From the Niagara Falls Review:
At this time last year, producer Linus Hand recalls he was “still convincing people” a major Disney show was coming to Niagara Falls.
It didn’t matter that his company, Silver Mist Productions, had already lined up a director, secured a theatre and spent $1.6 million booking the musical “Aladdin, Jr.” Talk isn’t enough in this town, he discovered.
So he showed them.
Playing at the Greg Frewin Theatre all last summer, “Aladdin, Jr.” ended up being one of the year’s surprise hits, eventually coming back for a Christmas encore. The show impressed critics in Toronto and won over local school boards, who scooped up 16,000 tickets before the run ended.
But it’s what the show wasn’t that mattered most – cheesy, cheap and tacky.
With Disney’s seal of approval (not to mention its hefty licensing fees), “Aladdin, Jr.” was exactly what it claimed to be: Toronto-calibre theatre in Niagara Falls.
So one big Disney icon deserves another.
The good news? For its follow-up, Silver Mist has reeled in box office heavyweight “Beauty and the Beast.”