A Whole New World? Disney's ALADDIN May Be Heading to West End in Early 2016

Aladdin & Jasmine may soon be taking a transatlantic flying carpet ride directly to London's West End. The Daily Mail reports that Disney is currently in talks with executives of the London Palladium theatre to bring the Broadway musical to the West End in early 2016. According to the report, a final deal is on the way.

ALADDIN, starring Adam Jacobs (Aladdin),Courtney Reed (Jasmine), Jonathan Freeman(Jafar) and recent Tony Award winner James Monroe Iglehart (Genie) is currently running on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre.

Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, Aladdin features music by Tony Award and eight-time Oscar winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Sister Act), lyrics by two-time Oscar winner Howard Ashman (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid), three-time Tony Award and three-time Oscar winner Tim Rice (Evita, Aida) and three-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin (The Wedding Singer), with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon). This new production features a full score, including the Oscar and Grammy-winning hit "A Whole New World," and four other cherished songs from the film and multi Grammy-winning original motion picture soundtrack. The cast album also includes four Menken/Beguelin songs written especially for the stage and three Menken/Ashman songs that were cut from the original film, plus exclusive bonus content created especially for the album.

Disney's Aladdin, the Tony Award-winning new musical comedy based on the Academy Award-winning animated film, opened to critical acclaim on March 20th, 2014 at Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre and went on to receive 24 major theatrical award nominations. USA Today raves, "Pure GENIE-US! Aladdin delivers a rush that will surprise you." New York Magazine calls it "Musical comedy wish-fulfillment!" while The New York Times hails the show as "Fabulous... Extravagant!" Huffington Post says Aladdin is "the surprise hit of the season!" and the Daily News declares, "Seriously, it's amazing!"

Aladdin stars Adam Jacobs (Les Miserables, The Lion King) in the title role, Courtney Reed (In the Heights, Mamma Mia) as Jasmine, James Monroe Iglehart (Memphis, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) in his Tony Award-winning role as Genie, and, as Jafar, Tony Award nominee Jonathan Freeman (Mary Poppins, The Producers, She Loves Me) brings to the stage the role he indelibly created in the animated film. The show also stars Brian Gonzales, Brandon O'Neill and Jonathan Schwartz as Aladdin's sidekicks Babkak, Kassim and Omar, Clifton Davis as Sultan and Don Darryl Rivera as Iago.