Aladdin (1979 musical)

Last updated
Aladdin
Sandy Wilsons Aladdin Cover.jpg
Original cast recording
Music Sandy Wilson
Lyrics Sandy Wilson
Book Sandy Wilson
Basis Aladdin
Productions1979 London

Aladdin is a musical written by Sandy Wilson for the newly refurbished Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Although not a pantomime, [1] it played during the theatre's inaugural Christmas pantomime season of 1979/80, opening on 21 December 1979, and starred Richard Freeman as Aladdin, Joe Melia as Tuang Kee Chung (Widow Twankey), Aubrey Woods as Abanazar, Ernest Clark as The Emperor, Martin McEvoy as The Genie, Elisabeth Welch as Fatima and Christine McKenna as Badr-al-Badur.

Contents

Background

The Aladdin story (sometimes combined with Ali Baba and other Arabian Nights tales) has been a traditional pantomime subject in England for nearly two hundred years, and numerous versions of this tale have been presented. [2] Sandy Wilson was apparently asked to write a conventional pantomime in this tradition, but he demurred. "Instead of writing a pantomime – a form of theatre about which I know very little – I decided to make Aladdin a musical, and based it on the original story in the Arabian nights." [3]

Despite this, the show closely follows the traditional pantomime story line, including the "pantomime dame" character of Widow Twankey, renamed Tuang Kee Chung. In fact, the cast recording memorializes several rarely-recorded aspects of a traditional Aladdin pantomime, although the plot has fewer gratuitous twists, and the songs are more concerned with plot development than is usually the case in these productions. [4]

Synopsis

The wicked wizard Abanazar, in his desert home in Morocco, summons the spirits to tell him how he may obtain the magic lamp, the source of all power. He is somewhat bemused to discover that the source lies in a Chinese Laundry in Peking, and can be retrieved only by the launderess's ne'er-do-well son Aladdin. The ghostly chorus of the spirits takes us into the next scene, where Aladdin himself is discussing with his mother the virtues of idleness.

The emperor's herald proclaims that anyone looking upon the Princess Badroulbadour as she passes on her way to the baths will be instantly executed. This is just the kind of challenge that Aladdin likes, so he rushes off to try to catch a glimpse of the Princess. When he returns from his quest the Widow is relieved that he is alive, but very concerned that the young couple are in love. Everyone, including the emperor himself, has a pretty shrewd idea of what has happened – but, as he explains in song to his daughter, "Loves's a luxury" that royals must forgo for reasons of state.

Abanazar's arrival seems like just the thing. He quickly convinces the widow and her son (neither of whom is very bright) that he is the boy's long lost uncle and that he will make Aladdin rich. The upshot of this finds Aladdin trapped in the cave — where he inadvertently summons the genie of the ring — a sympathetic young lady who readily agrees to take him to his mother's house, after a few tears over the sad fact that "Genies have no mothers". The Widow Twankey starts to clean the rusty old lamp which is all her son has brought home — thus summoning another, much more powerful genie who makes it clear he will do anything for anyone unless they make unkind remarks about his green colouring. In no time at all Aladdin is a prince, and happily married to the princess of his dreams.

The Widow Twankey is now the Royal Mother-in-law — and manages to dispose of that rusty old lamp to Abanazar (disguised as a pedlar). He is now the Genie's new master – and he quickly takes the palace (complete with the princess and her mother-in-law) to Morocco. Under sentence of death from the emperor, Aladdin follows the palace to Morocco with the aid of the genie of the ring, and, obtaining the lamp, he gets the palace and the princess back to their wonted places. Abanazar however follows Aladdin back to China, where it becomes apparent that in a contest of brains our hero hasn't a chance. A bit of old fashioned violence ("the old Kung-Fu") is the remedy, Abanazar is carried off by the Great Roc and all ends happily.

Songs

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Aladdin</i> (1992 Disney film) American animated musical fantasy film

Aladdin is a 1992 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is based on the Arabic folktale "Aladdin" from the One Thousand and One Nights. The film was produced and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements from a screenplay they co-wrote with the writing team of Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Featuring the voices of Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, and Douglas Seale, the film follows the titular Aladdin, an Arabian street urchin, who finds a magic lamp containing a genie. With the genie's help, Aladdin disguises himself as a wealthy prince and tries to impress the Sultan in order to win the heart of his free-spirited daughter, Princess Jasmine, as the Sultan's evil vizier Jafar plots to steal the magic lamp for his own uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aladdin</span> Middle-Eastern folk tale

Aladdin is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, despite not being part of the original text; it was added by the Frenchman Antoine Galland, based on a folk tale that he heard from the Syrian Maronite storyteller Hanna Diyab.

Jafar (<i>Aladdin</i>) Disney character

Jafar is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Walt Disney Pictures' 31st animated feature film Aladdin (1992). He is voiced by Jonathan Freeman, who also portrayed the character in the Broadway musical adaptation. Jafar also appears in the 1994 sequel to Aladdin, but he is not in the 1996 third film or the TV series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Widow Twankey</span> Character in the pantomime Aladdin

Widow Twankey is a female character in the pantomime Aladdin. She is a pantomime dame, played by an older man.

Shani Wallis is an English actress and singer, who has worked in theatre, film, and television in both her native United Kingdom and in the United States. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she is known for her roles in the West End and for the role of Nancy in the 1968 Oscar-winning film musical Oliver!

<i>Arabian Nights</i> (miniseries) American TV series or program

Arabian Nights is a two-part 2000 miniseries, adapted by Peter Barnes from Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation of the medieval epic One Thousand and One Nights. Mili Avital and Dougray Scott star as Scheherazade and Shahryar respectively. Produced by Dyson Lovell and directed by Steve Barron, the serial was produced by Hallmark Entertainment and originally broadcast over two nights on 30 April and 1 May 2000 on BBC One in the United Kingdom and ABC in the United States.

<i>Aladdin</i> (1992 Golden Films film) 1992 US/Japanese short animated film directed by Masakazu Higuchi and Chinami Namba

Aladdin is a 1992 animated fantasy film. It is based on the classic Arabian Nights story Aladdin, translated by Antoine Galland. Aladdin was produced by Golden Films and the American Film Investment Corporation. Like all other Golden Films productions, the film featured a single song, "Rub the Lamp", written and composed by Richard Hurwitz and John Arrias. It was released directly to video on April 27, 1992 by GoodTimes Home Video and was reissued on DVD in 2002 as part of the distributor's "Collectible Classics" line of products.

<i>Disneys Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular</i> Stage show at Disney California Adventure

Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular is a 45-minute Broadway-style musical theatre show based on Disney's 1992 animated feature film Aladdin with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

<i>The New Aladdin</i>

The New Aladdin is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts by James T. Tanner and W. H. Risque, with music by Ivan Caryll, Lionel Monckton, and additional numbers by Frank E. Tours, and lyrics by Adrian Ross, Percy Greenbank, W. H. Risque, and George Grossmith, Jr. It was produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre, opening on 29 September 1906 and running for 203 performances.

<i>Aladdin Jr.</i> 2005 musical

Aladdin Jr. is a one-act, eleven-scene theatre musical adapted from the 1992 Walt Disney Animation Studios film Aladdin which is an adaptation of the folk tale Aladdin. The production runs between 60 and 80 minutes and includes five female parts, six male parts, and a chorus.

Aladdin is a 1958 musical fantasy written especially for television, with a book by S.J. Perelman and music and lyrics by Cole Porter, telecast in color on the DuPont Show of the Month by CBS. It was Porter's last musical score. Columbia Records issued both monophonic and stereophonic recordings of the original TV cast: Cyril Ritchard, Dennis King, Basil Rathbone, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Geoffrey Holder, Sal Mineo, and Una Merkel.

<i>La Rosa di Bagdad</i> 1949 Italian film

La Rosa di Bagdad is a 1949 Italian animated film by Anton Gino Domeneghini. In 1952, the film was dubbed into English, retitled The Singing Princess and dubbed by Julie Andrews as her first venture into voice-over work. The film was reissued in 1967, at the height of Andrews' subsequent Hollywood career. It is often cited as one of the first animated films from Europe and in Technicolor together with The Dynamite Brothers. It also Italy's first film in Technicolor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Graves (actor)</span> English comic actor (1876–1949)

George Windsor Graves was an English comic actor. Although he could neither sing nor dance, he became a leading comedian in musical comedies, adapting the French and Viennese opéra-bouffe style of light comic relief into a broader comedy popular with English audiences of the period. His comic portrayals did much to ensure the West End success of Véronique (1904) The Little Michus, and The Merry Widow (1907).

<i>Aladdin</i> (2011 musical) Broadway musical

Aladdin is a stage musical based on Disney's 1992 animated feature film of the same name with a book by Chad Beguelin, music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Beguelin. It resurrects three songs written by Menken and Ashman for the film but not used, and adds four songs written by Menken and Beguelin.

Aladdin and his Winter Wish is an American panto version of the Middle Eastern folk tale Aladdin. The panto's book was written by Kris Lythgoe and its music is based around classic pop tunes by artists such as Ray Charles, Coldplay, and Starship. Aladdin and his Winter Wish premiered at the Pasadena Playhouse on December 11, 2013 and ran through December 29 of the same year.

<i>Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp</i> (1982 film) 1982 Japanese film

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp is a 1982 Japanese anime fantasy film produced by Toei Animation, based on the Middle Eastern folk tale of Aladdin. The film was released in Japan on 13 March 1982 by Toei Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genie (Disney)</span> Character from Disneys Aladdin

The Genie is a fictional jinn appearing in Walt Disney Pictures' 31st animated feature film Aladdin (1992). He was voiced by Robin Williams in the first film. Following a contract dispute between Williams and Disney, Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie throughout the direct-to-video feature The Return of Jafar, as well as the television series, before Williams reprised the role for the final installment, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, as well as for the character's own mini-series, Great Minds Think for Themselves.

One Arabian Night is a 1923 British silent comedy film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring George Robey. It is based on the story of Aladdin.

<i>Aladdin and His Magic Lamp</i> (1967 film) 1967 film

Aladdin's Magic Lamp is a 1967 Soviet fantasy film directed by Boris Rytsarev based on the tale Aladdin from One Thousand and One Nights.

<i>Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp</i> (Cliff Richard and the Shadows album) 1964 pantomime cast album by Cliff Richard and the Shadows

Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp is a 1964 pantomime cast album by Cliff Richard, the Shadows, the Norrie Paramor orchestra and other members of the pantomime cast. It is Richard's twelfth album. The album reached number 13 in the UK Album Charts in a 5-week run in the top 20.

References

  1. ↑ Freedland, Michael and Michael Coveney. "Sandy Wilson obituary", The Guardian, 27 August 2014, accessed November 10, 2017
  2. ↑ "Aladdin on It's-Behind-You.com". August 21, 2010. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
  3. ↑ Sleeve notes, cast recording of Aladdin, President Records, 1980
  4. ↑ Sleeve notes, cast recording of Aladdin, President Records, 1980

Original Cast Recording — President Records PTLS 1072 (1980)

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.