Audience participation doesn’t usually start until after a performance has begun. This rainy afternoon in Scarborough, though, things aren’t going to plan. Somebody from front of house is telling us that the actor playing the role of Genie is indisposed.
Can the show go on, given the crucial role of this mighty djinn – as necessary to the plot of Nick Lane’s present-day adaptation of Aladdin as to the original story by 17th-century Syrian writer Ḥannā Diyāb? It can! Musical director Alex Weatherhill will play the part (he is also an actor). Will we help him by cheering him along? “Yes!” roar rows of children, festooned with sparkling things and flashing lights. “Yes!” echo the adults – and we’re off.
