"After A Million Miles Or So, We Find Out Who We Are"

I told myself I'd post more often--ugh, I hate when I do this! 

Anyway, welcome to Post Two of the Tony Nominations!  Since we're still in the Best Musical Category, let's go onto the next musical: Aladdin.  

Based off of the 1992 Disney animated film of the Arab folktale of Aladdin and the magic lamp musically written by Alan Menken, Aladdin was put onstage in 2011 in Seattle but was not officially performing the whole show on Broadway until March 20 of this year.  Adam Jacobs, Courtney Reed and James Monroe Iglehart respectively play Aladdin, Jasmine, and the Genie, as well as Andrew Keenan-Bolger making an appearance as Omar in the original Seattle cast (I will post about him one day).

The show is currently nominated in five categories; Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical (Chad Beguelin), Best Original Score (Alan Menken-music, Howard Ashman- lyrics, Tim Rice-lyrics, Chad Beguelin- lyrics), Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical (James Monroe Iglehart-the Genie), and Best Coreography (Casey Nicholaw).  

This show has always been my favorite for two reasons relating to its movie version: one reason is that I've always enjoyed watching the movie version and that Scott Weinger (Steve in Full House) voices Aladdin's speaking voice.  Eeep! (That's my happy cheer.)

The clip below is directly from the Broadway show (well, before it was put on Broadway)--it's a new song written fresh for the musical called "A Million Miles Away".  When listening to it, it sounds very Disney--just a note.  And sorry this clip doesn't show the entire song--since the show is really new on Broadway, there isn't even an official Broadway soundtrack I could find yet!

Broadway Dreamin'

Last night, one of my close friends and I went to one of the many local elementary schools in my town where its theater department, called the Student Actors Program, put on this "show" called Broadway Dreamin'; the group performs a handful of musicals (some years it went as high as eight) but would do a couple of scenes/songs from each one. This year, the department put on The Lion King, Willy Wonka, Annie Get Your Gun, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (the school staff like to put on a scene as well), Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Wicked. 

Now because it was an elementary school production, I didn't hold high expectations for it; overall it was a cute little showcase. But my personal favorite was The Lion King and it wasn't because I've always had respect for it even before it went on Broadway. The scenes the "cast" for that section put on was really good and I liked it a lot! 

This show started the whole event with the "Circle of Life" (who didn't see that coming?) and ended the event with "Hakuna Matata", "They Live In You" (performed by an older alumni that I know well) and the reprise of "Circle of Life." The guy I know that played Mufasa and sang "They Live In You" sounded great (like eargasm great) and it shocked me because he's not one of my favorite people to talk to and I had to remind myself not to fall in love with his voice. 

I wish I recorded the performance but instead I'll put on the Broadway version of it! (As I type, I'm waiting for the Broadway version of The Lion King to finish downloading on iTunes.)

The Truth of the Disney princesses

Yes, I'm aware this isn't fully about theatre but it can be related to the Broadway shows that came from the Disney movies (well, except for Pochantas.......it's not quite there yet). But I find this video hilarious—plus, the guy sings wonderfully.

Click here.......if you dare to do it. I bet you won't!