One of my first questions is for you. You mention in the playbill that Jasmine isย your favorite character and that you’ve loved her everย sinceย you were little so I wanted to know what did you think about this change- and I know that it was originally supposed to be in the movie but Jasmine has three friends now instead of a tiger. How do you think that’s changed her character?
Reed: I don’t think it’s actually changed her character very much. I think, people are so funny, they joke around to me all the time, they’re like yeah but what about Raja? Raja, where’s Raja? What about the monkey? They’re so freaked out about it but by the time they see the show, they’re like oh. We didn’t even miss this character. I think it would have been super cool, yeah, to have a live tiger, but I don’t know. That would have been terrifying. Every night? Nah. No one would pay attention to me at all. They just- they wouldn’t care! No one would care about me, they’d just be watching him the whole time. But I don’t think it’s changed the character much. I think in fact it’s probably enhanced her character, because it parallels the three friends with Aladdin, so he has his three friends, I get to have my three friends. She has this sort of support group and I think especially within these palace walls, they are really the ones who encourage her to go out to the marketplace and see the world. And so that’s so good. It’s also nice to have other ladies backing you onstage, like Destiny’s Child, so that’s good.
It’s really an ensemble production. That’s what I kept coming back to, so how do you think it fits in that unlike the movie there are all these very real three dimensional characters? It’s not just Aladdin and Jasmine against the backdrop of the city of Agrabah, but it’s all these other characters with their own stories.ย
Reed: You want to take that one Jonathan?
Freeman: No, you take it. You have more to say about that, actually I think.
Reed: You know, I think, I always feel like the ensemble of any show…and especially our show. They are doing so much work and aren’t as celebrated as the leads, you know. They’re literally, there are girls standing in columns for four minutes before the columns drop, there are girls doing choreography with silk, guys are fighting with swords, knife-fighting, they have to do quick changes in 9 seconds- it’s some of the hardest work on Broadway and I feel like they don’t get appreciated. Without that, you don’t have a show at all. You don’t have your ensemble, and an incredible ensemble. Our director would always speak about the ensemble, and how much our ensemble- not just dancing and singing their faces off- but also how much they were investing in their characters. Like that fruit vendor- oh, he has a story, he has an arc. So it’s not just these random characters moving about. These are real people, who have a story, you can tell where they just came from. The woman who’s walking around with theย baby, what’s her relationship with the baby-
Freeman: I think they really help create Agrabah. Not the sets and the lights, I mean all of that, but it’s the activity and the energy. They create real energy onstage. They really create energy. And even the guards! The guards with those snakes on their shoulders, you know, all of it- it’s like they really make it happen. And I feel like sort of they kind of power it a little bit, because there’s a lot of energy under it to keep it going.
Reed: Yeah. They’re so talented too. Not just onstage, but offstage they have so many other talents. You wouldn’t even believe- like we have a guy who can edit and shoot a film, and just put up a masterpiece in ten minutes, and people who have these crazy voices where they’re riffing all day and making music videos on the side- and he’s a magician, and some of these people have kids! It’s like, it’s unbelievable! It’s very inspirational!
I also wanted to ask you. Jafar is a very elegant villain, and it seems like this is a theme that we keep seeing in Disney films, the elegant villain time and time again, and what do you think of these villains that seem so aristocratic?
Freeman: Well, there are a few villains that are not, but you’re right. There are a lot of villains that are, high percentage. I think that it’s because of a certain duplicitousness-
Reed: Ooh.
Freeman: Good word, right? I hope it’s a real word. That creates something that is like, it’s very powerful in a ย way, I think. I think when you don’t really know how someone’s going to behave. It’s like if the curtain goes up and there are a lot of doors, and you don’t know what’s going to come out of these doors, like what’s going to walk through that door next? SO if you have this villain who seems to be very elegant, very luxuries, and you know that as soon as the person goes through the door and the door closes again, and that person just goes psychotic and lose his mind. I do think there’s something to that, it helps power the story also. There is something to this idea, of what’s going to happen next. We don’t know what he’s going to do next, because now he’s so nice, oh now he’s so….perhaps thats it, I don’t know. I think also from a visual standpoint, a graphic standpoint, in the animation world it’s a lot of fun. A lot of fun to have those smooth, beautiful, I like to say that Disney villains have a certain cruel beauty. I like that idea. It appeals to me, as I’m sure it appeals to other people.
And appeal it does. Aladdin on Broadway has tickets on sale through the end of December, with more coming soon.
