Theater review: ‘Aladdin’ offers a solid and sparkling Broadway in Fresno experience, but the sound isn’t as magical

By Donald Munro

Want to know the first of my three wishes?

That the Genie would turn down the volume.

“Disney’s Aladdin” is big, bright, beautifully staged – and loud. Please hear me out, because I don’t think this is just a decrepit-post-50 cranky-critic complaint. My iPhone informed me several times during Wednesday’s opening-night performance that the decibel level in the Saroyan Theatre was problematic.

Beyond that, this national touring production has a lot to recommend, especially in terms of dazzle and stagecraft. Here’s a review rundown:

Loud and muffled. I can deal with high volume, but, to me, I felt like the amplification for the orchestra wasn’t balanced properly. As my friend Jeremy put it, the audio for instrumentation was set higher than the audio for vocals, drowning out the singers. Before people jump all over the Saroyan Theatre acoustics, which is a popular pastime, let me say that I could hear the individual vocal lines quite clearly during softer moments. When the orchestra was at full volume, that’s when the muffling was prominent. (And, remember, the Saroyan is just an empty shell without sound equipment of its own; it’s up to the tour’s sound technicians to make things balanced and audible.)

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The storyline is comfortably familiar. As a result of the sound, I missed some of the lyrics, particularly those of the Genie (an amiable, hard-working Marcus M. Martin) during “Friend Like Me.” So I feel as if I missed some of the choice comic bits. But it’s not as if we’re dealing with a hard-to-follow plot. There’s no need to go into the backstory of Aladdin, Jasmine, the Genie and all those other familiar Disney roles. (Including the Sultan, who obviously missed the lesson in his Benevolent Despots 101 class in which you should avoid hiring administrators who accessorize with cobra staffs.) All the familiar plot points are here: the budding Aladdin-Jasmine romance; the dastardly schemes of Jafar; the power dynamic between Aladdin and the Genie, including a promise of “freedom.” We also have the ever-present awkward racial dynamics of having a Black actor playing a fantastical slave – yet also having life-and-death power over his “master” – in a scenario that it probably pays not to overthink about.

Related story: THEATER PREVIEW: AS ‘ALADDIN’ TOUR OPENS IN FRESNO, IT’LL BE A HOMECOMING FOR VISALIA NATIVE EDWARD CUELLAR

The performances are energetic and accomplished. Besides Martin’s manic Genie, the principals in the show deliver Broadway-quality performances. (News flash: Adi Roy, who plays Aladdin, will transfer to the Broadway production to play the title role on June 4.) I like how Roy brings a brisk, youthful scamper to Aladdin. He comes across more as a teen and less as a Broadway actor playing a teen. Senzel Ahmady’s Jasmine seems well-matched in age to Aladdin, with that same youthful vibe, and is able to push Disney’s woman-empowerment angle without making it seem too forced. (Although for such an intelligent person, how can her character not recognize Aladdin when he pops up again disguised as a prince? He still has the same cleavage). A sidekick standout is Nathan Levy’s breezy Omar, whose character could come across as overeager puppy but instead effects a bemused insouciance. My favorite of the bunch is Anand Nagraj’s evil Jafar, whose booming bass voice scoops down lower than a vein of coal.

Swing alert: Big shoutout to Edward Cuellar, the Visalia native I wrote about as a preview for the show. He went on in an ensemble role on opening night, so he spent a lot more time on the Saroyan Theatre stage on his second time around. (Read the piece to get the backstory.)

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The show sparkles. Literally. Best scenic moment comes when we enter the Cave of Wonders, which is piled high with enough glittering merchandise to fill an Orloff Jewelers trunk show. And the production’s glitzy costume design delivers all that you’d expect. The show has a buffed (and buff) style, from the bodies to the scenery, and several visual effects elevate the wow factor.

Air-traffic control to flying carpet: Polished as “Aladdin” is, it still leaves me a little cold. The closest I came to an emotional connection at the Fresno show was with the “A Whole New World” flying carpet sequence. When the pair goes airborne, I gaped at the spectacle – and felt that familiar musical-theater “happy thrill” in my soul when a production really gets to me. In this case, the stagecraft is what really makes “Aladdin” fly.