Aladdin Stage Production comes to Auckland

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Aladdin is one of the best shows I’ve ever been to.

Hands down, you guys. Absolutely incredible. Aladdin has been showing at the The Civic here in Auckland for the last month or so, and when we bought tickets back in about October or November, I don’t think we quite knew it was going to be as epic as it was. Of course we knew it would be good – it’s Aladdin, it’s Disney, it’s the Broadway show – but was I expecting fireworks, costumes decorated with 500,000 Swarovski crystals, a genie who would make Robin Williams proud, and a magic carpet that no-one knows how it flies? No, no I wasn’t.

But we got all of that and so much more. The story of Broadway Aladdin is basically the same as the Disney movie, however there are some tweaks they’ve made. Iago isn’t a parrot, for one, but rather a small parrot-like man who is a hilarious minion to Jafar (who never turns into a giant snake like the movie, but does turn from Jafar, to Sultan, to a genie in the most epic on-stage costume change I think I’ve ever seen) who can evil-laugh with the best of them. There’s also no Abu (although he makes an appearance on a poster at one point) and there’s no Rajah the tiger (for obvious reasons). Both Abu and Rajah are replaced by a trio of friends for both Aladdin and Jasmine, and while the girls were a bit ho-hum, Aladdin’s guy friends, Babkak, Omar, and Kassim were pure delights.

The music was a mix of songs from the movie and some new ones, and it’s definitely one of those soundtracks I could get on board with. Lively and catchy, with those songs we already know and love from 1996 thrown into the mix. Check out the Spotify album if you’re interested.

Genie was definitely a highlight; played by Michael James Scott, he was this bubbly combination of Robin William’s version of the genie, Oprah, and a sass queen who stole the show. One of my favourite things about Genie’s dialogue was how many references there were to other Disney movies throughout (and to other pop-culture and music references, such as Christina Aguilera’s ‘Genie in a Bottle’ song from the 90s, a reference I then had to explain to my 16-year-old sister), and I lost it when a Mulan reference was subtly thrown in.

While the show has finished up in Auckland now, it’s one of these productions that’s going to be around for a long time. If it ever comes to a city near you, I highly recommend heading long. The costumes were incredible, the set was breath-taking, the music, the dance, the characters … it was a remarkable show, and you need to see it.

Did you manage to catch it while it was in Auckland? Have you seen it elsewhere?