Review: Disney's Aladdin at the Liverpool Empire ****1/2
There are plenty of Aladdins on stages up and down the land this Christmas, but none, I suspect, are half as lavish as Disney’s musical spectacular which is ending its UK tour with a festive residency at the Liverpool Empire.
The musical has been seen by more than 14 million people worldwide since it was premiered back in 2011, but this is the first time it has come to the city.
And while it doesn’t have the sheer physical scale of The Lion King, or quite the emotional heft of Beauty and the Beast, it does have its own heart, a huge dollop of sly humour, some thumpingly good song-and-dance numbers, a pantoesque baddie and, of course, Alan Menken’s marvellously melodic old-school musicals score.
Plus Yeukayi Ushe’s dazzling turn as the Genie. But more of that anon.
So, add a big stage – and the Empire’s is one of the biggest - to a big show and you’ve got a match made in theatrical heaven, with Bob Crowley’s colourful set and Casey Nicholaw’s polished choreography having a proper space in which to be displayed to best effect.
In the Arabian desert kingdom of Agrabah, orphaned street urchin Aladdin (there are no Widow Twankeys in Disney-land) and his pals spend their time dodging the imperial guard, and in the nearby palace feisty feminist Princess Jasmine (Desmonda Cathabel) dodges marriage proposals from unsuitable royals while her father’s chief factotum Jafar (Adam Strong) plots to seize the crown for himself with the help of a magic lamp.
And we all know what happens next.
With Gavin Adams indisposed for unspecified reasons, understudy Kerry Spark stepped in to play the titular ducking-and-diving street urchin on press night with assured and larky storytelling vigour – although he also probes the vulnerability a little behind Aladdin’s cocky exterior in Proud of Your Boy.
And if there wasn’t an explosion of spark and sizzle in Aladdin’s romantic interactions with Cathabel's spirited princess, the rapport he developed with his character’s three marketplace friends – exemplified in their infectious song-and-dance numbers Babkak, Omar, Aladdin, Kassim (happily reinstated after ending up being edited out of the original 1992 animation) and, later, Somebody’s Got Your Back – was very enjoyable.
Above: In the 'Cave of Wonders'. Top: Yeukayi Ushe as the Genie. Photos by Deen Van Meer
These ‘blood brothers’ are at the heart of much of the show’s vein of humour, with the hapless quartet getting into all kinds of scrapes.
The other main comedy moments come courtesy of Angelo Paragoso as Jaffa’s loyal sidekick Iago – a bird in the film, a human on stage; albeit one in the vein of an Oompa Looma/Blue Meanie. While Strong never gets to progress much beyond cape swirling and evil laughter, Paragoso is gifted many of the choicest asides in Chad Beguilin’s script and clearly relishes delivering every one of them.
And so to the Genie. Much anticipated by the audience, when his entrance does come, almost at the end of the first half, it’s with a lot of expectation in the air. Happily, Ushe doesn’t disappoint.
He’s patently a theatrical force of nature, generating enough energy to power most of Liverpool city centre as he bursts into the gloom of the cave where Aladdin has found himself trapped – and straight into a routine (Friend Like Me) full of the kind of shining stagecraft Sammy Davis Jr would tip his hat to and some joyous Busby Berkeley glamour.
Ushe himself has described the character as being full of “sunshine, wit, energy and vibrance”.
It’s a beguiling combination, and when he's on stage he out-shines everything around him. In fact, even when he's not physically on stage, you tend to subconsciously judge everything against him, including the long magic carpet sequence which feels a bit well, dare I say it, pedestrian in comparison.
While the show starts briskly, it takes a few minutes to get up to full wattage.
But when it does it’s a real delight, with high production values, slick illusions and great performances from an international cast, buoyed by the 10-strong band in the pit.
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