Review: Young Audiences Enjoy a Magic Carpet Ride With ALADDIN at Maine State Music Theatre

Maine State Music Theatre chose to revive one of its most popular titles, Robin and Clark’s ALADDIN as the opener of its Family Series 2025. Last presented in 2016, this new production illustrates how much the Theatre for Young Audiences Series has grown in artistic merit and in audience appeal over the last decade, especially with the  new video wall technology that allows for sumptuous visual productions and the ever-amazing talent of the MSMT Singers, to whom is entrusted the casting for these shows.

Robin and Clark’s musical version of ALADDIN remains fresh, funny, and remarkably contemporary, given that it was written decades ago. The score i with its determined heroine and outspoken Genie. As always, the writers know how to engage the audience and draw the youngsters into the production, making them feel that the magic on stage is something in which they can share.

Directed and choreographed by Raymond Marc Dumont, the staging is kinetic and strikes just the right balance between sweetly romantic and drolly amusing. The musical staging is lively and conveys the sense of adventure with acrobatics, choreographed fights, and lyrical dance moments to tie together the narrative. The magic carpet ride, set against rushing video images, gives a visceral sense of the fantastical.

Music Director Jacob Stebly at the keyboards does justice to the score and inspires the cast to give their vocal best.

Betsy Puelle’s set conjures up the lure of far-away exotic places. Luis Garcia’s masterful projections transport the viewer to a variety of spectacular locales from the opulent palace to Malaki’s dark den to the cave and tower, and his sweeping video transitions add dazzling continuity to the cinematic flow. Flo Cooley ‘s costumes are crafted from rich fabrics and luxuriant color. Mary Lana Rice’s lighting design, together with John Russell‘s sound design, handle with aplomb all the special effects, while Stage Manager, Megan Franco adeptly helms the  production.

The MSMT Singers wholeheartedly embrace their characters and  task of engaging a young audience. As an ensemble, they demonstrate not only their triple threat skills, but also how select a group of artists they truly are.

Matthew Irani portrays Aladdin with the winsome boyish charm and a honeyed sweet tenor that make him an ideal fairytale hero, and he does lyric just ice to his opening solo and to “Magic Carpet Rise.”. As princess Zenovia, Greta Cardoza brings to the role a fierce determination beneath an exterior of feminine grace and charm, and she uses her lovely lyric soprano to fine effect in “Somewhere, Somehow.” Payton Hines’s Genie is a fireball of pent up energy - a kind of Wonder Woman who propels the plot and freely voices her unfiltered thoughts. Her solo, “Praise Allah,” belted with soulful abandon, is a highlight of the show. Sabina Martin makes an endearing Cashew - affectionate and loyal, while Dylan Stukenberg plays the evil counselor Malaki with utter smarminess and proves to be a delightful villain in his rock star riff on  “Bad, Bad, Bad.”

Todd Turner makes the Sultan Karim a well-meaning but befuddled misogynist father, while Rachel Alvarez-Robinson is a lithe, seductive Scheherazade, and she together with Stukenberg provide some lovely lyrical, dance moments that help advance the storyline. Brian Fortunato makes the most of a quartet of roles, incljuding a geeky Priunce Vanity.

Rounding out the cast are Keating Babcock and Garrett Lynn.

Robin and Clark‘s ALADDIN is about the power of imagination to make dreams come true. MSMT‘s TYA series is a manifestation of that kind of vision and the realization of those dreams. In the last thirteen years, these offerings have transformed themselves from touring children’s plays into a full-fledged subscription series that is produced with the same artistic values as any main stage show, as well as one that showcases young professional talent. And for MSMT, their happy ending is the satisfaction of knowing how much the delight and creative fulfillment ALADDIN and these family musicals bring to thousands of children.

Photographs, courtesy of Maine State Music Theatre, Duncan Persons, photographer

ALADDIN ran for four performances at Maine State Music Theatre’s Pickard Theater on the Bowden College campus, 1 Bath Rd., Brunswick, ME www.msmt.org 207-725-8769