Full Transcript for Onstage Surprises & Backstage Secrets: Inside ALADDIN on Broadway | Part 2

Right of course, all right, so the genie sets off pyrotechnics during a friend like me, which is crazy, right, thank you. 00:03:16 Speaker 1: I don't think you're doing yourself. 00:03:18 Speaker 5: Okay, And then is it true each man's gold costume and friend like me has eight thousand, six hundred I always say the word wrong swroftty crystal. 00:03:33 Speaker 2: Does somebody actually go around every night and check and make sure those crystals are still attached? 00:03:37 Speaker 4: Yes? 00:03:37 Speaker 6: Shut up, Yes, there are teams of people who handset those swafty crystals all the time. 00:03:43 Speaker 1: You see, we're talking about all the things that make the show happen. 00:03:46 Speaker 6: What they don't know is when they fall off, they become very dangerously slippery and if you find if you find one on the bottom of your shoe, you know it might be the end of you. 00:03:54 Speaker 4: But I have to say that Don Darryl is the king of seeing things that might have fallen on stage and then making up a whole reason why Iago needs to go get that thing. 00:04:09 Speaker 1: Oh how funny. 00:04:09 Speaker 4: And so sometimes I'll see something I'm like, don't even stay right here and let somebody else get it, because this is gonna I don't know what you're about to do. But he's the He's like a hawk, and it could be on the other side of the stage and the littlest, littlest thing that I'm not I'm like, how did you see that? He can be so many places at one time. It's amazing. 00:04:31 Speaker 1: I think it's the choking hazard of kids at home yest floor. And you're like, I think. 00:04:36 Speaker 6: It's a hazard, absolutely. I mean, if seventeen hundred people clock that one thing and that's all they're watching, I'm like, you gotta look at me. You can't look at this crystal on the ground, please, So I pick it up that's why I pick it up. 00:04:50 Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, and glitter here we go. 00:04:54 Speaker 2: I know over a thousand pounds half a ton, half a ton of custom mixed glitter. Husband, who's to create the Genie special sparkle. 00:05:03 Speaker 3: Right, thank you? Is that. 00:05:10 Speaker 1: You're not in charge of mixing it, So you have to tell me who is. And when you walked in here, the first thing I said to you was you still have glitter on you? Hattie? Is it always on you? 00:05:20 Speaker 3: It's always on me, it's always on my husband, it's always on my our French bulldog. And you will and you will have it. It will be on you as well if you become even within like two centimeters of me, like somehow you're like, why don't I have a piece of glitter? It's because that. Well, first of all, we have an incredible head of hair and makeup. Her name is Cheryl Thomas. We call her Aunt Cheryl, and listen, Cheryl has done Miss Piggy's makeup hair. So I'm I'm just saying, I'm just saying behind the magic, you know what I mean? So like, honey, so so we the design of it all. It is Cheryl's job to keep up that the integrity and the design of the thing. And when I and I call Cheryl the glitter monster. 00:06:12 Speaker 1: She must have glitter all over her too. 00:06:13 Speaker 3: Yes, yes, all over, And so does my dresser Kathy Klein. They just have glitter all over them. But literally, like there are times where I'm like, girl. 00:06:22 Speaker 4: You mad at me? 00:06:23 Speaker 3: Are you mad at me? Because she throws so much glitter She'll be I'll be like, I got literally look at the beer. I'm like, Cheryl, how is your day today? Because I think you might be taking it out? That glitter on my forehead. It is, it is. What's fun about it is that glitter. Glitter just makes people smile, you know, you know it's not it's not a big smile for me when I'm trying to get it off, but like it makes you smile, and it is the final touch that happens, which is such a cool It's like the armor that goes on. It's like boom, and there's the glitter and there there it is, which is so cool and and and it is a it's pretty amazing. Now, there are many stories where glitter has gotten stuck in my eye, James Monroe's eye. You know, all the genies have a glitter story like simple like I have literally swallowed glitter. So the glitter of it all is its own character and ps we have our own, we have our own blend, so it is our very own. There's a specific blend of glitter, so Aladdin blend. It's a it's a it is the Aladdin gi. Yes, it is the so the so the same blend we have. I had in Australia, I had in London when I did it, and I had it on the road in la It's a specific blend. 00:07:40 Speaker 1: It's very they make it the no. 00:07:43 Speaker 3: They make it. They actually they all get the glitter. I think it's sent to them, but they make it. And I will tell you this has seen photos of me. Baby has seen photos of me like in other countries. Like I'm on the West End and I get a text this is that glittering right, like the it's it's off, like you know what I mean? Like she knows and so it is changed like and there's like she just knows the blend and she knows what it is and she's like oh, she's like you don't have enough glitter on you, Like it's so interesting, like it's oh yeah, so you can, baby, you can't hi from sir. 00:08:26 Speaker 1: Oh no, she finds you. 00:08:28 Speaker 3: Oh yeah. 00:08:29 Speaker 1: So maybe it's the glitter moment for you. 00:08:31 Speaker 2: But is there a moment when you guys are putting on your costume, putting on your makeup, getting yourself ready, where you actually say, now I'm Jafar, Now I'm ya, Now I'm the genie. 00:08:40 Speaker 4: Yeah. Well I have to show up to the show a little bit earlier than pretty much everybody. Yeah, to get my makeup on from Aunt Chryl every day. Uh. And for me it is that my eyebrows that she puts on when she paints those on, and also my mustache. But really, when I put my turbine on and the costume, you really just feel it feels really good. Yeah, walk down. It's I have a cape and your like scepter and yes, my my my snake scepter and

yeah, so you really do. It feels like an appendage to you know, the snake staff. So yeah, so when I write, when I come out of makeup and I see the makeup, it really much fabric. 00:09:25 Speaker 3: Isn't that his costume is so beautiful? 00:09:30 Speaker 4: Maybe? 00:09:30 Speaker 3: But I don't know. 00:09:31 Speaker 4: I guess I use it, you know, it's the fact that it's that it's heavy. But I I I yeah, so yeah. 00:09:38 Speaker 1: So is it the glitter for you or no, it's good. 00:09:41 Speaker 3: It's it's the glitter, and it's also it's for me. It's zipping up my call my Genie corset if you will like the DOUBLET because I so I have to like my first look is not the blue iconic sort of genie look that for our production. It's sort of like the first of narrator narrator of the show just for Raybia nights. So and I don't even have my like my eyebrows because my eyebrows is a whole whole other thing as well, which again, Ryl, we'll see a photo of me online if somebody else is done and she's like, wait a minute, that eyebrow needs to be a little. 00:10:22 Speaker 1: We must have it. 00:10:23 Speaker 3: She will give you behind the that would be so she's incredible, But it's that moment for me. It's it's the zip up of the of that. And there's so many pieces that like snap on, like my cuffs and my sides of my costumes. And Greg Barnes, who designed our show costume designer, the legendary Greg Barnes. Every detail is so incredible. So for me, it's all those little details, and once we do the final zip up, I'm like, it's. 00:10:53 Speaker 1: How about it ya go? 00:10:55 Speaker 6: Yeah, Really it's the shoes, I think for me, really have these like giant seven inch spikes basically off the front, so it looked like a demented elf, and just walking in those shoes, which are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn on stage, and they're still my original shoes. I've never busted them anything. Twelve years later, they are still going strong carrying my big butt around. 00:11:19 Speaker 3: That stage. 00:11:21 Speaker 6: But yeah, it's the shoes for me, I think. Yeah, yeah. And you know when we when we get zipped up and buttoned into our costumes, we can't get out by ourselves. So at that point we have no choice but to be the character. 00:11:33 Speaker 7: Yeah. 00:11:33 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:11:33 Speaker 2: Do you guys have any rituals, like pre show rituals. 00:11:37 Speaker 3: Yeah, we do. We do a prayer circle and any anyone is welcome, you know, and even if you're not there, we praying for you. We pray, were praying for the building and just sort of the gift. Yeah, we pray for the audience, and it's really it's a. I mean, it's just an acknowledgement of like it's a great energy moment like for us to sort of like come and center ourselves and just put out the energy you know, for us through prayer. But it's more than a prayer. It's like it's just like good energy for the building and for our amazing you know people that are coming to see our show, Like

people are spending money to come and see us, and we we are so grateful. So we were putting out energy and just thanking them and hoping that they have a you know, a lovely time, you know. So that is a great start. It's a it's a love Yes, it's a good. 00:12:21 Speaker 4: Time for us to really focus in and say, okay, we're getting ready to do this thing, and then just our feelings about you know, the gratitude that we feel and what we wish happens for the audience. Yeah, just really protection around the building and things like that. It's a really lovely moment that we've. 00:12:38 Speaker 2: That we've now let's talk about the ghost for one second. I did hear I thought I saw an interview with somebody in this room that said they actually had an experience with the ghost that's supposed to haunt the theater. 00:12:51 Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, I remember being at the theater one time late and hearing something on the stage, like I was downstairs and I thought that I heard maybe somebody in the pit. And I was like, is somebody like practicing in the pit and they were like no, no, And I was like, Okay, I really do I believe that that that that there's spirits around that that. 00:13:17 Speaker 3: The well, all of is the all of the is the mains, but they're more, they're more alive. There's more of them, but all of is the main. She's like the you know, the head ghost and chop see she's see she she she runs it like I have had some encounters but I yell out, I'm like, ollive, nobu, I've had some encolendaries that like, I'm just I'm just loud with it so that the way she knows. I'm like, we're gonna be in a good place. I'm honoring your your home. You know, I know you were here before me. I'm just here for right now. And so I I just I'm just real loud with it because I'm like, I don't know, baby, there's time my TV has come on, my TV has come on, and I literally I could you not. I walked into my dress was like I was like, the TV's on. 00:14:17 Speaker 4: I mean, there's so much history in that building is over one hundred years old and there was an old zig Field house and so there's got to be spirits, has to be spirits floating. 00:14:27 Speaker 3: You need to do an episode. We're pitching episodes. You need to, yes, yes, but you need to do an episode about the theater because like of what they've done. Because also the people some people don't know this, but the Disney theatrical offices are on top. 00:14:40 Speaker 1: Yes. I got to go there for it was the coolest. 00:14:42 Speaker 3: Yes, so you got to talk to someone about what they did to like create the offices up there, because it's another theater on top of the theater, which is it's so cool. It's just like it's unbelievable. 00:14:53 Speaker 1: There's and stuff walking around seeing all that, I'm like, this is. 00:14:57 Speaker 3: Really it's really really cool. Yeah, I love it. 00:15:00 Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk about missteps, wardrobe malfunctions, stuff like that. 00:15:04 Speaker 1: It happened. It happens to the best of us all the time. So has that ever happened? Have you had to save each other? 00:15:10 Speaker 2: From a mistake on stage, like a line messed up or a lyric mist or something. 00:15:15 Speaker 6: Valentine's Day twenty sixteen. The original way that they would put me into my wig was with spirit gum, so I'd be glued into my wig. And there's a moment where Ja'afar shoves Iago, and unbeknownst to me, I was standing on Jaffar's cape, which is made out of velvet. So when he gave me the impetus to go, I stepped on that foot and I went straight back and down and two hundred pounds of gidr force against the steal stage. I whipped my head back and my whole wig fell off, and my microphone is in my wig right, So now I'm bald on stage and I'm trying to talk and the audience can't hear me, and Jonathan is like handing me a sandy. He's like, are you okay. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. And so then I scooped up my hair off the stage and I spoke into my wig and I said, look at me. I'm so ticked off by molting, which is like one of the lines from from the movie. That was a plan if that ever ever happened, and I had to balance that thing on my head because I couldn't put it back on. The glue was gone. So that that was my big one. 00:16:21 Speaker 1: He knows Valentine's Day. 00:16:25 Speaker 4: Ja'afar did take a tumble. It was not so long ago. I don't know what happened or why, but I you know, I have a cape that I trip on all the time basically, but you know, you wouldn't know because I'm professional. But I really did take a tumble and I had to basically crawl off the opposite side of the stage that I was supposed to and then run back around, which is very I don't know why. I felt it was really weird. It was very odd. But there was one time that I when I was a standby and I was on for the Sultan and I also covered the Sultan who was Jasmine's father, and I was there is a scene right after friend like me that is called the in one scene which is downstage of a curtain where while they change the scenery, and so I was up there and I don't know what I was doing, but I was not dressed, and basically the curtain comes down and there's this very very big fan fare, like da Dad, curtain was down, boom, and the scene is supposed to start and I'm not there, and so the Sultan has the first line. I'm in my dressing room in basically in my underwear. And then I hear over the loudspeaker denis do to the stage, and I was like, and I couldn't. And I was like, oh my god. And I said a curse word very loud that was transmit to the whole audience. So they heard me on my way down, and I was like, and I kept saying this curse word all the way down, and it must have been like two minutes like that that there was nothing happening on stage, and people were just like okay. And I really thought I was gonna get fired that day, but I'm still here. I'm still here flat it worked. 00:18:15 Speaker 1: Out, Oh my goodness. 00:18:17 Speaker 2: All right, So

let's talk about the magic carpet for a minute. First of all, when I was there, I was doing some stuff behind the stage. They let me play with the lamp. I got to see how that works with the smoke and everything. That was very cool. I said, can you show me the carpet? And I got told no, so I know it. 00:18:34 Speaker 1: I get it one hundred and forty miles on that magic carpet that's Jasmine and Aladdin. So far I have flown when you obviously you guys know how it works. Do you have to sign something that says, even when I leave the show, I will not tell people how the magic carpet works. 00:18:50 Speaker 6: You know there's a magician's code. I think that we've all agreed to okay, right, because you know, once you know a magic trick, you can't unknow it and you don't want to spoiled the secret for future guests, right, So I think there's an agreement. 00:19:03 Speaker 4: I think we have. 00:19:04 Speaker 6: It's not it's not written in blood. It might be now, but I think we've all agreed to keep the magic. 00:19:11 Speaker 3: We can give you the answer like we we are. We can give you We could give you the official answer for that. 00:19:20 Speaker 4: One two three Disney. 00:19:22 Speaker 7: Magic, all right, we know it is DIY it all is, and I choose not to tell people, right because it's like, we don't need to know everything. 00:19:33 Speaker 4: Why don't we just enjoy the magic and we don't have to know how everything works. If it was magical and you were affected by it, let's just. 00:19:40 Speaker 1: Away with that make a ride on the carpet. 00:19:42 Speaker 4: But it and I tell you it really still holds up that moment. It's an incredible moment on Broadway. 00:19:49 Speaker 1: I think, oh yeah, when when it goes across and then it's so. 00:19:52 Speaker 3: Gives you then and then they do a mic drop and they do it at the very end in full white lights. Yes, me is what. It's such a that's a such a gag. They're like they're like just okay, fine, like we'll do it and it's dark like okay like thing and then it's like white light. Yeah, we're gonna watch the carpig up. Now what now? What? Now? 00:20:15 Speaker 7: What? 00:20:15 Speaker 1: I love you? Yeah, okay, talk about family for a minute. When I was there with Gandhi, you guys made us feel like we had been part of that ensemble forever. 00:20:26 Speaker 2: Like even after we finished, you guys sang like, you know, happy Broadway to your first. 00:20:32 Speaker 1: Time and we were in tears. That family aspect, obviously it's so special. But then you have people coming and going and leaving and whatever. I mean, how does that affect everybody? 00:20:44 Speaker 2: How do you guys feel about all those things and all those emotions and how do you make it such a wonderful family. 00:20:51 Speaker 4: It's a lot. 00:20:52 Speaker 6: I think I counted correctly, but we have headshots of everyone that's been in our show, and I believe there have been one hundred and twenty seven company members that have come and gone over the last twelve years. 00:21:03 Speaker 1: Wow. 00:21:04 Speaker 6: And it's always kind of bittersweet, right, Like everyone that has come through our doors have been so great on and off stage that you want to share them with the world, but like secretly you want to keep them in our show for as long as possible. 00:21:20 Speaker 3: But it's hard. 00:21:21 Speaker 6: It's really hard because this is like for me at least, since I don't really have any family members here on the East Coast, this is my family. 00:21:28 Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I credit crazy Nikolaw for creating a space of joy to create in so our original company especially. I mean, these are still my dearest friends that I still have over on Christmas, you know what I mean. This is twelve years later. So when you're creating a Broadway show as well, it is a very intimate experience because you're all, like I said, you're trying to create this thing that you want to be successful, and we have to depend on each other, whether it is you know, we have to make sure we're in the right place at the right time so we don't get run over by something or we have to lift somebody or we you know. And so when you are creating, especially a Broadway show, you become very close, very quickly. And we have remained that building remains a pretty drama free. I mean we have how we've had our seasons of things, but basically it is. And you know, because we've been running so long, people have had the opportunity and Disney is very good about letting us leave and come back to do you know, certain things, And every I say, everybody always comes back to our building because it's it's they realize sometimes, you know, when you go somewhere else, you're like, you know what, let me go back to. 00:22:43 Speaker 1: You realize how lucky you are, How lucky you really are. 00:22:46 Speaker 4: Yeah, so it really is. It's a blessing. 00:22:50 Speaker 2: So is that what keeps you guys there twelve years later? Although I do hear something else going on over here. 00:22:57 Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's a very rare thing in our business to first of all, to be in a show that you can say has run twelve years and with family, there's always the ups and the downs. And also the thing that I find so incredibly inspiring has always been there are you know you hear about like you come in You're like you walk to the stage and you leave your the day at the door and you come in and do your show like which is definitely true in terms of like when you when you are on stage and their audience isn't They've come to see the show, right, so you've got to give them the show. But when you walk in that door, if you are having a bad day, there are people you literally know you can go to. Oh that's awesome, and that is a beautiful gift that is not just a given, you know what I mean. And that is of what I feel like a very special thing that has to do with you know, Casey and our team sort of creating that thing. And

yes, the leaving and the coming is crazy. I am leaving the show. I'm leaving the show after all this time, and it is you know, the honor of a lifetime truly. But moreover, I think for me is it's the dream that I didn't know I was going to live, right, It's the dream I didn't know I was going to really really live, to be able to have stood in this light for this long is unbelievably powerful for me to think about what has happened in these twelve years. 00:24:36 Speaker 1: You got to pinch yourself, agal, was this real. 00:24:38 Speaker 4: Or is it just a different So you never go into a Broadway show, at least in my experience, thinking that it is going to last for twelve years, right, And so the gift of being able to plan and you know, like I said before, like we're conditioned to want to do different things, but what about like having a balance, being able to plan a vacation or the amount of children that have been born in our cast as well has been a gift so that actors feel like, Okay, I can sit here for a while and I could have a child and have a family and have things that you know that we don't normally get to do and feel comfortable doing that. So it's it's really and and life adds to our artistry, right, So real life things you can only once you have the balance of a work life, you know, then you can take those things. Having a child certainly will inform your artistry. Traveling to somewhere else and experiencing other you know, places and other people does inform your artistry. So to be able to sit there and make those plans is something that is very rare in our business and so we are very lucky. 00:25:48 Speaker 2: So last thing, the curtain closes, the show is over. Each of you give me one line or one thing that you want audience members to walk away with at the end of Aladdin. It could even be a word, just a word that describes the feeling that they should have when they leave that theater at the end of the show. Don't say glitter. 00:26:13 Speaker 4: I think light is what comes to mind. Our show is very bright, and light has a lot of light perfect and that could be light, actual light, or feeling light as well. 00:26:25 Speaker 6: It's gonna sound like a joke, but I'm gonna say hungry and hungry for more art, hungry for more Broadway, hungry for more experiences, either through Disney or wherever. Just hunger for life. 00:26:41 Speaker 3: I love that. I think I'll say dream like because our show is dreamy and you get to go on you know, this sort of ride and sort of you know, because it's rooted in joy and because it's rooted in all of those beautiful things. You know, when you think about dream and you think about what that means. There's so many the idea of being that anything is possible and. 00:27:06 Speaker 1: And I want this on a T shirt. 00:27:08 Speaker 3: Yes, it's very it's very important, it really is. But I think it's the dream of it all because it's it's just so cool to get to like sit in an audience and like think about like, oh, okay, well let me dream, you know, like there's there's a like what what else is there? Like? And when you see a carpet fly in front of you, you're like, is this a dream? You know what I mean? It's so much bigger than us, And I think that that, to me, symbolizes so much more when you're seeing that in front of you, and especially for little ones, little young you know, young young kids who look up and they're seeing this thing fly around them and they're hearing this beautiful orchestra play, Like that's pretty powerful, Like that's a it's a really powerful moment that they won't ever forget it. Yeah, So I think it's dream. 00:28:00 Speaker 4: Yeah. 00:28:01 Speaker 1: Well, I love you guys. We love you on Broadway And this is it the official Disney on Broadway podcast Behind the Magic. 00:28:16 Speaker 2: We're gonna have more episodes for you coming up. And cheers took more years of Aladdin and more years of fabulousness with you Three. 00:28:25 Speaker 3: Behind the Magic 00:28:28 Speaker 4: With Danielle Monaro