mytravelbugbite

I recently went to see Aladdin the Musical on the West End with Fraser and a couple of friends. It only opened in May after transferring from Broadway. As a huge fan of the film and of all things Disney I was understandably super excited.

The creative team are a real power house including Alan Menken, Tim Rice, Howard Ashman and Chad Beguelin. All the classic songs are there alongside new ones. I found that those written for the show didn’t quite have the star quality of the original pieces.

The cast were good in their parts although I cannot comment on Dean John-Wilson as Aladdin himself as the understudy was on the day we were there. One stand out character was Iago who has some great comic lines. The chorus made the odd mistake which you don’t normally see in professional performances but perhaps this was because it was still early days in the run (although considering the price of the tickets you do expect a bit better, they are extortionate)!!

Overall I found it lacked the wow factor and gloss you would normally expect from a Disney piece. The genie’s cave and magic carpet ride were spectacular and fully lived up to the hype however the rest felt low energy and the stage felt strangely empty at times. The show also seemed unsure whether it wanted to be a fully-fledged musical or a pantomime and as I am not keen on the latter it did put me off a bit.

I really, really wanted to love the show as much as I love the film but there was just something missing. It had all the components to be incredible but just fell a fraction short in all areas. Many people in the audience did seem to enjoy it though and some even gave a standing ovation so maybe it just wasn’t my thing.

If you do want to check it out Aladdin is playing at the Prince Edward theatre and is booking up until February 2017. You can buy tickets here.

Have you seen Aladdin the Musical? Did you agree with this review or did you enjoy it more than that?