One of the world's most dazzling musicals will sweep into Auckland next summer.
One of the world's most dazzling musicals will sweep into Auckland next summer.
Disney's Aladdin opens at the Civic Theatre on January 3, 2019, the first Disney Theatrical Productions show to tour here since Mary Poppins in 2012.
Based on the 1992 movie Aladdin, it opened on Broadway in 2014 and has since grown to include productions in Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and a touring North American company. We'll see the Australian production that transfers from Adelaide and has been touted as a must-see and "the most extraordinary spectacle in musical theatre history".
It will bring home much-loved actor George Henare, who has been with the Australian production since it opened in 2016.
Given the numbers, it will certainly be one of the biggest productions to play here:
• 337 costumes including 161 pairs of custom-made shoes, 280 pairs of harem pants, more than 180 turbans and Fez hats, 120 cummerbunds and 90 hand-knotted wigs
• The costumes use 1225 different fabrics, 712 different styles of bead and more than 500,000 Swarovski crystals
• A single pair of men's pants in the finale of Friend Like Me features 1428 Swarovski crystals
• The show has more than 700 props. The smallest is a ring and the largest is the "Flat bed cart", which Aladdin jumps on from a building in the number One Jump
• The show has more than 40 tonnes of exotic flying scenery and 60 tonnes of automation and staging; 107 chain motors in the grid support, lift and hold the scenery
Be prepared to be dazzled by Disney's Aladdin when it arrives in Auckland in January.
What's the show like?
In a word (or two), jaw-dropping.
I saw the show in Sydney early in 2017 and sat next to a couple of motor-racing enthusiasts from Bathurst, New South Wales, where lead actor Ainsley Melham comes from. Melham's mum is a hairdresser in Bathurst and he has been doing musical theatre since he could walk so they were keen to see, and report back, on how the hometown hero was doing as Aladdin.
Not surprisingly, given the spit and polish — not to mention the money and time invested — in a show of this scale, Melham and the rest of the cast were doing just great. I expect it will be the same in Auckland and there couldn't be a more perfect venue than the Civic Theatre.
Aladdin was funnier than I expected; Disney isn't known for being self-deprecating but there are moments here when they poke fun, ever so gently, at the whole perfect princess (and prince) genre and I enjoyed the candour.
The costumes are as glittery as they sound; the set is extravagant and the songs are catchy. There's one scene — no spoilers here — which was so lavishly over-the-top the whole audience took a sharp intake of breath.
Actually, there were a couple of those moments, especially when Aladdin escapes various pursuers by ducking, diving, jumping and generally treating the stage like a parkour playground, and then there are the flying carpets. If it wasn't so perfectly timed, someone could do themselves a nasty injury.
