The first time I went to see this was the very first performance of it at the 5th Avenue. I saw it spontaneously because it looked like nothing was going on for my b-day and they had like two tickets left.
It was fantastic.
So, before I mentioned that I had thought Disney musicals were just live versions of the movie, and that I didn't think that was very creative. Mary Poppins proved me wrong once, but this is the one that brought back my faith in Disney. It's just enough like the movie to make people not angry, but they added so many new characters and songs and amazingness.
There's three, meta-narrator like individuals named Babkak, Omar, and Kassim who are friends with Aladdin. All of their songs are amazing, especially High Adventure which is still kind of stuck in my head three months later. Plus, Kassim, the leader of the group of friends, was played by Brandon O'Neill, further cementing his awesomeness in my mind. And Brian Gonzales and Andrew Keenan-Bolger, who played Babkak and Omar respectively, held their own in comparison. (i.e. they were awesome too)
I know I sound like a surfer dude, but I'm writing this three months later and I'm still stoked about it.
Aside from amazing new music, the set was beautiful and flowed seamlessly from one scene to the next. I had read criticism of the "A Whole New World" set but I found nothing wrong with it. (I'd link to that article but I forgot which one). Costumes were also beautiful but I noticed in the second one that Babkak was wearing Toms which made me super happy :)
This play was designed for local theaters, not Broadway, so if it comes to your area you should definitely see it. See it many times! I wish it was back here so I could see it again.
No comments:
Post a Comment