Cast portraits for Disney’s Aladdin UK and Ireland tour released

Cast portraits have been revealed for the first UK and Ireland tour of Disney’s Aladdin – which begins performances later this month.

The much-loved musical will open in Edinburgh, followed by dates in Cardiff, Plymouth, Sunderland, Milton Keynes, Manchester, Bristol, Bradford, Southampton, Birmingham, Glasgow and Liverpool.

Yeukayi Ushe (Disney’s The Lion King, A Strange Loop, Kinky Boots and Motown The Musical) will star as Genie, while the touring production will introduce Gavin Adams – a recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music – as Aladdin.

Fellow RAM graduate Desmonda Cathabel (Miss Saigon, From Here to Eternity) will play Jasmine when the show opens in Edinburgh, with casting for the role in future venues to be announced in due course.

They will be joined by Adam Strong (Rock of Ages, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) as Jafar, Jo Servi (Dreamgirls, The Color Purple) as Sultan, Angelo Paragoso (The Reporter, Miss Saigon) as Iago, Nay-Nay (Once On This Island) as Kassim, Adam Taylor (Cabaret, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie) as Omar, and Nelson Bettencourt (Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Les Misérables) as Babkak.

The full cast will also include Hannah Amin, Dammi Aregbeshola, Rico Bakker, Daisy Barnett, Sarah Benbelaid, Erin Gisele Chapman, Tau-En Chien, Zac Frieze, Jared Irving, Juan Jackson, James Lim, Harriet Millier, Luchia Moss, Aaron Elijah Patel, Abbie Platts, Joseph Poulton, Chris Ribz, Olivier Scheers, Kerry Spark, Ricardo Spriggs, Damien Winchester, Niko Wirachman.

Adapted from Disney’s 1992 animated film and centuries-old folktales including “One Thousand and One Nights”, the stage musical was first seen on Broadway in March 2014, while nine subsequent productions have launched around the world. The piece also played over 1200 performances at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End.

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It has new music by eight-time Acadamy Award-winner Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Sister Act), lyrics by two-time Academy Award winner Howard Ashman (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid), three-time Academy Award winner Tim Rice (The Lion King, Evita, Aida) and six-time Tony nominee Chad Beguelin (The Prom, The Wedding Singer) with a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw (The Book of Mormon). It is designed by scenic designer Bob Crowley, lighting designer Natasha Katz, costume designer Gregg Barnes and sound designer Ken Travis.

The production team also includes illusion designers Jim Steinmeyer and Rob Lake, hair designer Josh Marquette and makeup designer Milagros Medina-Cerdeira.

You can watch our exclusive interview with Ushe and Adams here:

The music team is headed by music supervisor and music director Michael Kosarin, who also created the vocal and incidental music arrangements, joined by orchestrator Danny Troob and dance music arranger Glen Kelly. Ben Clare is the associate director, Kyle Seeley is the dance supervisor, Jason Trubitt is the production supervisor and Myriah Bash is the US general manager. Casting is by Jill Green CDG.

Tickets for select dates are on sale below, with additional dates on sale soon.