The Broadway musical “Aladdin” is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and the Genies who have led it on tour and on Broadway are looking back. James Monroe Iglehart, who won a Tony Award in the role, says it “made me the actor I am today.
This undated image released by Disney Theatricals shows actors Marcus M. Martin, from left, James Monroe Iglehart, and Michael James Scott in New York. Martin, Iglehart, and Scott have portrayed Aladdin in the Disney musical. This image released by Disney Theatricals shows Michael James Scott as Genie, background left, and Michael Maliakel as Aladdin, background right, during a performance of “Aladdin on Broadway.
There are currently Genies on Broadway and on tour in the United Kingdom and United States, in Japan and Spain, all doing cartwheels, high kicking and singing “Friend Like Me.” They call it a Genie Brotherhood. “I was always told that I would have a hard time in this business because the best roles were for skinny white tenors, and I’m not any of those things,” says Martin. “So seeing James gave me permission to dream a new dream.”
“I’m such a theater nerd. I always say I’m a fan first, actor second,” he says. Martin likes to look for famous autographs on the walls or under desks in his new dressing rooms. That third Genie is Michael James Scott — the Genie that Martin and his mom saw when “Aladdin” came to Cleveland.Disney has a gravitational pull in Orlando, Florida, where Scott grew up. He performed as a younger man in the theme parks and at special events, always readying for the spotlight in New York.Scott is a Broadway veteran by now, with credits in “Mama Mia!” “Tarzan,” “Elf” and “Something Rotten!” But he calls Genie “one of those once-in-a-lifetime roles.
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