Aladdin

Yesterday I went to see Aladdin the musical. It was a slick production as you might expect from Disney which bore little relation to the pantomime version. For a start it was set not in China but in Aqaba and the flavour was Arabian rather than Oriental. The costumes and sets were stunning and Aladdin and Jasmine’s trip through the air on the magic carpet a coup de theatre. However it lacked one memorable song. Sir Tim Rice was the lyricist. He and Andrew Lloyd Webber have their critics but in their heyday each musical produced at least one memorable song. Of the cast Trevor Dion Nicholas  as the Genie was the most impressive. One oddity was that the cast, though British, spoke in American accents except Don Gallagher as the unctuously evil Grand Vizier.

I went with Bob Tickler who took Jamie and his mother. They were both entranced by the show. Jamie’s mother observed that this was a rite of passage for Jamie – from pantomime to musical. In a sense he would make the more valuable critic as the show was targeted at him. Disney do not miss a trick with the merchandising either. It was totally sold out and the appeal is undeniable. However my aftertaste as I walked the rain-soaked scabrous streets of Soho was that, unlike Spielberg at its best, this was not a production that embraced both  adult and child.