Will Disney Release Broadway’s Aladdin Pro-shot for 30th Anniversary?

Today we perform our regular status check on the upcoming pro-shot of Disney's Aladdin and try to figure out when the musical will finally be released publicly. Has anything new appeared online to indicate an upcoming release?

Here's everything we know about the release of "Aladdin: The Broadway Musical":

Aladdin was filmed live shortly after closing in the West End in 2019 by STEAM Motion & Sound, known for such pro-shots as Kinky Boots, Newsies the Musical, Heathers the Musical, and the upcoming Waitress on Broadway and The Prince of Egypt. Co-Founder Brett Sullivan directed the capture himself.

Disney opted to have the show filmed with an all-star international cast which joined the closing West End ensemble at the musical's London home. The principal cast included Ainsley Melham as Aladdin (Broadway and Australia company), Trevor Dion Nicholas as Genie (Final West End cast), Isabelle McCalla as Jasmine (National Tour and Broadway company), and Jonathan Freeman as Jafar (Broadway company).

The invited cast participated in a week-long filming process at the Prince Edwards Theatre under the guidance of original director and choreographer Casey Nicholaw. Following 5 days of run-throughs in an empty theater, the week concluded with one special invite-only performance in front of a live audience, who was instructed to keep the filming a secret.

Disney fan and blogger Chris Lyne, who attended the filming back in 2019, said "the energy and passion that the [international] cast brought to the stage was simply electric and the [filmed] show is just a joy to behold". Lyne also took a photo of the cast list published at the theatre lobby, which further confirms the complete casting for the recording.

With both the Broadway production and US tour running at the time of filming, Disney specifically chose to capture the show in the West End due to the reduced costs in doing so. Past examples include Nickelodeon, who shipped the entire set and Broadway company of SpongeBob The Musical in 2019 to the UK specifically to film the show for release, while the US tour was still running. Streaming site BroadwayHD, which was established on the premise of filming Broadway shows, mostly film their musical productions in the UK (42nd Street, An American in Paris, Kinky Boots).

Aladdin was originally scheduled to be released the following year, with media assets and trailers produced for the original release date during the 2020 holiday season. In September of the same year fans were surprised to find the filmed capture on Apple TV, when the streaming platform accidentally added the movie to its lineup of Disney+ originals being released soon, clearly stating 2020 as a release year and uncovering its official title: Aladdin: The Broadway Musical (even though the show was captured in London).

While no official statements were ever given on either the speculated original release date or the said delay, it is assumed plans changed when the pandemic forced streaming projects to change release dates and feature films to be released straight onto the Disney+ platform.

In May 2020 Disney+ announced they decided to bring forward the release of the Hamilton live capture from October 2021 to July 2020. By pushing the release of Aladdin, Disney managed to keep the Hamilton momentum going throughout the rest of 2020, without promoting another Broadway musical on their platform.

Analysts predicted and were right about Hamilton being a huge blockbuster for Disney - the filmed production earned the channel a constant stream of new subscribers throughout 2020, with the platform tripling its subscriber numbers in the months following the release.

An alternative release date for the 2021 holiday season was soon scrapped as well when the Broadway production, which re-opened in October 2021 did not manage to build the advance sales Disney was hoping for. Following a shaky opening in October, the musical kept grossing less than its weekly nut of a million dollars and was constantly losing money every week. 

With such a shaky return to Broadway, it is likely that parent company Disney decided to "stabilize" the production on stage before releasing the filmed capture which has the potential to harm ticket sales if parents deem the Broadway experience not safe yet for unvaccinated children and decide to stream the show at home instead.

So when will Aladdin: The Broadway Musical finally appear on Disney+?

Following two years of delays and pushbacks, a number of sharp-eyed readers noticed that Brett Sullivan, co-founder of STEAM Motion & Sound and Director of Aladdin: The Broadway Musical has the year 2022 listed as an expected release date for the pro-shot on his Wikipedia page.

While this is still not an official confirmation from the mouse himself, that is likely as close as a confirmation we're going to get until Disney drops the trailer for the filmed production.

The year 2022 also represents the 30th anniversary of the original film, which was released on November 25th, 1992. This perfectly aligns with Disney's original plan to release the capture during the holiday season, while also giving Aladdin fans a special treat for its anniversary.

So, would we finally see Aladdin: The Broadway Musical coming in November? 

Check out our full Schedule of Upcoming and Announced Filmed Stage Musicals for more musicals that are awaiting release.