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.
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. mom took him to see the animated Disney movie “Aladdin” as a high-school graduation gift in 1992. He fell in love with the Genie, naturally.
“I kind of just tell the guys, ‘Listen, make sure that you give your authentic self. You don’t have to play it like me,’” Iglehart says. “As long as you bring your brand of silliness and comedy and heart and realness to it, the audience will accept it.” “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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The 'Aladdin' stage musical turns 10 this month. Here are the magical stories of three GeniesThe 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.
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