ALADDIN North American Tour Celebrates One-Year Anniversary

The North American tour of Disney's Aladdin celebrates its one-year anniversary today, April 19 in Denver, where the hit Broadway musical is playing The Buell Theatre through April 28, 2018.

Since launching in Chicago at The Cadillac Palace Theatre on April 19, 2017, the tour has welcomed more than 895,000 theatergoers during 411 performances in five cities. In addition to Chicago, the production has played to capacity houses in Minneapolis, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Future stops for the tour include Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Costa Mesa, Dallas, Des Moines, Detroit, Houston, Louisville, New Orleans, Omaha, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Jose, St. Louis, Tempe and Washington, D.C.

The Aladdin North American tour has received acclaim from some of the nation's most respected theatre critics during the past year; below is a sampling of what they've had to say about the touring production.

The touring production features Clinton Greenspan (Aladdin), Michael James Scott (Genie), Isabelle McCalla (Jasmine), Jonathan Weir (Jafar), Jay Paranada (Iago), Jerald Vincent (Sultan), Zach Bencal (Babkak), Philippe Arroyo (Omar), Mike Longo (Kassim), Korie Lee Blossey (Standby Genie & Sultan), Ellis C. Dawson III (Standby Genie & Babkak) and Adam Stevenson (Standby Jafar & Sultan).

Rounding out the cast are Mary Antonini, Michael Bullard, Michael Callahan, Gary Cooper, Cornelius Davis, Bobby Daye, Lissa deGuzman, Mathew deGuzman, Olivia Donalson, Michael Everett, Karlee Ferreira, Michael Graceffa, Adrienne Howard, Albert Jennings, Kenway Hon Wai K. Kua, Jason Scott MacDonald, Pierre Marais, Angelina Mullins, Celina Nightengale, Jaz Sealey, Charles South, Annie Wallace andMichelle West.

Aladdin opened on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre to critical acclaim on March 20, 2014 and quickly established itself as one of the biggest new blockbusters in recent years, breaking 12 New Amsterdam Theatre house records and welcoming over seven million people worldwide. Its global footprint has expanded to include productions in Tokyo, Hamburg, London and Melbourne, in addition to the two U.S. productions.

Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, the show 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 four-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).

Aladdin, adapted from the Academy Award®-winning animated Disney film and centuries-old folktales including "One Thousand and One Nights," is brought to fresh theatrical life in this bold new musical. Aladdin's journey sweeps audiences into an exotic world of daring adventure, classic comedy and timeless romance. This new production features a full score, including the five cherished songs from the Academy Award-winning soundtrack and more written especially for the stage.

The animated film Aladdin was released by Disney in 1992 and was a critical and box office smash, becoming the highest-grossing film of the year.

The film won the Oscar for Best Original Score and introduced the hit song "A Whole New World," which won the second of the film's two Academy Awards as Best Original Song. The Peabo Bryson/Regina Belle recording of the tune soared to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Aladdin is designed by seven-time Tony-winning scenic designer Bob Crowley, six-time Tony-winning lighting designer Natasha Katz, two-time Tony-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes and sound designer Ken Travis.

The production team also includes illusion designer Jim Steinmeyer, hair designer Josh Marquette and makeup designer Milagros Medina-Cerdeira. The music team is headed by music supervisor and music director Michael Kosarin, who also created the vocal and incidental music arrangements, joined by orchestrator Danny Troob and dance music arranger Glen Kelly.

For more information, visit AladdinTheMusical.com/tour, Facebook.com/Aladdin and Twitter.com/Aladdin.

Photo by Deen Van Meer