WISHES COME TRUE
AS A MUSICAL CHILD IN VICTORIA, GARETH JACOBS COULD ONLY DREAM OF THE ROLE HE’S NOW PLAYING, THE GENIE IN THE LEGENDARY ALADDIN
In a glass-topped cabinet sit more than two dozen gleaming gold statues. The eight Oscars are instantly recognisable. There are Golden Globes and Grammys too, but it’s another award that catches Gareth Jacobs’ eye.
It’s a silver medallion, nickle-plated brass to be precise, mounted in a swivel – the Tony Award.
It’s the accolade he hopes to earn himself one day. For now, he’s happy to feel its weight in his hands as its owner, composer Alan Menken, gingerly removes it from its display.
Jacobs has spent the past 18 months singing some of Menken’s most beloved songs in the Australian production of Aladdin the Musical, and just before Christmas he took over the coveted lead role of the Genie from departing American Michael James Scott.
Being invited into the inner sanctum of the show’s musical master – Menken is known for penning the catchy tunes for some of Disney’s most popular animated films including Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas and Hercules –isan honour and Jacobs isn’t afraid to admit he’s “geeking out”.
Movie posters, original artwork, memorabilia and platinum records line the walls of Menken’s home studio in North Salem, about an hour’s drive outside New York City where Aladdin has been playing to packed audiences on Broadway for nearly four years.
“It’s one of those things where you go, ‘that would be cool to go and do that’, but being there it was so surreal,” Jacobs says.
“Knowing his back catalogue and seeing all of his accolades and the posters of the shows he’s done, it is my childhood.”
A round room with baby grand piano is connected by a hallway to the studio proper, which houses a soundboard, TV and computer screens and a keyboard.
Despite all of the impressive awards, pictures from film sets (including the upcoming live action remake of Aladdin starring Will Smith) and fan letters, the studio doesn’t say “look at me”. It has a warm, homely feeling where a stuffed animal version of Sebastian from The Little Mermaid sits with as much pride as an Academy Award.
Menken is one of only 18 people to achieve the coveted EGOT – the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards – also known as the “grand slam” in show business.
It isn’t long before he is tinkling away at the piano keys, and Jacobs joins in a singalong which jumps from Friend Like Me to Part of Your World to Be Our Guest.
Menken praises our new Aussie Genie, saying he has an incredible charisma and energy and a “voice that goes to the stratosphere”.
We spend nearly an hour with Menken before he has to move on to other work. He’s busily preparing for a trip to Japan as part of a concert tour and needs to rehearse for the two-hour show.
Menken visited Australia for the first time in 2016 for Aladdin, as well as to promote his work on Disney’s blockbuster live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast, and says he is keen to return to our shores – although he’s not sure when his schedule will allow.
“There’s a lightness to being there that feels liberating and fresh,” he says.
Growing up in the picturesque surrounds of Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Jacobs was always a musical child.
“You couldn’t keep me quiet at home,” he says. “We’d have friends and family over and the kids would all get together and we’d try to perform. The one we mostly performed was Grease because there was a guy and a girl.”
He was hooked on live theatre from the age of nine when his mother took him to see Phantom of the Opera, which he admits is “quite a heavy one” for a kid. Fittingly, Aladdin is the first Disney film he remembers watching as a kid.
“For me Disney started with Aladdin because of how old I was; it was the magic of it all,” he says.
“I can remember seeing it at an age where I understood everything, and I’m now living that same dream with the eight-year-old kid inside me.”
The first time he took over the role from Scott at the end of last year in Melbourne was an emotional milestone for Jacobs, 35, who has had a bumpy road to the top of the playbill, including everything from entertaining passengers on cruise ships in the Caribbean to a brief stint on The X Factor.
“I got really emotional at the end of the show. I turned upstage and looked at the cast and that’s when it hit me. It wasn’t when the curtain opened; it wasn’t halfway through the show; it was that last line I delivered and turned up to look at everyone and thought, ‘This is real. This is me now’,” he says.
“There is a very niche category I fit into in music theatre and those (big) roles don’t come along very often. Having something like this happen just put that really lovely bow on to the top of that present of going, ‘This is where I am supposed to be in life’.
“It just solidified I’m in the right place at the right time.”
Playing the larger-than-life Genie eight times a week is a dream come true, but it’s also a demanding job. Jacobs describes the role as being “shot out of a canon” every time the curtain rises.
“It is a sprint from start to finish,” he says. “If you’re not ready to do it then it’s an uphill battle. But the way the character is written, you can never have a bad day doing it. It brings the joy to you that you may not have in your day.”
Friend Like Me is where the Genie really shines. It’s a monster of a number, lasting for more than seven minutes as the just-released Genie introduces himself to Aladdin the street urchin.
It’s a fateful first meeting that will set both of their lives on exciting new courses.
“Friend Like Me is the most amazing number and I’m not just saying that because it’s my number,” Jacobs says.
“They’ve thrown everything and the kitchen sink in there. The pyrotechnics, the costumes, the sets, the music.
“It’s borderline over-the-top but it’s fun. It’s that one character that an actor dreams of in their lifetime.” Previews of Aladdin the Musical begin on Tuesday and the show plays QPAC’s Lyric Theatre through June 3. The writer was a guest of Disney Theatrical in New York.
“I CAN REMEMBER SEEING IT AT AN AGE WHERE I UNDERSTOOD EVERYTHING, AND I’M NOW LIVING THAT SAME DREAM WITH THE EIGHT-YEAR-OLD KID INSIDE ME.”