: 3/4/14 at 11:11 AM

[brdway411]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 11:56am

SO does anyone know if they are making changes to the show. Or are they sticking with the crappy jokes and ending? If they are smart they will rework this, it really has potential.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 11:59am

The shame is that with crappy reviews it will probably run longer than Bridges will or Big Fish did.

[KirbyCat]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 3:32pm

Anybody know if James Monroe Iglehart is back in tonight?

[EvanK]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 8:31pm

There may or may not be an audio up of "Arabian Nights"... Sounds pretty awesome to me.

[disneybroadwayfan22]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 8:52pm

Care to post the link?

[ACL2006]

Posted: 3/4/14 at 10:37pm

just search it. if it's posted here it'll be taken down.

[GMV]

Posted: 3/5/14 at 10:19am

So what are the changes that they have done? Are the friends still the narrators? I really hope they change the ending cus it was TERRIBLE. Overall I liked it when it was in Toronto and now i'm seeing it on Broadway on may 6

[NewSynchopation]

Posted: 3/5/14 at 10:49am

Wait, Bob Crowley is doing the set for this? Up until last night, I thought he could do no wrong.

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 3/5/14 at 11:16am

'Wait, Bob Crowley is doing the set for this? Up until last night, I thought he could do no wrong.'

Umm, did you see Tarzan?

[Jeffrey Karasarides]

Posted: 3/5/14 at 11:28am

The friends aren't narrators anymore, they trimmed them down a little!

[GMV]

Posted: 3/5/14 at 12:32pm

Do they still sing Arabian Nights over and over again? If not, how did they replace that?

[brdway411]

Posted: 3/5/14 at 12:33pm

no, I posted a song list a few pages back. They do scenes in front of the curtain while they are changing the sets.

Edit. Cat hit enter before I was done typing. Love her but she has to get her paws in to everything.


Updated On: 3/5/14 at 12:33 PM