San Diego ticket-buyers get a lot of bang for their buck in the touring production of the Broadway musical “Aladdin,” now playing through Sunday at the San Diego Civic Theatre.
Directed and choreographed by native San Diegan Casey Nicholaw, the tour boasts 31 singer-dancers, an incredible collection of sparkling Middle Eastern-inspired costumes by Gregg Barnes, also a local native, a brass-enhanced 10-piece orchestra and some dazzling special effects. There’s also a head-spinning number of high-flying and extremely athletic dance scenes — some with drums and veils, some with tap shoes, some with scimitars and some with dinner trays that hide pop-up surprises.
In some ways, things move at such a dizzying pace in the two-hour, 30-minute show, the central love story gets a little lost, particularly in the action-packed second act. But fortunately, lead actors Adi Roy as Aladdin and Senzel Ahmady as Princess Jasmine, have warmth, charisma and strong singing voices. They also have great chemistry, which shines in their magic carpet ride scene (which really is magic — even from the fifth row I couldn’t figure out how they made the soaring rug move and spin).
For those not familiar with “Aladdin,” it’s based on the ancient Arabic story about a poor boy who discovers a genie in a magic lamp and uses his wishes to win the heart of a princess. Disney turned the story into a 1992 animated film that became a 2014 Broadway musical that’s still running today. The musical features seven new songs that weren’t in the film, and only one — “Proud of Your Boy” — is as memorable as the original songs.
Trying to recapture the zany, ad-lib riffing of Robin Williams, who was the voice actor for the genie in the film, musical bookwriter Chad Beguelin gives the stage genie wacky, wide-ranging, motor-mouth monologues that tap into topical references including multiple Disney film songs, Tik-Tok, “Dancing with the Stars,” curly fries, Wakanda and even Grogu (the baby Yoda-like character in “The Mandalorian”).
The tour first visited San Diego in 2019. In its return this week, Marcus R. Martin stars as the Genie. His energetic, hilarious and high note-filled performance reaches its zenith in the nearly 10-minute-long “Friend Like Me” production number that builds and builds.
Sorab Wadia is warm and endearing as Jasmine’s father, the Sultan of Agrabah. Anand Nagraj is wickedly campy as Jafar, the kingdom’s power-hungry vizier and Aaron Choi is intentionally cartoonish as Jafar’s henchmen Iago (transformed from a talking parrot character in the film). Also fun are Colt Prattes, Jake Letts and Nathan Levy as Aladdin’s three buddies.
A nice change from the film, which my own children watched hundreds of times on VHS in the early 1990s, is that there’s no longer the creepy scene where the leering Jafar turns Jasmine into a slave girl he plans to marry himself. There’s also less of Aladdin’s mansplaining. It’s a more enlightened story for a more enlightened time.
‘Aladdin’
When: 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 4; 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 5; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 6; 1 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 7
Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 110 Third Ave., Downtown
Tickets: $34 and up
Online: broadwaysd.com