Sherri Shepherd stepped into the role of the Genie in Aladdin at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Friday, October 16, the first woman Disney has cast in the part in any of its productions of the musical.
Her engagement is a limited one. After three evening performances over the opening weekend, Shepherd moves to the full schedule of eight shows a week from Tuesday, October 20, and plays through Sunday, January 3, 2027, a stretch that takes in both the Thanksgiving and the holiday weeks.
She takes over from Caleb A. Barnett, who stays with the company as the Genie standby for the length of her run. The part has gone to men since James Monroe Iglehart created it on Broadway in 2014 and won a Tony Award for it; Disney Theatrical Group says Shepherd is the first woman to play the Genie in any Disney-produced staging of the show.
Shepherd addressed the milestone directly when the casting was announced in September. “To step on that stage as the first woman to ever play the Genie is something I don’t take lightly,” she said. “I’m ready to rub the lamp, unleash some magic, and have the time of my life on Broadway.” Disney Theatrical Group managing director Andrew Flatt and executive producer Anne Quart called her “the perfect entertainer to play the life force that is the Genie.”
It is her second Broadway engagement. She made her debut in 2013 as Madame, the stepmother, in Cinderella, and her Off-Broadway credits include Love, Loss, and What I Wore. Television audiences know her from The View, where she was a co-host and won a Daytime Emmy Award, and from Sherri, the syndicated talk show she hosted for four seasons.
Shepherd joins a company led by Rodney Ingram as Aladdin, Sonya Balsara as Jasmine and Dennis Stowe as Jafar. The musical, adapted from the 1992 Disney animated film, has music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman, Tim Rice and Chad Beguelin, and a book by Beguelin, and is directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw.
The New Amsterdam Theatre is at 214 West 42nd Street. Tickets for Shepherd’s run are available on the Aladdin tickets page.
