Word: wazir
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...home. Throughout the play. Aladdin's spirit is large and independent enough to control his own destiny. If he is not particularly sensitive to the sufferings of his mother and father, neither does he depend on them for an identity, as does the appropriately-named Son of the Grand Wazir (who is deposited into the Princess's marriage bed by his father's influence and desire and is similarly plucked from it by forces he cannot control--or even comprehend...
There are also angry, loving, weary monologues by Aladdin's mother, delivered in suitably earth-bound settings, and consistently funny allusions to the Sultan's autonomy, as when the Grand Wazir explains to the disrespectful Scholar Wu that the Sultan has spared his life because "the absolute impotence of your attacks consoles him." Or when a Lady of the Sultan's court agrees with Aladdin's mother about the Princess's beauty: "She's a lovely girl. I say so, so should you: to do otherwise would be treason...
...Among Mayer's previous collaborators, Woodward Wickham is an unmagical magician and Andrea Portago a plebian Lady, but Francis Gitter has a compelling presence, rivetingly sad eyes, and moments of gaunt, tranquil beauty as Aladdin's mother, and Vincent Canzoneri is a wittily forthright Scholar Wu. As the Grand Wazir, David Prum reveals a precious comic style, a sublimely funny blend of ham and deadpan, and Jenny Cornuelle, a most impudently regal actress, is a flashing, mesmerizing Sultan. Maybe best of all is the Princess of Bonnie Zimmering, who has never seemed as exquisitely sculpted, as delicately, opalescently winsome...
Even the real 1953 Kismet probably could not stand up in 1978. A simple damsel (Melba Moore) with a poetic thief for a father (Ira Hawkins) ascends, through incredible accidents, to become the bride of the king of the realm (Gilbert Price) despite the machinations of the Wazir...
...into Timbuktu!-and bringing it to Broadway. Borrowing eleven songs and the plot from the 1953 hit musical, Director-Choreographer Geoffrey Holder has cast the colorful show with blacks and set it in the fabulously wealthy capital of 14th century Mali. Eartha Kitt plays the wife of the wicked Wazir who wrongs Melba Moore, a sweet young country girl. Moore, whose face is dotted with Holder's notion of tribal markings, says that she loves the chance to "kick up my heels a bit" and "to get the prince and live happily ever after-like in all the fairy...