Over the last 10 years Seattle has become a testing ground for new major theater productions before they take them off on big tours or to Broadway. We saw Shrek, Hairspray, Memphis, and Catch Me If You Can before anyone else did. Thursday night was the world premier of "Disney's: Aladdin The New Stage Musical" and I was able to attend tonight's second performance. There was definitely a buzz in the air and I'm certain you'll all be seeing this show for many years to come. No it's not the deepest, most thought provoking show you'll ever see and I'm sure some critics will bash it, but it's good family fun and there's a lot more to it than High School Musical. I know I'll be humming "never had a friend like me for days".
The show is clearly based heavily on the movie. They've added several songs. They got rid of the monkey and added a trio of street urchin friends to help Aladdin (and to serve as an expository device between scenes). They replaced Iago the parrot with an small annoying henchman named Iago (whom Jafar accuses of parroting everything he says). Jafar is played by Jonathan Freeman, who was the voice of Jafar in the movie, which was a great treat. The script is up to date and the jokes were fresh. The genie at one point said, "Oprah's gone but you've still got me." There were jokes about Dancing with the Stars, "Mesopotamia's Got Talent", and the song "Genie in a bottle".
The scenic design was done by Anna Louizos and was great. I managed to snap this one picture before the show started.
There was a "middle eastern" cutout false proscenium. This pattern was carried upstage by four sets of legs and borders with the same cut out design. If you look closely at the picture you'll see that the grand appears to be rugs sewn together and is actually 3 overlapping curtains. When the show began they did something really cool. Instead of flying or traveling the curtain out, they tripped the three curtains upstage and left them in partway in a bunting sort of manner to frame the scene. The center curtain went upstage while the side curtains tripped out left and right at angles. This created a great bazaar show portal that really drew you into the set and the stage. During later scenes they were flown out and replaced with doors, arches, screens, and other things but this one look was particularly clever and well done.
The cave of wonders was another simple but interesting look. They projected a large tiger like image on that front set of "carpet" curtains. When it was time for Aladdin to go inside they simply raised the center curtain a bit. Then the scene opened to reveal the inside of the cave. The cave was filled with all kinds of treasure... much of which would later be revealed to be a long series of magic tricks in "Never had a friend like me". I won't go into a lot of detail but that song was great and there were an amazing number of props, set pieces, and magic tricks coming and going at a dizzying pace. Kudos to the cast and crew for keeping up with this song.
The most spectacular moment in the show was during "A whole new world" and the magic carpet ride. Disney California Adventure has a permanent 40 minute version of Aladdin on site in a custom remodeled theater. During that show, the flying carpet flies all over the house. That clearly would be a lot harder to do on a traveling show (maybe when they get to New York). But the effect they used in this show was rather simple and beautiful. They had a single hydraulic shaft with the carpet on top at center. Aladdin and Jasmin climb out the window onto the carpet, it lifts off and the room collapses away around them leaving them in the clouds. It turns out the curtained walls of Jasmine's bedroom were actually kabuki drops. As the carpet takes off, a group of ninja clad dancers pull the curtains down and wave them up and downstage, beautifully lit to look like the carpet is on the clouds. The really cool trick was that they somehow reconnected the curtains to an upstage batten and the curtains rapidly flew out mid-song, shifting our focus to an upstage star drop. The ninjas then suddenly pulled out white "star lights" beginning upstage at the drop and slowly moving them downstage around underneath the carpet which has gradually been rising and is now 10'+ in the air. The effect was beautiful as the stars in the drop enveloped the carpet. The star drop then turned from white to different colors and a set of middle eastern looking street lamps was flown in, on multiple line sets, filling the upstage area. This part didn't make a lot of sense (we were in the clouds and above the stars, now we are apparently in a lamp store
) but it did look cool. Unfortunately they chose to use this look again at the end in the final dance number and I felt that was a poor choice. It was one of those things that I felt, no matter how much it cost, you should just use it once and don't come back to it.
Which brings me to lighting by Natasha Katz. Ms. Katz is a big shot, multi-Tony Award winning designer. She's won more awards and made far more money in this industry than I ever will. So I doubt she cares about my opinion. However I have to say the lighting design drove me crazy! Nearly every scene was lit with these beautiful lush textures. The cyc was bright and vibrant. There were Gobos in movers working overtime, changing colors and patterns. Color was bright and exciting... but you couldn't see the actors faces unless they had a follow spot on them.
Now granted yes in several scenes lighting would be difficult because there were curtains tripped upstage blocking lot of lighting positions. However, there were lots of scenes with no curtains and no front light except follow spots and movers doing texture. There were only a few scenes in act two that had any sort of decent front area light to them.
I have to admit this was the second performance and the follow spot ops were not 100% on top of their game. There were late pick ups and times that they needed to zoom out or in. But the basic design concept was clear. Light the stage with lots of saturated color and texture then use the follow spots for faces. It was terribly distracting. First off sometimes you wonder, what's that dancer up left doing? I wonder what her face looks like? But you can't tell unless she's standing next to one of the leads because it's too dark to see her. Furthermore you end up with your eyes just following the bouncing follow spots to the next thing in the scene. There's no subtle transitions, you know who's going to talk and who isn't based on where the spots take you.
I always teach my students that good lighting is a powerful but subtle art. It's easiest to explain by thinking about movie sound tracks. We laugh today at melodramatic movie sound tracks because they are so over the top, cheesy, and manipulative. On the other hand, our emotional response to every step Indiana Jones ever took on the screen was carefully guided and manipulated by John Williams masterful sound tracks. A good soundtrack takes the audience into the moment, and reinforces the story without giving the story away. That's what good lighting should do as well. It should guide the audience subtly, give them clues to mood, reinforce themes in the script, even serve as a metaphor. But above all the #1 job is to light the actors so you can see them. (Without good lighting it's just radio!) As I mentioned above, there was this beautiful romantic moment created during the "A whole new world" flying carpet ride. Clouds billowing, stars flying past. But I have no idea what Jasmine and Aladdin were feeling because I couldn't see their faces. Apparently in order to not ruin the look of the dark textured scene they were only top lit.
There were two times that the stage was split into two locations during the same scene. It appeared that towards the end of the a section, one follow spot would fade out and move to the other side of the stage to be ready for the next section. The other two spots would jump really quickly. It was weird and awkward.
Afterward my wife complained that several of the characters were speaking loud enough but just weren't intelligible at times. The problem wasn't the sound. The problem was the lighting. I don't remember the accurate statistic but being able to see face while they talk is far more important than just hearing them. Something like 75% of what you hear is actually based on what you see. In short, if you can't see people's lips moving, they aren't talking.
I refer you to this thread on Broadway's Overuse of Followspots for more on the topic.
In the end it was a great show and it's still in development. I'm hopeful some people will come to their senses and demand some more front light. Yeah it'll ruin some of those pretty looks, but it makes no sense having 20 people on stage dancing in the dark while two people sing in a follow spot.
The show is clearly based heavily on the movie. They've added several songs. They got rid of the monkey and added a trio of street urchin friends to help Aladdin (and to serve as an expository device between scenes). They replaced Iago the parrot with an small annoying henchman named Iago (whom Jafar accuses of parroting everything he says). Jafar is played by Jonathan Freeman, who was the voice of Jafar in the movie, which was a great treat. The script is up to date and the jokes were fresh. The genie at one point said, "Oprah's gone but you've still got me." There were jokes about Dancing with the Stars, "Mesopotamia's Got Talent", and the song "Genie in a bottle".
The scenic design was done by Anna Louizos and was great. I managed to snap this one picture before the show started.
There was a "middle eastern" cutout false proscenium. This pattern was carried upstage by four sets of legs and borders with the same cut out design. If you look closely at the picture you'll see that the grand appears to be rugs sewn together and is actually 3 overlapping curtains. When the show began they did something really cool. Instead of flying or traveling the curtain out, they tripped the three curtains upstage and left them in partway in a bunting sort of manner to frame the scene. The center curtain went upstage while the side curtains tripped out left and right at angles. This created a great bazaar show portal that really drew you into the set and the stage. During later scenes they were flown out and replaced with doors, arches, screens, and other things but this one look was particularly clever and well done.
The cave of wonders was another simple but interesting look. They projected a large tiger like image on that front set of "carpet" curtains. When it was time for Aladdin to go inside they simply raised the center curtain a bit. Then the scene opened to reveal the inside of the cave. The cave was filled with all kinds of treasure... much of which would later be revealed to be a long series of magic tricks in "Never had a friend like me". I won't go into a lot of detail but that song was great and there were an amazing number of props, set pieces, and magic tricks coming and going at a dizzying pace. Kudos to the cast and crew for keeping up with this song.
The most spectacular moment in the show was during "A whole new world" and the magic carpet ride. Disney California Adventure has a permanent 40 minute version of Aladdin on site in a custom remodeled theater. During that show, the flying carpet flies all over the house. That clearly would be a lot harder to do on a traveling show (maybe when they get to New York). But the effect they used in this show was rather simple and beautiful. They had a single hydraulic shaft with the carpet on top at center. Aladdin and Jasmin climb out the window onto the carpet, it lifts off and the room collapses away around them leaving them in the clouds. It turns out the curtained walls of Jasmine's bedroom were actually kabuki drops. As the carpet takes off, a group of ninja clad dancers pull the curtains down and wave them up and downstage, beautifully lit to look like the carpet is on the clouds. The really cool trick was that they somehow reconnected the curtains to an upstage batten and the curtains rapidly flew out mid-song, shifting our focus to an upstage star drop. The ninjas then suddenly pulled out white "star lights" beginning upstage at the drop and slowly moving them downstage around underneath the carpet which has gradually been rising and is now 10'+ in the air. The effect was beautiful as the stars in the drop enveloped the carpet. The star drop then turned from white to different colors and a set of middle eastern looking street lamps was flown in, on multiple line sets, filling the upstage area. This part didn't make a lot of sense (we were in the clouds and above the stars, now we are apparently in a lamp store
) but it did look cool. Unfortunately they chose to use this look again at the end in the final dance number and I felt that was a poor choice. It was one of those things that I felt, no matter how much it cost, you should just use it once and don't come back to it. Which brings me to lighting by Natasha Katz. Ms. Katz is a big shot, multi-Tony Award winning designer. She's won more awards and made far more money in this industry than I ever will. So I doubt she cares about my opinion. However I have to say the lighting design drove me crazy! Nearly every scene was lit with these beautiful lush textures. The cyc was bright and vibrant. There were Gobos in movers working overtime, changing colors and patterns. Color was bright and exciting... but you couldn't see the actors faces unless they had a follow spot on them.
Now granted yes in several scenes lighting would be difficult because there were curtains tripped upstage blocking lot of lighting positions. However, there were lots of scenes with no curtains and no front light except follow spots and movers doing texture. There were only a few scenes in act two that had any sort of decent front area light to them. I have to admit this was the second performance and the follow spot ops were not 100% on top of their game. There were late pick ups and times that they needed to zoom out or in. But the basic design concept was clear. Light the stage with lots of saturated color and texture then use the follow spots for faces. It was terribly distracting. First off sometimes you wonder, what's that dancer up left doing? I wonder what her face looks like? But you can't tell unless she's standing next to one of the leads because it's too dark to see her. Furthermore you end up with your eyes just following the bouncing follow spots to the next thing in the scene. There's no subtle transitions, you know who's going to talk and who isn't based on where the spots take you.
I always teach my students that good lighting is a powerful but subtle art. It's easiest to explain by thinking about movie sound tracks. We laugh today at melodramatic movie sound tracks because they are so over the top, cheesy, and manipulative. On the other hand, our emotional response to every step Indiana Jones ever took on the screen was carefully guided and manipulated by John Williams masterful sound tracks. A good soundtrack takes the audience into the moment, and reinforces the story without giving the story away. That's what good lighting should do as well. It should guide the audience subtly, give them clues to mood, reinforce themes in the script, even serve as a metaphor. But above all the #1 job is to light the actors so you can see them. (Without good lighting it's just radio!) As I mentioned above, there was this beautiful romantic moment created during the "A whole new world" flying carpet ride. Clouds billowing, stars flying past. But I have no idea what Jasmine and Aladdin were feeling because I couldn't see their faces. Apparently in order to not ruin the look of the dark textured scene they were only top lit.
There were two times that the stage was split into two locations during the same scene. It appeared that towards the end of the a section, one follow spot would fade out and move to the other side of the stage to be ready for the next section. The other two spots would jump really quickly. It was weird and awkward.
Afterward my wife complained that several of the characters were speaking loud enough but just weren't intelligible at times. The problem wasn't the sound. The problem was the lighting. I don't remember the accurate statistic but being able to see face while they talk is far more important than just hearing them. Something like 75% of what you hear is actually based on what you see. In short, if you can't see people's lips moving, they aren't talking.
I refer you to this thread on Broadway's Overuse of Followspots for more on the topic.
In the end it was a great show and it's still in development. I'm hopeful some people will come to their senses and demand some more front light. Yeah it'll ruin some of those pretty looks, but it makes no sense having 20 people on stage dancing in the dark while two people sing in a follow spot.
