[Broadway Friday] Aladdin
Show: Aladdin
Type: Broadway Musical
This week on Broadway Friday, the spotlight hits Aladdin!
For those of you that have grown up with all the Disney classics, you should be able to recall a riff raff. A street rat. A no good thief at that. And if all those name callings from the palace guards in Aggraba sound familiar to you, well, you should know that it is none other than your very ol’ pal Aladdin!
Aladdin is a young man who grew up on the streets with no parents, and went around stealing food to survive. Because, as he says in one of the classical music in Aladdin ‘One Jump Ahead’, he has “[g]otta eat to live, gotta steal to eat, otherwise [they]’d get along”.
In the Broadway musical version, it has been modified, but the modification made from movie to Broadway isn’t as bad as Matilda. And believe me when I say that Matilda’s been a completely butchered story on Broadway compared to Aladdin! But this isn’t about the young girl with telekinesis, but about a street rat thief Aladdin.
The few modifications includes Iago, who is a parrot in the movie but has been turned into a human for the purpose of the Broadway production. And, of course, Abu, a monkey sidekick in the movie but never appears in the Broadway production. Instead, in the Broadway, Abu has been replaced with three young men that are said to be Aladdin’s oldest childhood friends, Omar, Babkak, and Kassim. Of course, it’s not your typical Broadway characters all in there, and sorry to say like how those two animals weren’t included, Jasmine’s pet tiger isn’t included either. Instead, her beloved pet has been replaced with two of her female attendants.
There are, however, other classical music that can be recognized, including ‘One Jump Ahead’ and a song that was once sung by our beloved deceased Robin Williams, ‘A Friend Like Me’. Even though with all the modifications, some things have been changed as well, such as Jafar’s attempt at killing Aladdin by trying to drown him in the movie version, it’s still to say the least one of the best productions I have seen yet. And take it from someone who is BIG on Broadway, that’s a good thing! And I’m a stickler for the originals and don’t like remakes. But let me tell you – Aladdin was probably one of the best remakes for Broadway show to ever have been made!
Of course, girls will love the show simply because it’s a Disney princess movie with princess Jasmine, but the boys will love it just as much because, well, what can I say? The main character is a male! What’s more? The fighting choreographies are AMAZING! The flying carpet scene for ‘A Whole New World’ will be sure to take you way back to the days when the good movie had first come out, but the fighting choreographies are something that you do NOT want to miss!
I could rave about this show on and on, but why tell you just why I loved it when you can go enjoy it yourself as well? Aladdin holds lottery for either 1 or 2 tickets, $30 per ticket for the winners, and the lottery starts 2 hours before the performance. Meaning get there 2 hours before the show and enter your name, and half an hour later (aka – 1 and ½ hours before the curtain), names of the winners will be drawn!
The Aladdin show is located on 214 West 42nd Street between 8th and 7th Avenues. Go catch a performance before it’s too late!
