VIDEO: ALADDIN's James Iglehart Talks Standing Ovations, Tony Nomination & More!

In a special behind-the-scenes feature in today's USA Today, Tony-nominated actor James Iglehart, currently making wishes come true in Disney's Aladdin, talks about his experience starring in the hit Disney musical.

The actor reveals: there are days "when I go, 'Uh, gosh, I don't want to do this.' Then my brain goes, 'Idiot ... this is awesome. You get to be a Disney character. On Broadway. In a Tony-nominated show.'"

Iglehart brings down the house nightly with his rendition of 'Friend Like Me', literally stopping the show in its track with audience applause. "Them standing up is pretty wild," he says, but adds that nothing brings him more joy than having children in the audience "scream back at me: 'Genie!' They keep waiting for me to acknowledge their presence." He also loves "the guys whose wives have (dragged) them to the theater, and they don't want to have a good time, and they can't help but laugh. ... I'm like, 'Got you!' "

Speaking on the upcoming Tony Awards airing June 8th for which he is nominated for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (he recently picked up the Drama Desk Award for the role) Iglehart shares,"To say that I'm not thinking about this Tony would be lying. But I also know all of the guys (nominated) in my category, so I'm not tripping off that. I'm just going to have a good time while I'm there."

Check out the interview below!

Disney's Aladdin, the 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.

Produced by Disney Theatrical Productions, Aladdin features music by Tony Award® and eight-time Oscar® winnerAlan 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 two-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.

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) 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.

Source: USA Today