Thomas Schumacher launches Disney's Aladdin

Dom O'Hanlon
Dom O'Hanlon

 

   

Walt Disney Theatricals certainly mean business. Their productions are not only running around the globe, but their most successful stage musical The Lion King is currently one of Broadway's longest running shows and recently overtook Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera to become the most successful piece of entertainment of all time. At the height of this success, the company shows no signs of slowing down. Just last week the company announced that the world stage première of the studio's hit film Frozen would open on Broadway in 2018 following an out of town try-out in Denver Colorado, a move that is certain to take the theatre community by storm.

Whilst Broadway is the natural home of the company, the West End has enjoyed a number of their successes, from the long running productions of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King to the original stage première of Mary Poppins, which was co-produced by British producer Cameron Mackintosh. The latest show in the Disney canon Aladdin is set to open in the West End later this year, when it begins performances at the Prince Edward Theatre, which was previously the West End home of Mary Poppins from December 2004 to January 2008.

The company is led by the energetic Thomas Schumacher, who has been head of Walt Disney Theatricals for the past twenty one years. His affable charm and inimitable work ethic are clear to see, and he took great pride in welcoming a room of London journalists to the press launch of Aladdin, on stage of the Lyceum Theatre where The Lion King continues to dominate the West End. It's a scene that screams Disney perfection, from the gold and purple chairs that match the branding and colour palate of the show to the spectacularly lit stage that adds not only a sense of occasion, but also extreme excitement to the event. A Musical opening in the West End is hardly a rare event, but there's something about this launch that feels different - and that's the Disney magic.

Schumacher welcomed the room to the event and started by commending the work of the wider company who have helped promote Disney Theatricals around the world, commenting that not a week goes by when he isn't working on a production of The Lion King somewhere, revealing recent additions to an international version of the show he is currently working on with director Julie Taymor. Whilst the West End hasn't had all of Disney's live stage efforts (Schumacher said not a year goes by where Elton John doesn't ask him why AIDA isn't playing in the West End), it has certainly enjoyed two of the biggest, and is about to receive the third.

Aladdin was the most attended new Broadway show of 2014, and went on to become the most attended show overall in 2015. Despite Disney's previous presence at the New Amsterdam Theatre, it continually reset the box office record for grosses and ticket sales. Productions have now opened around the world and it has been the fastest roll out of a show that the company have ever done.

That said, it has now been 23 years since the film came out, where it was the number 1 film of 1992, and Schumacher commented that the shows core audience is now in their late 20s or mid 30s. He said that rather than being a 'children's show', the musical has "been created for the generation that grew up with it". Citing themes that resonate with audiences in their mid 30s, he went on to say, "it's a story with stakes. It's about growing up, impressing mom, growing up to be someone - themes that resonate with the age of the children who first loved the film."

Schumacher pre-empted the criticism from people who would attack the company for once again turning a film into a musical by reinforcing the idea that Disney Theatricals "take film musicals and instead adapt them for the stage". Composers Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman reinvented how Disney as a studio approached musical material, and their first collaboration on The Little Mermaid reinvented Disney animation, kick-starting what would come to be called the 'Disney Renaissance' that included films such as 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame', 'Pocahontas', 'Beauty and the Beast', The Lion King and of course, Aladdin. In all of these examples, music was the driving force behind each of the films finding popularity, and as Schumacher examples with Aladdin, music is "within the DNA" of the film.

For the stage the score has been expanded to include material cut from the film as well as new songs written specifically for the dramatic arc. British lyricist Tim Rice stepped into the film project following Ashman's death in 1991, and the creative team were allowed to approach the project with new light for the stage adaptation.

At the helm of the show is director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw, a rare talent who will soon have four musicals that he has directed and choreographed running simultaneously on Broadway - Aladdin, Something Rotten, The Book of Mormon and Tuck Everlasting - the last time such an achievement was met was by the glorious Susan Stroman. Nicholaw is a true master of Broadway musical comedy, and has put together one of the biggest production numbers ever seen on stage, "Friend Like Me", a number that continually stops the show cold and back when I saw the show on Broadway, received its own standing ovation.

Schumacher introduced another key member of the production team, the Irish designer Bob Crowley, who has previously worked with Disney on shows such as Mary Poppins and in Schumacher's words "reinvented my failure of the Little Mermaid and made it a hit show around the world". Crowley told the crowd that he had never seen the movie before agreeing to do the show, but was "seduced" by the workshop and Tony Award-winner James Monroe Iglehart's reinvention of the character of the Genie, saying he "wanted to be in the room with that talent".

Crowley said he has worked on so many 'heavy' pieces that Aladdin gave him a chance to use colour and all the things that he doesn't usually get to use on stage. He used word 'Panto', which incited an intake of breath from the Disney PR executives who surrounded the room, to which Schumacher sprung into action and joked that he has spent so much time trying to convince Brish audiences and ticket agents that Aladdin the musical is certainly not a pantomime.

Talking specifically about the design, Schumacher hammers home the point that not a corner has been cut in creating this production. In Japan he laughs, the designers gold leafed the entire Cave of wonders scene - a comment that was met with a couple of astonished gasps from around the room. The show features around 370 costumes, which is 100 more than Mary Poppins, and these are currently being made by 352 people in 28 different costume shops up and down the country. It has taken 25 shoemakers four months to hand craft the shoes, carving bespoke heels from scratch for each costumer. The level of detail in the fabrics and material is enough to blow your mind, with 3000 Swarovski crystals on every male costume in the "Friend Like Me" production number - costumes that each have 17,000 individual stones sewn onto them.

It's the level of detail anyone expects from the Walt Disney Company, and signifies their overall commitment to producing stage productions of the highest known quality. After watching performances from the three lead characters in the show who will open the London production, it's fair to say that even the more cynical members of the audience were completely sold by the show's heart and energy. The casting blends the home grown talent of Dean John Wilson and Jade Ewen (who previously starred as Young Nala in The Lion King) with that of American Trevor Dion Nicholas who brings the Cab Calloway/Fats Waller concept of the Genie full circle, transcending the performance of Robin Williams on film and making it work in an entirely new medium.

Aladdin is a musical that will certainly take the West End by storm. It's universal appeal, tight brand message and the Disney Theatrical's stamp of aproval will certainly make for an impressive West End production, and one that is set to take audiences to a Whole New World and beyond.

Buy tickets for Aladdin by clicking here.

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