Go behind the scenes of Disney’s Aladdin at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre

We can show you the world of Aladdin — shining, shimmering, splendid — as The Advertiser reveals what happens behind-the-scenes of the smash musical during a live performance. WATCH OUR EXCLUSIVE VIDEO.

Behind the scenes at Disney's Aladdin at the Festival Centre. Picture: Matt Loxton

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Move over, Genie: The real magic in Disney’s Aladdin musical requires a lot more than simply rubbing a lamp and making a wish.

A veritable army of costume dressers, stagehands, make-up artists and technicians is waiting in the wings of Adelaide’s Festival Theatre armed with props, sets and all manner of special stage effects to bring the “whole new world” of fabled city Agrabah to life.

The flurry of colour and movement on stage in the show’s opening Arabian Nights number almost pales in comparison to the spectacle which takes place in the shadows behind-the-scenes, where bystanders risk colliding with trays of inedible desserts or being crushed in the jaws of a giant golden tiger’s head as it descends from the rafters.

That’s just part of the 40 tonnes of flying scenery and 60 tonnes of automation and staging used.

Modesty and costumes are thrown to the wind – or rather into the hands of the dressers, who stand barely out of view of the audience – for an incredible number of quick-changes, especially during the Genie’s big song-and-dance number, Friend Like Me.

Cleverly, many of the outfits are designed so that only certain pieces have to be removed and replaced to create a whole new look.

EXCLUSIVE: SEE ALADDIN IN A WHOLE NEW WAY

The backstage process begins three hours before each performance, when the sound department checks each and every performer’s microphone – which they do again before the start of each act, using a different “word of the day”.

Last minute retouches and repairs are being made, as members of the wardrobe department sew back some of the 500,000 Swarovski crystals used on the costumes and headpieces. One pair of men’s pants in the Friend Like Me finale alone features 1428 crystals – and there are 337 costumes in the show.

Behind the rear curtain on stage lies “the bunker”, divided into male and female changing rooms for the major costume swaps, with separate “wig stations” on either side for the dozens of hairpieces and beards.

About 30 minutes before showtime the band members start warming up in the orchestra pit, testing their pre-programmed keyboard sounds and tuning instruments while the first audience arrivals peer down at them.

As the overture strikes up, ensemble members join hands in a circle near the bunker and Genie performer Gareth Jacobs steps to the front of stage, adjusts his costume, cricks his neck and waits for the curtain to rise.

Gallery: Behind the scene of Aladdin in Adelaide

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One dancer is quickly rolled up in a rug, waiting to make her surprise appearance, while stagehands swing scimitars and massive buildings start rolling sideways onto the stage. Moments later, the now-empty rug reappears, is rolled up again and neatly packed away.

Clean-shaven swordsmen dash offstage and, within seconds, are transformed into bearded palace guards. One actor swaps her scarf for a basket, another a trolley full of fez hats for a broom.

Princess Jasmine, alias actress Shubshri Kandiah, uses her 30-second break between lines in one scene to run offstage, quickly gulp down a swig of water and check her costume, then dash back on.

Suddenly, a stuck zipper has everyone’s attention, as three assistants just manage to get a dancer into her costume with milliseconds to spare before she is due to perform.

Setting up the inside of the Cave of Wonders scene requires the most elaborate preparation, as towers of gold roll out from every direction, complete with performers concealed inside.

Corrugated pipes are pushed into place to pump sinister smoke across the stage, and a pyrotechnics expert opens his own console for a certain number’s big fireworks finale.

However, the answer to one question remains a closely guarded secret: Just how DO they get that magic carpet to fly?

Disney’s Aladdin is at the Festival Theatre until June 9. Book at BASS.