Review: ALADDIN at The Overture Center

Aladdin, I had seen the movie one time about 25 years ago with my daughter. I remember little about it, except of course what lived on in memes. Robin Williams was the Genie and Gilbert Gottfried as Iago. I have very little memory of the movie, so my expectations were almost non-existent. Kid’s movie, now a Broadway musical. Got it. Wow, was I in for a treat!

  The opening number, “Arabian Nights” was simply mesmerizing. The colors, the movements, the Beaty and splendor of it all kept me on the edge of my seat the entire performance. There were many times I felt like I was in a dream or celebrating the Festival of Colors in India.

  Adi Roy (Aladdin) was nothing short of awe inspiring. His vocals strong, his charisma contagious and his dancing flawless. He showed compassion, need, struggle and in the end embraced exactly who Aladdin was and what he stood for.

  Senzel Ahmady (Jasmine) captured the hearts of the audience early on with her no nonsense approach to the character, embracing the role as if she were made for it. Vocally stunning, and choreographically gifted, she encapsulated the character flawlessly. She was in a word, enchanting. This was her national tour debut, who knew there was so much talent out there?!

  Anand Nagraj (Jafar) played the evil villain with both poise and dignity all the while kinda making you hate him, just a little bit. He was perfect. And, yet another national tour debut. I am getting very excited about what could be coming on down the line for all of these actors.

  Marcus M. Martin (Genie) had arguably, the biggest shoes to fill. I can’t imagine how intimidating it must be to step into the role made famous by such an icon, yet he not only filled those shoes, he surpassed any expectation the audience may have had. His bold courageous portrayal of Genie, launched him into almost mythological status. Very apropos for the character. This is  also his national tour debut! Where has this guy been hiding?

  Aaron Choi (Iago) also had some Giant shoes to fill, and he had to do without being an obvious parrot. As Jafar’s minuscule henchman, he pulled off the role magnificently, and while providing comic relief, he also had more dimensions than just being a clown, and yes, it is also his national tour debut.

  I would remiss to not mention the lighting, sets and backdrops. The created a world in which we, the audience, truly believed we were in an enchanted kingdom somewhere deep within the peninsula that makes up Arabia. 

  It all adds up to a magical night of epic proportion, including, sword swallowing, slight of hand and some professional level magic. The pinnacle scene for me was the Tap scene in the cave of wonders, it left me completely speechless as I tried to express how amazing it was to my partner, there were no words.

  Please, get tickets before they sell out. This show is one of the most amazing pieces of theater I have witnessed. At the writing I remain, awestruck. 

Madison Transforms into “A Whole New World” with Disney’s Aladdin at Overture Center

Performances run Tuesday, Oct. 10 through Sunday, Oct. 15 in Overture Hall

Madison, Wis. (Sept. 26, 2023) — The highly-anticipated Disney’s Aladdin is bound to be a magical opener for the 2023/24 Broadway season at Overture Center for the Arts. Performances will run for a limited engagement of eight shows beginning Tuesday, Oct. 10 through Sunday, Oct. 15. Tickets are still available at overture.org.

Aladdin will play Tuesday through Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available now at Overture’s Box Office, and online at overture.org. To charge tickets, call 608-258-4141 (Monday-Saturday, 11-6, Sunday 12-6). Orders for groups of 10 or more may be placed by emailing groups@overture.org.

Ticket buyers are reminded that overture.org is the only official retail ticket outlet for all performances at Overture Center. Ticket buyers who purchase tickets from a ticket broker or any third party should be aware that Overture Center is unable to reprint or replace lost or stolen tickets and is unable to contact patrons with information regarding time changes or other pertinent updates regarding the performance.

About Aladdin

Aladdin, the hit musical based on the Academy Award®-winning animated film, 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. Having played over 3,000 performances, the New York production is among the Top 20 longest runs in Broadway history.

Hailed by The New York Times as “fabulous and extravagant,” the Broadway production has broken 16 New Amsterdam Theatre house records and spawned nine additional productions on four continents. Worldwide it has welcomed more than 16 million people and can be seen currently on Broadway and on tour across North America, as well as in Japan and Spain, with a UK tour opening shortly.

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 six-time Tony Award nominee Chad Beguelin (The Prom, The Wedding Singer), with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by two-time Tony Award winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon).

Aladdin, adapted from the 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 exciting 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, eight-time Tony-winning lighting designer Natasha Katz, three-time Tony-winning costume designer Gregg Barnes and sound designer Ken Travis.

The production team also includes illusion designers Jim Steinmeyer and Rob Lake, 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. John MacInnis is the associate choreographer, Jason Trubitt is the production supervisor and Myriah Bash is the general manager.

Anne Quart serves as co-producer.

The current North American tour has played in over 40 cities to more than a half million people since launching in October 2022. A previous tour played to an additional nearly 3 million patrons.

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

OVERTURE CENTER FOR THE ARTS in Madison, Wis., is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization that features seven state-of-the-art performance spaces and four galleries where national and international touring artists, nine resident companies and hundreds of local artists engage people in nearly 700,000 educational and artistic experiences each year. With the vision to provide “Extraordinary Experiences for All,” Overture’s mission is to support and elevate our community’s creative culture, economy and quality of life through the arts. overture.org

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