Wishes Granted, Sherri Shepherd Becomes Broadway's First Woman Genie
The talk show host takes the lamp at the New Amsterdam Theatre next Friday and says she is taking dance and voice lessons to get ready
Next Friday, October 16, a new Genie steps out of the lamp at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Sherri Shepherd, the Daytime Emmy Award winner and former co-host of The View, begins a limited run in Disney's Aladdin that continues through Sunday, January 3, 2027.
She is the first woman to play the Genie in any Disney-produced stage version of the musical, TicketNews reports. BroadwayWorld puts it more simply in an interview video. Shepherd says she is the first woman in the history of Aladdin on Broadway to play the part.
Learning to Belt
The role is a big one. It won James Monroe Iglehart a Tony Award when the show opened in 2014, according to the Associated Press. The AP reports that Shepherd is taking dance and voice lessons and belting out the Genie's signature song, "Friend Like Me," on long walks through the city.
"My whole career has never been the easy way," she told the AP when it asked whether there had been easier options.
Her theater history is brief. The AP says Aladdin will be her second Broadway show, after playing the evil Stepmother in Cinderella in 2014. Her other stage credits include the off-Broadway shows Love, Loss and What I Wore, Celebrity Autobiography and Joy Behar's My First Ex-Husband.
She has been asking Broadway friends for help. The AP quotes her naming Kristin Chenoweth, Steven Boyer and Wayne Brady among the people she called for advice.
Who the Genie Is For
Shepherd told the AP the role means something to her because of the children in the seats. Aladdin is often the first Broadway show a child sees, the wire service notes.
"I've taken my family, my nieces and nephews, to see this musical and I never dreamed that I would one day be a part of the 'Aladdin' family. So I am beyond thrilled," Shepherd told the AP.
She said she wants the children in the seats to feel the way she felt as a little girl watching Stephanie Mills in The Wiz, and she hopes girls in the audience see a new possibility.
The Show She Joins
Aladdin opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on March 20, 2014, BroadwayWorld notes. It has set 17 house records there. The show has welcomed more than 22 million people worldwide and is currently running on Broadway and in Tokyo.
The current Genie, Caleb A. Barnett, stays with the production as the standby during Shepherd's run, TicketNews adds. Disney Theatrical Group's managing director, Andrew Flatt, and executive producer, Anne Quart, said Shepherd has represented delight, wit and loving good humor, which made her the right performer for the Genie.
Shepherd is also a podcaster and author, the AP notes, and a former co-host of The View. She joins a fall in which Broadway has drawn a long list of familiar faces.
