The Cast of Aladdin Reveals Nine Secrets Fans Don’t Know About Life Backstage

Attention, residents of Agrabah: Disney’s Aladdin turns one year old on March 20! To celebrate, we asked Adam Jacobs, Courtney Reed and the stars of the hit Broadway musical to reveal their secrets about what goes on backstage at the New Amsterdam Theatre. From off-key singing to intense ab workouts, find out what they do behind the scenes while the magic unfolds onstage.


ADAM JACOBS (Aladdin)
"My entrance at the top of the show in 'Arabian Nights' involves riding a makeshift skateboard on my stomach behind the scenery to then hide onstage behind a building! Once there, I like to hang from the poles to stretch my arms, then join in the ad-libbing while the girls are dancing with the silks, saying phrases like, 'Is this a mirage I see?' and 'Such beauty in Agrabah!'"


COURTNEY REED (Jasmine)
"Adam Jacobs and I always high five while we pass each other backstage after he sings 'Proud of Your Boy' and before my first entrance."


JAMES MONROE IGLEHART (Genie)
"I mark through 'Friend Like Me' in my dressing room before I perform it every show. Yes, the whole song! I also always try to see each cast member before I go onstage. I give them each a hug, a fist bump or a joke. I call it 'touching and agreeing.' It's a sign we’re all on the page to have a good show."


JONATHAN FREEMAN (Jafar)
"There is a moment during the opening number before Donny Ribs (a.k.a. Don Darryl Rivera) and I enter upstage right where Victor (our house propsman) tries to run me over with a marketplace cart and I threaten a different lawsuit each night; then, at the end of the show, right after Barry (my dresser) preps my trick costume in the wings for my final scene, he always says, 'OK, everything’s OK down south, and I’m gonna see ya over yonder,' meaning in the trap room under the stage after Jafar’s demise."


CLIFTON DAVIS (Sultan)
"The first time I met Courtney, I showed her a picture of my real-life daughter and we both agreed that she looks just like her. It’s uncanny! It started us off on the right path—she’s my baby girl!"


DON DARRYL RIVERA (Iago)
"After the Disney Medley in 'Friend Like Me,' there's a series of crosses backstage (when we're all clear to move around without getting in the way), and we all high five as we pass each other! Cast, stage hands, dressers, stage managers—everybody!"


STEEL BURKHARDT (Kassim)
"There’s a special catwalk way at the top of the New Amsterdam Theatre that was built as a 'landing deck' for Mary’s flight over the audience at the end of Mary Poppins—it’s called the 'Mary Bridge.” The handful of us who aren’t in 'Friend Like Me' go up there to watch James Monroe Iglehart, Adam Jacobs and the ensemble kill it onstage and stop the show."


BRIAN GONZALES (Babkak)
"Don Darryl Rivera and I usually finish off act one by singing along with 'Proud of Your Boy (Reprise)' as off-pitch as we possibly can."


JONATHAN SCHWARTZ (Omar)
"My dressing roommate Steel Burkhardt and I push each other through Ab Ripper X together in our dressing room before the show. We hate it, but we love it!"

Photos by Matthew Murphy, Deen van Meer and Cylia von Tiedemann.