“My pastimes are eating and traveling and this job allows me to do both in spades. While the actor finds it hard to be so far from his LA-based family, he does appreciate one perk of life on tour: “I’m a foodie,” he says. I get so much joy because the kids laugh up a storm.”ĭe Leon has been with the tour on and off since 2017, performing in over 500 of the nearly 900 performances to date. “He’s ultimately Jafar’s sidekick, but he thinks he’s bigger than he is.” And that’s funny.Īsked what it’s like to play the villain in a children’s show, De Leon gave an impish giggle.
“I would posit that Iago thinks he’s the main villain in Aladdin,” De Leon says of the role. He relishes the chance to apply his knack for comedy to the stage.
#PARROT IN ALADIN TV#
A character actor who uses vivid facial expressions and body language to bring his characters to life, De Leon has perfected the art of the laugh through gut-busting comedy roles in TV sitcoms, including the Chuck Lorre hit Mom on CBS and on the Netflix film franchise Pup Star. “Gilbert Gottfried, and later Don Darryl Rivera, were huge influences.”ĭe Leon has played Iago both on Broadway and on the national tour, where he originated the role.
#PARROT IN ALADIN MOVIE#
“When I was younger, I watched the Disney movie until my VHS tape wore out,” he recalls. In creating his own version of Iago, De Leon hearkens back to the 1992 animated version. In book writer Chad Beguielin’s musical version, Iago becomes a scene-stealing human who retains the bird’s comic flair and earns big laughs by parroting (pun intended) Jafar’s wicked plans back to him. If you’ve seen the 1992 animated film version of Aladdin, you may remember two things about Iago: He was voiced memorably by Gilbert Gottfried, and he was… a parrot. The national touring cast of ‘Aladdin’ performs ‘Friend Like Me.’ Photo by Deen van Meer. Indeed, those familiar with Casey Nicholaw’s work ( Mean Girls, The Book of Mormon) will recognize the director/choreographer’s signature musical-comedy stamp throughout the production. The show features favorite Alan Menken tunes including the ballad “A Whole New World” and “Friend Like Me,” an eleven-minute show-stopping tap dance number. The national tour, now playing at the Kennedy Center through September 7, features all the glitz and glamor and song and dance of the original. “It’s a real testament to the professionalism of everyone involved in the show.”Īladdin, the hit musical based on the 1992 Disney movie, has been pulling off feats of magic since it opened on Broadway in 2014. “None of my friends or family in the audience even noticed that it happened,” he said.
De Leon rushed back onstage where his fellow cast members had been successfully improvising during his absence. “I felt like I was in the pit of the Indianapolis 500,” he says. He quickly left the stage, disappearing for the 30 seconds it took hair supervisor Debra Parr to refit his wig in the wings. “That night something went wrong and my wig and hat came off with the costume,” De Leon recalls. It happened when De Leon, who plays Iago, the clownish sidekick to the power-hungry villain Jafar, had to pull a disguise off quickly. Reggie De Leon as Iago in the national tour of Disney’s ‘Aladdin.’ Photo by Deen van Meer. So when a costume malfunction occurred during the Hollywood stop on the national tour of Aladdin, his friends and family were right there in the audience to see it.