Monday, May 28, 2018

Thank you for your service.

Memorial Day Greetings!





Saturday, May 05, 2018

Aladdin the Musical





"Very Campy but loads of fun!"  "Fabulous and a feast to the senses." 

Those were what I text my friend when she asked how the show was.  Indeed it was just a fun fun fun show.  The genie was hilarious.  The dancing was spectacular and the costumes were vibrantly scintillating.

There were a few pragmatic changes they did on the stage musical.  For one, instead of a parrot side kick for Jafar, they had a portly short guy.  And instead of Abu the monkey, Aladdin had 3 friends.  Of course they added more songs but the beloved songs from the Animation were there and were an absolute crowd pleaser.

We had the understudy Clinton Greenspan for Aladdin and he was very good.  I have no complaints at all.  It was as if he was playing the role since Broadway.  I did not care much for the Princess Jasmine actress Isabella McCalla.  There was something about her singing that did not really resonate with me.  It was not that she was out of tune or did not hit the notes...  I dunno...  Michael James Scott as the Genie was just hysterical.  He almost was "gay" funny.  His jokes had some pop culture reference like the Black Panther Wakanda salute.  Jonathan Weir as Jafar was just a lovable villain.  You know he is a villain but somehow you can't just hate him. 

I have one minor misgiving about the show.  I would have like to see a more spectacular theater production for the "A Whole New World" number.  Yeah it was nice to see Jasmin and Aladdin swinging back and forth while riding the "magic carpet" but I wished they had done a more eye catching trick. 

I would definitely watch his again if given the opportunity. Even more so since I missed about 2 minutes of the production number of "Friend Like Me" because my bladder just needed some release.  I give it a 4.5 stars out of 5.