It’s a whole new world for ‘Aladdin’

Can a 40-minute theme park stage show compete with the siren call of thrill rides, souvenir shops and churro stands?

“Disney’s Aladdin -- A Musical Spectacular,” which opens today at Disney’s California Adventure in the ornately decorated 2,000-seat Hyperion Theatre, may not live up to its heap o’ advance billing, but its press preview last week proved that “Aladdin” is, indeed, several rungs above other theme park shows.

A lavish romp, well-executed by theater pros, with some big-ticket theatrical tricks, it should keep patrons parked in their seats from its lightning-storm opening through its stylish curtain call.

Though far from achieving the scope and splendor that transcended a good deal of “The Lion King’s” cartoon origins, “Aladdin” does depart from the original with exotic “Lion King”-style touches from puppet designers Anita Yavitch and Michael Curry: illuminated camels, pyramids and the Sphinx and an eye-filling royal procession with a life-sized elephant and elegant white horses.

Staged by noted director Francesca Zambello -- her next project is Berlioz’s “Les Troyens” for New York’s Metropolitan Opera -- and choreographed by Tony Award nominee Lynne Taylor-Corbett, the show has high points that are literally just that: The Genie (Nick Santa Maria) seemingly rockets out of the magic lamp into the dim reaches of the cavernous theater’s ceiling, only to appear an instant later on stage in a gush of fog.

Aladdin and Princess Jasmine sing their romantic duet, “A Whole New World,” on a magic carpet that soars over the audience’s heads, swooping and banking against a night sky of stars and a giant, gold crescent moon. Evil Jafar’s transformation into a cobra that looms up to the balcony is another crowd-pleaser, although the thrashing cobra tail that menaces Aladdin (Michael K. Lee) is a weak effect.

The story, however, written by Chad Beguelin, zips by like a fast-forward version of the screenplay from which it’s adapted.

Prerecorded music is over-amplified, and vocals sound electronically enhanced, but among the songs by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman and Tim Rice that survive from the film, Princess Jasmine’s “To Be Free,” newly written by Menken for the show and sung in Deedee Magno’s sweet, velvety soprano, is a rare pause in the breakneck speed.

Despite the pace, care in casting is apparent. Ron Buttler is underused giving voice to wisecracking parrot puppet Iago, but Jonathan Peck is a commanding Jafar and Lee offers sincere youthful appeal. Santa Maria fuels the hilarity nearly solo as Genie, fronting a glitzy giggle of a chorus line of top-hatted Genie look-alikes and lobbing puns, impersonations and jokes at the audience with comic timing worthy of the original Genie, Robin Williams. (The musical is double-cast, with other professional actors performing the leads in some of the daily shows.)

Peter J. Davison’s decorative, Eastern-style set design and Yavitch’s sumptuous, vivid “Arabian Nights” costumes dress things up with a bang; lighting designer Mark McCullough’s visual magic is key, making an enormous contribution to mood and action.

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‘Disney’s Aladdin -- A Musical Spectacular’

Where: California Adventure, 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim

When: Mondays-Sundays, several times daily; times vary.

Ends: Runs indefinitely.

Price: Free with park admission: $47; ages 3 to 9, $37; younger than 3 admitted free.

Contact: (714) 781-4565

Running time: 40 minutes