INTERVIEW: Cobra staff in hand, Dennis Stowe is thrilled to be playing Jafar
Photo: Dennis Stowe portrays Jafar in Disney’s Aladdin, now playing on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre. Photo courtesy of Evan Zimmerman / Provided by Disney with permission.
NEW YORK — Dennis Stowe uses two exclamation points in his Playbill biography when describing his excitement of performing in the Disney musical Aladdin, now on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre. The biography states: “Dennis is thrilled to be playing Jafar!!” It’s a simple statement, one that speaks to the long journey the actor has been on since joining the Aladdin family many years ago.
“I was part of the original company of the show, so I was in the ensemble,” Stowe said in a recent phone interview. “I did the out-of-town tryout in Toronto and came back with the show, and that was about 2014. I opened the show in the ensemble as Razoul, who was the head evil guard there. That track actually covers Jafar and the Sultan, so I’ve been the understudy for Jafar since I started with the show. And then in 2018, I moved to the standby position, and that’s what I was doing before the shutdown for the pandemic. And then I came back and continued as the standby.”
Jonathan Freeman, who originated the role of Jafar not only on Broadway but also the Disney animated film from the 1990s, stepped down from the character in late January of this year. That gave Stowe the chance to move into the role on a permanent basis. Over the years, he also had the chance to perform the character from time to time.
“Fortunately for me, Jonathan had it in his contract that he was contracted to do seven shows a week as opposed to eight, so I was able to go on once a week for him,” Stowe said. “Usually that would be on a Tuesday or, depending on the schedule, a Sunday. He liked to have two days off in a row, so when he first started doing that, I was the ensemble cover. And there was another standby, and they would alternate the days off. So there were about four days in a month that we would have, and the standby would get three of those. And I would get one, so I was able to ease into what I’m doing now, which is every day.”
Stowe said that it’s always fun to play a villain, especially one as iconic as Jafar. Throughout the musical, he is scheming with his right-hand man, Iago, to not only win the heart of Jasmine, but also become Sultan one day. He is prone to many evil laughs and death stares to his enemies. His staff is a glimmering cobra with glistening red eyes.
“It’s always fun to be the villain,” he said. “I think the trick to something like Jafar, or any Disney villain especially, you have to love to hate them. That’s what I’m trying to do. You don’t know why you like them because you’re not supposed to do, in a way, and I try to follow him in Jonathan’s footsteps and make him deliciously evil. You don’t want to like him, but you do. That’s really fun to play, not just to be mean, but to have some texture to it.”
Stowe said he is thankful to have learned about the role from Freeman, the man who originated the villain in the movie and musical. At first, he was nervous each time he donned Jafar’s robes, but over time playing the character became easier.
“I was learning from the man who created it from the movie, from his voice, and who also created it on stage,” Stowe said. “It made the load a little bit lighter. Of course, people have an expectation when they come to the show. I did look at the cartoon as well. …On stage, even though we’re playing cartoon characters in a way, you have to bring a humanity to it. You’re not a cartoon, so to strike the balance between being a real person and being a cartoon is probably what the most challenging thing is. You want it to be realistic. You want it to be authentic, and you don’t want it to be cartoony.”
Stowe is an accomplished performer whose other Broadway credits include Annie, Leap of Faith, Shrek the Musical and The Wedding Singer, among other shows. He immensely enjoys his time on a New York stage, especially when he has the chance to look out at the crowd and see so many young faces (or young masked faces).
“To me, that’s one of the biggest gifts of doing what we do,” he said. “I remember myself going to shows and wanting to see myself on the stage and giving people, especially now, a little bit of joy in these crazy times that we’ve had, and the push and pull of everything, to be able to provide joy for people, an escape and a live experience when we’ve been told for two years that we cannot be near each other. It’s very special.”
Stowe added: “I [know this] young kid. His name is Nicholas. It’s a long story, but I met him through a corporate gig that I was doing where they like to talk to Broadway performers. And one of the workers there has a son. His name is Nicholas, and he’s obsessed with Aladdin, and he’s obsessed with performing, and he’s obsessed with Jafar. So on this Zoom call, she was very proud to present her son dressed as Jafar, and subsequently he’s come to the show two times dressed as Jafar with a little staff that he’s made by himself. He’s totally into it, and I think that’s so dear. You never know who you are affecting when you are performing, and I take that very seriously, I really do.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Aladdin, featuring Dennis Stowe, is currently playing the New Amsterdam Theatre in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
