The friend I bring with me to see the show is a designer who is hard to please, but she pronounces the production values ''exquisite'', especially the show's visual highlight, the magic carpet ride, when Aladdin and Princess Jasmine are swept away against a starry sky. ![]() ![]() It is fantastically entertaining, with enough belly laughs and witty asides to keep the adults in the audience entertained as much as the children. The stage musical, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice, is cleverly directed by Casey Nicholaw, best known for his Tony Award® -winning direction of The Book of Mormon. It also houses the corporation's offices above the theatre, in a space that was once host to Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic, an X-rated revue.Īlmost everyone knows the popular children's story of Aladdin, the street rat who wins the heart of a princess with the aid of a stolen magic lamp and its genie. Disney extravagantly restored it and reopened it in 1997 as a live theatre venue for their productions. After 1937 it became a movie theatre but it fell into disuse in the 1980s. I touch down on Broadway, in orchestra seats at the historic New Amsterdam Theatre, which was once the home of the Ziegfeld Follies. The stage version of this ''city of mystery and enchantment'', as the opening number describes it, is not anything you'd find in a Lonely Planet Guide (it's more Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's Road to Morocco than reality) but the dazzling stage settings and astoundingly beautiful costumes have been created to capture the spirit of ''joyfulness'' found in the sensual North African city, according to costume designer Gregg Barnes.īy submitting your email you are agreeing to Nine Publishing's Photo: Deen van MeerĪnd Morocco? My carpet doesn't make a physical stop there but the musical's fictional city of Agrabah, Aladdin's hometown, is a flamboyant, high camp reimaging of Marrakech, which the show's designers visited when they were conceptualising the production. I do it on an A380, more flying whale than carpet, but the experience is magical nevertheless.Īdam Jacobs in Aladdin. In its magic and mystery, we find where the flying carpet’s beauty lies.I have been invited to fly to New York to see the Broadway show, meet the team behind the production and then wing my way back to Sydney to visit the inner city workshop where the opulent costumes are being made. It does not discern between good or evil, but to the pursuit and manipulation of power. A magical carpet only makes itself available to the most extraordinary of men. It is also the carpet that helps him woo and, ultimately win the heart of the Sultan’s daughter. It is the carpet that leads him and his trusty monkey into a cave full of gold and jewels. The magic carpet in this Disney portrayal does not portend to Aladdin’s power, but serves as a guide to future riches and success. Taken high over Agrabah, Jasmine and Aladdin begin to fall in love. Most dear to my heart is the magical carpet ride from Aladdin. ![]() It seems to be a metaphor for his power and reach, though it also shows that the man is just that – a man, and he is not infallible to the forces of nature or the divine. With the carpet, he was able to travel vast distances as well as transport armies. Solomon was one of the most powerful, most legendary Jewish kings. In nearly all the legends and folklore, the magic carpet is used to portray the power of the carpet’s master. Magic Flying Carpet from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
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