Dazzling 'Aladdin' will prove magic for kids (but maybe not their parents)

With a marvellous onstage magic carpet ride and a guffaw-inducing genie, "Aladdin" will more than fulfil the wishes of most young theatre-goers — though it may leave some adults in the audience wanting.

The stage show — featuring music from the 1992 Disney film — had its world premiere Thursday at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, where it will run for just over a month before heading to Broadway next year.

Expectations for the show, of course, are high in the wake of wildly successful stage incarnations of other Disney films — including "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King."

"Aladdin" — about a poor boy who enlists a genie's help to win the heart of a princess — commands attention for striking sets that are drawn in a rich palette of desert hues. However, the story itself (the book is by Chad Beguelin) gets off to a slow start.

Off the bat, we meet Aladdin (Adam Jacobs) and his street performer pals, who spend their days courting trouble and cracking lame jokes (there's a reference to "Mesopotamia's Got Talent"). Over at the palace, meanwhile, Princess Jasmine (Courtney Reed) is defying dear old dad the Sultan (Clifton Davis), and rejecting suitors in a Family Channel-esque fashion.

That said, there are a heck of a lot of kids who adore the Family Channel. The youngsters in attendance on opening night seemed more than happy to sit back and eat up the simple story and the glittering sets (not to mention the cheesy asides to the audience).

Not surprisingly, "Aladdin" finally shifts into high gear with the arrival of the genie (James Monroe Iglehart) — who elicited squeals with his splashy arrival in a shimmering gold-plated cave.

It's the role made famous by Robin Williams in the film, and Iglehart's scat-singing, blue velvet-clad, curly fry-eating incarnation is an absolute scream. His rip-roarious "A Friend Like Me" received extended cheers.

That tune — and others by eight-time Oscar-winner Alan Menken (with lyrics by Howard Ashman and Tim Rice) — are the undisputed strength of "Aladdin."

In Toronto last month to promote the show, Menken explained that the Aladdin ballad "Proud of Your Boy" was cut from the movie, and later became a cult favourite when it was released on a Disney "behind the scenes" album. It's been rightfully restored here, to wonderful effect.

The breakout song from the movie — "A Whole New World" — forms the basis for the stage show's most eye-popping scene: a gorgeously rendered magic carpet ride replete with twinkling stars and colourful planets.

As "Aladdin," Jacobs does an earnest if forgettable job (his character's corny overtures toward Jasmine drew "awwws" from the audience). Jonathan Freeman is a suitably evil Jafar and Don Darryl Rivera is a standout as his nervous-Nellie sidekick.

To be sure, "Aladdin" has none of the cutting-edge innovation of recent "family" shows (there is nothing like the groundbreaking puppetry of "The Lion King" or the dancing-on-the-ceiling razzle of "Mary Poppins").

Still, the blue-chip design team (Bob Crowley, Gregg Barnes, Natasha Katz and Jim Steinmeyer) has created a visual delight and it's hard to argue with simple, straightforward fun.

Director Casey Nicholaw has served up a thoroughly satisfying confection for kids, who will no doubt delight in the swords, smoke and spectacular tunes of "Aladdin" — and will leave the theatre content to have been transported to "a whole new world."

Their parents? Maybe not so much.

"Aladdin" runs at the Ed Mirvish Theatre until Jan. 5.