How Aladdin on Broadway Made Rodney Ingram's Wishes Come True

The stage of Aladdin at Broadway’s New Amsterdam Theatre has been home to the most important moments of Rodney Ingram’s life. It was there that he made his Broadway debut, proposed to his now-wife and fellow Aladdin cast member Sonia Monroy and saw his dreams come true. Ingram spoke with Broadway.com Managing Editor Beth Stevens about returning to play the charming street rat, whose ambition mirrored Ingram’s own drive to enter show business.

Ingram now gets to introduce audiences to “A Whole New World” and the magic of live theater. His own love of musical theater began with his mother. “My love for the classics and the Rodgers and Hammersteins and the Lerner and Loewes was directly because of my mom introducing me to the movie musical.”

Raised in Mexico, Ingram fed his growing love of musicals with VHS tapes. “I remember watching the two-part VHS Fiddler on the Roof, and I thought, ‘Wow, this transports you to Anatevka.’” Ingram would later play Tevye, the milkman father of five, in his high school production. “I'm in Mexico, no connection to pre-revolutionary Russia. And yet, absolutely in love with that story of tradition.”

That love was matched by determination, especially after a discouraging start. "I remember getting rejected from every—no exception—every musical theater program," he says. He later re-auditioned for New York conservatory CAP21 and was accepted. "I took it upon myself to just soak up all the information I could, and I really, really was so hungry for it."

That determination paid off with auditions for both Aladdin and Phantom of the Opera, and he booked them both. Ingram made his Broadway debut in the ensemble of Aladdin, understudying the title role, before going on to play Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera.

During his Phantom run, Ingram found time for life outside the theater. "I got to go to Rockaway [Beach], rent a surfboard, surf by day, and then play Raoul in Phantom of the Opera by night,” he shares. “I felt like the coolest kid on the block.” His career would eventually take him well beyond New York. He went on to open Aladdin in Mexico City in the title role, in the same production where he met his wife, Sonia Monroy. After Monroy left to do the national tour of the musical, Ingram followed her to Anchorage, Alaska, among other stops. Eventually, Aladdin brought them back to the New Amsterdam Theatre, where Ingram got down on one knee and proposed.

Years after first joining the company, Ingram has returned in the title role, a responsibility he doesn't take lightly. “Alongside my great co-stars—Caleb [A. Barnett] as Genie and Sonya [Balsara] as Jasmine—we get to be somewhat at the helm of this thing," he says. "I remember from being in the ensemble, and I still remark on it today, the ensemble creates the environment and the magic and invites the people into the story.”

The demands of an eight-show week haven't diminished Ingram's enthusiasm for the job. "It's not a chore to go to work, and I mean that seriously," he says. "I think eight shows a week is certainly hard work, but this is exactly the work that I prayed about and wanted to do for so long."

Ingram's first experience with Aladdin on Broadway was from the audience. In 2014, he scored a ticket in the last row of the balcony. "Even from the very last row, when ‘Friend Like Me' happened, gosh, it seemed like a two-minute standing ovation," he recalls. "I actually remember calling my mom and saying, you know, 'I really want to do this.'"

Today, he thinks about the people sitting where he once sat. At the stage door, audience members regularly tell him Aladdin is their first Broadway show. "I remember that was me at some point," he says. "It was just a life-changing experience in so many ways.” For Ingram, the wish really did come true.

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