JAFAR’S LAST CALL
Reflects on 2,000 ‘Aladdin’ nights on B’way
Before he moves on to a whole new world, Jonathan Freeman is enjoying his final magic carpet rides in “Aladdin.”
Freeman, who voiced the villainous Jafar in 1992’s animated “Aladdin,” originated the role in the 2014 Broadway production and has performed in more than 2,000 shows since then.
Jan. 23 marks his final performance in the Disney musical at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd St., but the actor still plans to portray Jafar in future iterations of “Aladdin.”
“It’s a very emotional thing for me,” Freeman told the Daily News of the end of his Broadway tenure. “I don’t really know why, because I’m not really stopping. I think it’s because this has been such a great experience. We have the most fantastic company, and it’s installed in the most beautiful theater, probably. At least one of the most.”
The Broadway show features popular songs from the classic movie like “A Whole New World,” “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali,” as well as tunes that are not in the film, including Jafar’s “Diamond in the Rough.”
The story is set in the fictional city of Agrabah, where the kindhearted Aladdin meets the magical Genie and wishes to become a prince so he can marry the regal Princess Jasmine. The power-hunger Jafar poses obstacles for Aladdin, however, scheming to obtain the Genie’s services and take control of the Agrabah throne.
Freeman, 71, expected to conclude his Broadway run last February, but changed his plans after the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered theaters for more than a year.
“I just didn’t want to end like that,” Freeman said. “I thought that would be ridiculous, just evaporating like that.”
He decided to return when the show reopened last September, and after several months of performances he is looking forward to having more time to pursue new professional and personal opportunities.
“There’s just a lot of other things I would like to do,” Freeman said. “Some of them have to do with the show business. Some of them do not.”
Freeman — whose Broadway credits include “Mary Poppins,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid” — could tell the “Aladdin” movie would be a hit when he attended his first screening with an audience.
“The energy in the room was palpable,” he said. “I was swept up in it. It took me away, so I thought, ‘This is maybe everything that I hoped it would be.’ But you’re always afraid to say that out loud.”
Three decades later, the actor describes his time in “Aladdin” on Broadway as a “complete pleasure from beginning to end.”
“I just try to remember there’s somebody in the audience who’s paid a lot of money for a ticket that they maybe couldn’t really afford,” Freeman said. “There’s somebody in the audience that’s seeing a Broadway show for the first time. There’s somebody in the show that maybe is having ... a big problem and they need some escape, and they’ve decided to go to Agrabah for the afternoon or the evening.”
He hopes every actor who portrays Jafar moving forward is “able to have as much fun” as he did.
“Take the reigns and really run with it, because it’s such a great character to play,” Freeman said.
“It’s quintessentially awful. He’s so disgracefully awful. So deliciously awful.
“Without a villain, you don’t have a good story. They’re like gasoline that make the stories go.”