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This blog post is here to not necessarily review Disney’s Aladdin musical that is currently touring the UK, but praise its diverse cast making it one of the most diverse shows out there right now. As I’ve lamented before, ESEA representation in the theatre industry is extremely low, with most ESEA talent relegated to ensemble parts or at most minor supporting cast members, bar a few. And in most of those few circumstances, the roles often specifically call for ESEA actors, for example the King in The King and I or Kim in Miss Saigon.

But with Aladdin, there are at least 8 cast members who publicly identify as part of the ESEA community. That’s an impressive 25.8% out of the full cast of 31. They are:

• Gavin Adams (Aladdin), originally from Hong Kong
• Desmonda Cathabel (Jasmine), originally from Indonesia and some audiences may recognise her as a contestant on the Mamma Mia! I Have A Dream reality TV competition series
• Angelo Paragos (Iago), of Filipino descent who also appeared in Raging Grace
• Tau En-chien (ensemble), Taiwanese who was in The Lion King tour cast
• James Lim (ensemble), Malaysia
• Luchia Moss (ensemble), part-Filipina
• Kerry Spark (Razoul/ensemble), half-Thai who had a role in Frozen the Musical
• Niko Wirachman (swing/dance captain), part-Indonesian

So, in addition to more than 1 in 4 cast members being of East or Southeast Asian heritage, the two main leads are as well as one the supporting cast members – a rarity in today’s theatre landscape and undoubtedly a first in musical theatre, and the second I’ve noticed in recent months after watching 2:22 A Ghost Story. The last time a sizeable portion of the cast were ESEA apart from The King and I was Anything Goes (15% of the full cast, albeit not in non-ESEA roles).

While ongoing debates often still float around regarding the ethnicity of actors playing characters in Aladdin – and that can in itself be problematic when the talent pool is not very diverse – the original fictional story and its subsequent fictional setting which is a culmination of different countries, regions and cultures, must also be taken into account. And perhaps taken with a pinch of salt.

That said, as I’ve talked about before, this will hopefully be a catalyst for change where ESEA talent in the theatre industry can continue to get roles and thrive, but not just be pigeonholed into ones where the characters are meant to be East or Southeast Asian or “ethnic”. Thankfully, we have started to see this in a small number of shows, including Burlesque the Musical, Les Miserables and the aforementioned 2:22 A Ghost Story, Frozen and The Lion King (even though they were mostly in the ensemble).

For those interested in the work being down to help push for ESEA representation in theatre, there are a small and growing number of groups such New Earth Theatre and Paper Gang Theatre putting on ESEA-focused shows and allowing ESEA creatives more opportunities that they perhaps struggle to find in mainstream theatre. There are also networks like East by South East and Beats.org helping them to connect.