Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ is Coming to Broadway

Hold onto your magic carpet Disney fans — Aladdin is soaring into Broadway next year! The two-act play will build on the 1992 animated blockbuster with new songs, additional characters, and even, some magic tricks.

“If I look around Broadway right now, what I want to see is big production numbers. I want to see lush environments. I want surprise,” Thomas Schumacher, the president of Disney Theatrical Productions, told the Associated Press. “You want a lot of humor, which we will do. And you want heart.”

But translating an animated film into a live stage performance wasn’t all fun and games. One of the play’s biggest obstacles was figuring out how to make the shape-shifting blue genie come to life on stage. The solution: turn him into a Cab Calloway-styled vaudevillian. “I do feel pretty confident in what we’ve done with the genie,” Schumacher revealed. “When you buy a ticket and sit down in a theater, you want the live experience, not a film recreated.”

“Aladdin” will be directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw, whose previous hits include “The Book of Mormon” and “The Drowsy Chaperone.” Bob Crowley, who won a Tony for “Mary Poppins,” will design the sets.