The Disney’s Aladdin

The Disney’s Aladdin: A Musical Extravaganza

The Disney’s Aladdin: A Musical Extravaganza is a show that primarily draws inspiration from the 1992 animated picture “Aladdin,” which features music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice.

The Main Conflict

On September 9th, 2015, the Hyperion Theater in Hollywood, California, hosted the final performance of this play. Whoever owns the magic lamp will have all the power he could ever want, hence this will be the main source of conflict in the play. Additionally, the character’s death would result from his inability to obtain the lamp.

The Protagonist and Antagonist

The protagonist in the play is Aladdin who is the only one who can enter the cave while the antagonist is Jafar who wants to kill Aladdin even after he gets the magic lamp for him. He is also hostile and has so much greed for power which makes him get trapped in the lamp.

Symbolism

This play falls in the genre symbolic as the different characters have been used to symbolize the difference that people have in the society (Whitfield, 37). For instance, Aladdin represents the poor in the society, Jasmine represents the rich who are considerate of the poor while Sultan are the rich people who despise the poor people and believe that his daughter can only be marries to a prince. Jafer represents the greedy people in the society who won’t stop at anything to get what they desire.

Relevance to Today’s Society

The themes of love are relevant to the society today as love has no boundaries. The rich can fall in love with the poor and vice versa. The main determinant is the attitude and the heart of a person together with their intentions. My emotional response was that it was nice to bring the rich and the poor to fall in love no matter their differences and show that love conquers it all.

Plot Summary

On the plot of the play, it starts with the audience being introduced to a traveller who is headed to Agrabah and requests to pass time using a tale which is the ’Tale of the Magic Lamp“. In this way, the actors of the tale are able to take the stage for the tale for the rest of the show. Jafar who is the Vizier to Sultan of Agrabah is trying to access the cave in order to get the magical oil that has a genie. He is accompanied by his talking parrot and they realized that the metaphorical Diamond in the Rough as the only one who can enter the cave and anyone who accompanies him.

Aladdin’s Encounter with the Guards

On the next scene, Aladdin is in the market place and is trying to run away from the guards and when he finally escapes from the guards everything goes back to normal but bumps to a girl who he likes and steals an apple and gives it to the girl and tries to impress her. Unfortunately, the girl refuses the apple but Aladdin insists telling her that she seems as if she is running away from someone and may need help running (Rahayu, 46). The girl accepts the apple and immediately Aladdin is surrounded by the guards who have caught up with him. The two are seized by the guards and Aladdin tries to tell the guards that the girl is innocent while the girl tries to free herself. The girl tells the guards to let them go and the guards laugh historically and say that she is commanding them as if she was the princess. Immediately, the girl takes off the scarf that she is wearing and indeed she is the princess. She orders them to free them and let Aladdin go. The guards comply and free Aladdin and immediately the girl leaves.

The Trapped Aladdin and the Genie

Immediately the guards leave, the guards seize Aladdin again and tell him that they have the authority to punish the offenders in the market place and would not let him go and would cut off his hand even if the princess is on his side. Before they cut his hand, an old man who claims to be his father arrives and saves him by bribing the guards and asking them to free Aladdin. This man is Jafar who had consulted the Oracle and was told that Aladdin is the Diamond in the Rough and therefore takes him to the Cave of wonders where he forces him to get in and get the lamp. He also warns him not to touch anything besides the lamp. However, when he is inside, he accidentally knocks something over which makes the treasures start to disappear. He quickly takes the lamp before it disappears and moves for cover since the cave is falling. After the ordeal, he realizes that he has been trapped inside where he meets with the magic carpet that asks him to rub the lamp and the genie appears. The genie asks Aladdin to make three wishes and gives some conditions for the wishes.

Jasmine and Jafar

In the next scene, Jasmine goes to Jafar and asks him to let Aladdin have a free trial but he said he had a better purpose for Aladdin. I dislike the character of Jafar since he is corrupt and is using Aladdin for his own benefit. That is a slavery act since he claims that he paid for him. Aladdin uses the first wish to free himself from the cave and arrives as a prince which is his second wish. He now asks Jasmine to marry him and she runs off. Aladdin follows her and Jasmine tells him that he only wants to marry her for her wealth. To prove that this is not the case, he is asked to jump from the balcony which he does falling on the magic carpet. He asks Jasmine to take a ride with him where they sing the song of ”A whole new world“ which is quite effective as the two are from two different worlds of the rich and the poor but love brings them together to one world. At the end of the carpet ride, they kiss and Jasmine says that she needs to talk to his father. Genie later comes into the room and asks Aladdin to fulfill his third promise which was to free Genie, and he refuses, making the Genie leave the room angrily. Immediately, Jafar and a few guards enter the room and arrest Aladdin. Jafar takes the lamp and rubs it and wishes to become the Sultan and secondly to be the Most powerful sorcerer in the World. He prepares to kill Aladdin but Aladdin tricks him that Genie is more powerful than him and therefore used the third wish to become Genie, and immediately he is sucked inside the Magic Lamp. Aladdin tells the Sultan that he still wants to marry Jasmine and he agrees. He later makes his last wish to free the Genie, and the Genie and Carpet depart from Disney land.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the play was amazing and there was full participation from the audience. They were able to clap whenever there was a song and laugh whenever the play was funny. The act of rolling the aisles made the play more interesting as the audience enjoyed in harmony. This is a play that I would recommend to any person as it has a lesson that, if not followed, there is a consequence that will follow.

References

Whitfield, Sarah. ”‘For the First Time in Forever’: Locating Frozen as a Feminist Disney Musical.“ The Disney Musical on Stage and Screen: Critical Approaches from’Snow White’to’Frozen’ (2017): 221.

Rahayu, Mundi, Irwan Abdullah, and Wening Udasmoro. ”“ALADDIN” FROM ARABIAN NIGHTS TO DISNEY: THE CHANGE OF DISCOURSE AND IDEOLOGY.” LiNGUA: Jurnal Ilmu Bahasa dan Sastra 10.1 (2015): 24-34.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB5DIv555MQ