Aladdin Central Messageboard

[AladdinsGenie]

If you missed the Aladdin musical the first time, you have another chance next year!

IVINS - The Southern Utah desert will be transformed into an Arabian oasis when Tuacahn presents the stage musical adaptation of the Disney film "Aladdin" as part of the outdoor venue's 2012 season.

"Aladdin" will be performed in repertory with the Broadway musicals "Hairspray" (summer) and "Legally Blonde" (fall). The announcement comes as Tuacahn is experiencing its most successful season to date, featuring Disney's "The Little Mermaid" and the nostalgic musical "Grease."

Based on the acclaimed 1992 Disney film, "Aladdin" will be performed each Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening, June 1 - Oct. 18. Tickets are now available at the Tuacahn box office, by calling 652-3300 or online at www.tuacahn.org.

The music for "Aladdin" is written by eight-time Academy Award winning composer Alan Menken ("Tangled," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid"); lyrics are by the late Howard Ashman ("Beauty and the Beast," "The Little Mermaid"), Tim Rice ("The Lion King," "Jesus Christ Superstar") and Chad Beguelin ("The Wedding Singer"), who also crafted the new book for the show.

Variety hailed the new full-length stage version of "Aladdin" as "fresh, funny and very entertaining."

This new stage adaptation premiered at Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre in July 2011 and incorporates all of the beloved songs from the film's Oscar-winning score plus never-before heard Menken/Ashman songs restored from early drafts of the score. It marks a return to the authors' original vision: a loving homage to the Hope-Crosby road pictures with a score invoking the jazz sound of stars like Cab Calloway and Fats Waller.

Tuacahn will be one of two theaters in the nation to present the show next year.

The biggest question now is: how much of the original Seattle cast will be returning? WILL they be returning? Can we please for the love of baklava get a CD?! I guess only time will tell.

[Princess of Agrabah]

...Yeah that's even worse for me If I even asked my parents would be like, "Utah? Why? o.O" "ALADDIN! Again!" I wanna know what other theater's doing it and when. ...Please somewhere on the east coast that I can actually fly/drive to?

I'd like to know that too. At least they didn't completely scrap it though, that would have been horrible.
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[lisa jane]

How exciting! Sucks either way for me no matter where it is in the US

Though husband seems interested in flying over if Jonathan Freeman does either production.

[Chris]

Just booked my tickets!

Managed to convince myself (and Jane) that we could afford to go after last year's honeymoon (but no holiday next year!) Going for 1 week in June and it can't come soon enough!! Booked a back stage tour as well, so hopefully we'll see some of the behind the scenes stuff before the show!

In the end there was no real choice between this and The Muny production - we got flights, car hire and hotel in Utah for the same price flights to St Louis would have cost us.

[Chris]

Tuacahn have updated their blog with some behind the scenes pictures (not much but it's a good start!)


http://www.tuacahn.org/blog/?p=229

They're calling it a lavish, large scale production. Sounds pretty promising!

[AladdinsGenie]

and special effects which will include water screen animations

I wonder if that's going to be the Cave of Wonders now. The entrance was a projection on the carpet curtain in the Seattle show, so maybe they've made it a water screen he goes through. I hope so. That was one of the weaker parts.

[AladdinsGenie]

Dan Domenech, Haley Carlucci and Edward Juvier will take a magic carpet ride in the Tuacahn Amphitheatre production of Disney's Aladdin this summer.

Domenech (Rock of Ages) will take on the title role, with Carlucci (West Side Story) as Princess Jasmine and Juvier (Les Miserables) as the Genie.

The principal cast will also include Michael G. Hawkins (Peter Pan) as Jafar, Jeff Asch as Iago, Paul Vogt (The Little Mermaid) as Babkak, Randy Aaron as Omar, Todd Dubail (Tarzan) as Kassim and Bob Walton as Sultan.

Complete casting and creative duties will be announced shortly.

[AladdinsGenie]

Teaser video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCITa_mqQVs

I'm...not sure who's singing. I'm really confused. That's not the melody they use for AWNW in the musical (it was more twinkly and pretty ), but I don't recognize the voices on the recording. They said they didn't record the Seattle cast and that's not from Spotlight Night (I'm pretty sure that's not Adam and Courtney anyway), so is this Dan Domenech and Haley Carlucci singing on a standard version of the song? Are they recording this cast? Am I over-thinking this?

[AladdinsGenie]

Utah, May 6, 2012 – Dan Domenech (Rock of Ages, Wonderland) and Tony Award-winning actress and Disney Legend Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, Les Miserables) sang “A Whole New World,” Disney’s Aladdin’s theme, at the latter’s live concert recently held at the Tuacahn Ampitheatre, an outdoor performance space nestled in a verdant valley, and surrounded by towering red rock cliffs.

[Chris]

I am so far behind with this! Just finishing my first in depth blog post on the cast (just Dan and Haley for this one as I'm going out in 15 minutes, gonna try and get Genie, Jafar and Iago done tonight as well). It's really hard trying to find their history if they don't have their own site as most places only list Broadway work which is just crazy!

Nice find on the video! I'm pretty sure it's Dan and Haley as it doesn't sound like Adam or Courtney and it's not the film soundtrack.

[AladdinsGenie]

Yeah, that's why I just posted names. I thought some of the Seattle cast was hard to find pictures for last year - ha!

I wonder if they recorded it for the commercial, then? It's killing me there's recordings of this stuff and they won't release it. We just have to keep pushing it towards Broadway.

omg real camels! That makes me wonder how they changed the intro to Arabian Nights with Babkak, Omar, and Kassim, then, because them using fake camels was a joke in the Seattle show.

[Chris]

Managed to post Genie, Jafar and Iago last night. Like you said, getting good pictures for some is a nightmare. I ended up using a promo shot from Guys and Dolls for Jeff Asch (Iago) so I really need to find a better picture. That's part of the reason I had to split the post into 3, it's taking a lot longer to research than the Seattle cast did.

Judging from Twitter the commercial was shot after the YouTube video was released. Looking at Tuacahn's Facebook page the cast for both Aladdin and Hairspray arrived 17th April, so I guess one of the first things they did was record those short promos for the YouTube video.

I know what you mean. It just seems crazy that Disney likely have a full recording of Seattle which includes Jonathan Freeman and they're not releasing it. In a way it gives me some hope that maybe they do have at least some intention of a Broadway run, otherwise why not release it? Even if it's not perfect quality just call it a live recording, people would understand. And the audio quality on the short clip of A Million Miles Away was fine!! I'm still amazed at how few leaks there were. The entire audio of Mermaid was on YouTube not long after opening night. For Aladdin there was practically nothing leaked.

I know, I still can't get over them using real camels! Just based on everything so far I think this may have a slightly bigger budget than Seattle did, but that makes sense as it's running for a lot longer. I guess they'll just cut the fake camel joke. I wonder how much of the trio's (and Genie's) 4th wall breaking is actually scripted and how much is left up to the cast and creatives of each production?

[AladdinsGenie]

I hope someone puts the commercial online. I'm not sure how many videos we're going to get this time around or if recordings are going to be allowed.

I would adore a live recording simply because one doesn't exist for Aladdin in any form. The soundtrack for the DCA show is recorded, so a live album would be a treat to have. I'll take an extract from the recording of the Seattle show ANY day.

I'm surprised mostly because the sets were really nice for the Seattle show, and there was a lot of emphasis on how they didn't want it to be that big in the first place. I guess Disney wanted that changed. The only thing I would have changed is the entrance to the Cave of Wonders, which they seem to have addressed with the water curtain (!!!!). I'm worried about what live animals will do as they tend to be unpredictable

I'm wondering how much of the 4th wall element they took out because I remember that was something critics were split on. The usage of real animals and bigger sets as opposed to them using fake camels and pointing out the fakeness of the set might be their way of eliminating that with the nerd crew and letting Genie handle that.

[Chris]

Finally finished the last part of the cast for the blog. It looks like a great cast, I really can't wait to see what they do with the show.

I'm pretty sure Tuacahn will put the commercial on YouTube or their Facebook page like 5th Avenue did. But any videos of the show (unless it's a sizzle reel) will be like most show clips online - completely unofficial and against the rules and likely to be taken down. But when there's no plans for Broadway or a CD I can't blame people for wanting to preserve a recording of the music. On Twitter Alan Menken has said he's really pushing for a cast recording for Leap of Faith. I really hope he's also pushing for Aladdin!

I agree, a live recording would be a nice change. A lot of touring productions or one off events (the recent 25th productions of Les Mis and Phantom among them) use live recordings rather than studio recordings. I'm guessing it's because it's a lot cheaper. I'm pretty certain his wasn't done in Seattle, even for archives, but I'm betting a video recording was done (it was done to sell the show to regional/amateur groups, they must have recorded something to show them!) whilst the audio won't be as sharp as a true live recording straight from the mikes would be, it would certainly be good enough for a lot of people (me included). Realistically though the only way something like that would be released is if they didn't go to Broadway and do a proper cast recording AND Disney decided to release another set like Music Behind the Magic (which would be AMAZING, think how much Menken has done since then!)

I can't really comment on the Seattle sets based on the few images and videos released, but we know Disney wanted it cheaper because they wanted something that could be licensed out (plus they'd just been burnt by the high costs of Mermaid). I'm guessing any changes like bigger budget and live camels come under Tuacahn's use of "creative license" based on the reviews from Seattle and what their own strengths are (reading reviews of Tarzan and Mermaid they're known to use fantastic water effects). Plus being outdoors in the desert probably means some changes have to be made but it also means they can bring in the camels

I wouldn't be surprised if they tone it down a little but at the same time the trio are also the narrators so they have to break the 4th wall. I would say I'll let you know next month, but it's a little hard for me to compare

[Chris]

Away at the moment so can't update the blog, Tuacahn's twitter have just posted a link to a behind the scenes interview. Check it out, their twitter is @tuacahn