On this edition, Discover a whole new world at Disney’s ALADDIN, the hit Broadway musical. From the producer of The Lion King comes the timeless story of ALADDIN, a thrilling new production filled with unforgettable beauty, magic, comedy and breathtaking spectacle. It’s an extraordinary theatrical event where one lamp and three wishes make the possibilities infinite. Take your magic carpet and fly down to the National Theatre April 19 – 30th for eight amazing shows for the whole family to enjoy!
Our guests for today are a married couple who are touring with the show. You have seen him as the one and only Johnny Castle on Dirty Dancing and on the tour of West Side Story, How to Succeed and A Chorus while you have seen her on the NBC series SMASH and on the tours of West Side Story, Fosse and Spamalot!
Please help me welcome COLT PRATTES and his wife ANGELINA MULLINS!
Colt Prattes (CP): Oh my gosh, that was in a incredible intro. Let’s go. So excited. I’m jazzed to see the show now.
Well, I’m glad to be talking about you especially. This is one of my very favorite Disney musicals of all time, I think this is gonna be my fourth time seeing it in DC or Baltimore or both.
CP: I love that. Yeah. I mean, I was really fortunate that Angelina did the entire tour the first time, so all three years of it, and I was at the time shooting a show out in LA. And I didn’t get to join on the third year but I got to see the show. I mean, dozens of times and she would always say “ why do you really want to see it?” So yes, it’s incredible. You’re in it, you can’t see it. But it’s so beautiful. It’s such a spectacle. It’s, I mean, it’s Disney magic. And any opportunity I would get I wanted to see it and obviously see her.
Angelina Mullins (AM): It’s a little bit of a different version. And so when you see it again, that’s a little different, as magical but a little different.
CP: So if you’ve seen the show before, you’re gonna have even a brand-new experience a whole new experience. It’s the best. It’s so much fun.
So, first question I want to ask the both of you is tell us about your roles in this edition.
AM: So I am in the female ensemble. There’s only seven women in the show, which is really cool to have a tiny ensemble of women and we play a lot of different roles. We play sometimes just people in the marketplace, Jasmine’s friends, we’re in the Cave of Wonders. I mean, we’re kind of running all over the show. We have so many different costume changes, like huge changes. It’s really fun to just kind of play all those aspects of the show and the movie that we all love.
CP: And as for me, as you know, but as some people might not know, there’s a really cool story behind my character and two other characters in the show. There’s three brand new characters, well brand new to the audience of Aladdin that are named Babkak. Omar & Kassim. I play Kassim, which is essentially an older brother to Aladdin. And when Aladdin was originally being written in 1992 animated feature, when it was originally being written, they had these three characters, and Jasmine had three attendants. And they ended up changing it to Abu and Raja.
When Casey Nicholaw got asked to do the show, he said, “I don’t want to do anything that’s been done before, I want the original story with the three friends because there are already songs written for us, and scenes and whole other arcs.” And so I get to do all of these songs that were originally written for the 1992 feature and bring them back to life. And so it’s the best, you know, Aladdin and his best friends, and it is so much fun.
I never knew there was an original story to the three characters. I thank you for bringing it up. Oh, it makes me appreciate so much more this time.
CP: I completely agree. And when I finally found that out, to have Casey Nicholaw, tell you that and then also to play some of the original recordings of those songs. It’s incredible to hear. I love that we get to bring this to life and let a whole new audience come in and find these aspects of the story that that have been hidden gems, kind of in their own little Cave of Wonders this whole time.
Now I have to ask the obvious question, where are you both Disney fans before signing on for the tour? And if so, what is your favorite Disney movie? And or character?
AM: Well, we’ll start where we are obsessed with Disney. So much so that we honeymooned at Disney World for two weeks. Yeah, so we’re actually coming up on our 10-year, wedding anniversary. So 10 years ago, we got married on December 8th. And he was traveling the world. I was constantly out there visiting the tour. I mean, we were everywhere. And he was a little bit tired. And we said, what do we want to do for our honeymoon, because it was coming up and just looked at each other. We said, “Let’s do Disney.”
Disney is the greatest place on earth where we can be kids and relax and have so much fun with each other. We don’t need to run around, the world we’ve been doing that. Let’s just go to Disney.
CP: It was all of the Disney Magic you could hope for and we love this company. We love the fact that we get to work with them. Disney gave me my first job out of college, I was on the High School Musical tour. That was my first national tour that I was casting right out of college. Greg Hanoian, who is the head of PR for this tour, he was also the head of PR for High School Musical and he and I have known each other that whole time.
So there’s a lot of people in Disney Theatrical that I literally grew up with. And it’s just it’s a beautiful company people, big hearts. So yes, we’ve been big fans of Disney in general. Long before we’re able to go back on our 10-year anniversary to Disney World to really celebrate I think and to be employees of this company is a dream come true another wish granted.
Now that is a better story to this question I’ve ever asked before. So thank you so much. So, I read that you two met while you’re on tour for West Side Story. So I got to ask. What was it like to meet for the first time and now you’re married, you got pets! Tell us that first feeling of meeting each other
CP: Well, so we actually met on both of our Broadway debuts in the Broadway company of West Side Story. We were in the Green Room, I had just gotten there. She walked out and around and introduced herself. And I turned to the guy next to me and said, “that is the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life.” And he said, “Don’t you have a girlfriend?” And I said, yeah, “no, not for long because I just, I overheat.”
AM: And, I was in a similar situation. You know, it was all our Broadway debuts we were so young. I started the show and I was just coming off of A Chorus Line. And so he joined a couple months in and I happened to be dating “Bernardo”
CP: And I happened be a standby for “Riff”.
AM: One of my best friends was playing Maria for a little bit. And she said “downstairs on the couch is a gorgeous, man, you better put your boots on, put your lipstick on and go down there and say, Hey,” and I looked down. Oh, my gosh, trying to play it cool. You know, but I think we were. We’re both trying to play….
CP: Oh yeah, I remember exactly what she was wearing. I remember it all so vividly. It’s just Yeah.
AM: I will say this there is nothing like a Showmance not to be cheesy.
CP: it’s something, especially when you get to do it when you’re married. You’re like, “Hey, we’re in a show, man. Do you get to flirt at work?
Speaking of which, what is it like to tour together? For that is a rare treat to see married couples on the same show in the tour together.
AM: The best thing in the world! I mean, every couple is different but Colt & I do it, we’re happily co-dependent.
CP: Yeah, we’re pretty obsessed with love, and all things love and to be a part of this show together with this company.
AM: We feel like the luckiest people in the world. We love to travel together. And so to be able to do that, and do a show that we love so much and work for this company. It’s amazing.
CP: I’ll say one more thing about that, right after High School Musical, I was cast in the Chorus Line tour. And I was doing that, Angelina was out on the Spamalot tour, which is actually how she met Casey Nicholaw. So, the way that tour life sometimes work is you’ll find that you’re kind of right behind a different tour, because the cities just happen to line up. A lot of times the Chorus Line is with Spamalot, we get together and have cast parties.
And we have been in so many rooms together and never knew each other. We never met each other. And then when we got to West Side, we met all that awesome stuff. We had this beautiful life. But now when we went through New Orleans, we have all of these spots that are different memories, but we get to share them with each other. So, she said, “Have you ever been to Preservation Hall?” And I said, “No what’s that?” She said “its an amazing jazz club. We’ve got to go.” Cool. I asked “if you’re going to Cafe Du Monde?” She goes “No, what is that?” I went “Oh, my God, I gotta take you.” And that’s essentially what we are blessed enough to do every week, here on this tour.
We get to go to the cities that we’ve been to 10 plus years ago, and say, “Oh, my gosh, what’s your memory here? Let’s go do that. What’s your memory here? Let’s create a new memory.” I mean, what more could you really ask?
Now you give me two new places to visit New Orleans because I’ve never been before. Now I got to keep that in mind.
AM: We’ll send you a whole list, its one of our favorite places.
Please do please do. What are you two looking forward to performing in our nation’s capital coming next week?
AM: We’re so excited!! I mean, I’ve never actually performed at the National Theatre.
CP: I think we were at the Kennedy Center and the last time was obviously incredible. I’ve heard about National Theatre have never gotten to perform there. It’s such a prestigious theater. I’m so excited about that.
AM: I’m pretty excited about the seafood tower at Old Ebbitt Grill I mean, we’re definitely you know, into that. What are we eating tonight and like going to find our spots in the city.
CP: Good food, good people. Incredible museums. That’s a big draw for me, I get a little nerdy when I have the time. And I could walk around some of those museums.
AM: It’s a good thing to do. You know, every time we visit I go, “how could we live here? It’s so nice, because it’s dog friendly, pretty much everywhere. And we get to walk around the water.” And we all just have a great time.
And my last question for the both of you is, for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps and wants to go pursue dance, whether it’s local theater, national tour or Broadway?
AM: I would say train in all the aspects right, full circle; the singing & the acting.
CP: Whenever we were very fortunate that as we travel around, we get to teach a lot of master classes at different studios. And we always save time for Q & A. And that’s a question that we get inevitably. The most important thing is we talk about being a full circle performer. And that’s not just the Triple Threat performer, it’s also about being a good and kind person.
And if you can carry yourself in a way where your reputation precedes you, because you’re a professional, mature performer, you’re on time, you’re open to being able to be directed and take criticism, and adapt in the moment to challenging situations that happen, especially on tours, and in this business, to take rejection with your head held high. And to know that it doesn’t define you as a person, all of these things, these are the things that we have to do. The only way to do that is to train, learn the technique, be as technically proficient as possible. And then, you know, go into every performing opportunity with a full heart. And then if you can do that, you can get your circle as full as possible at all times. That’s what we do say all the time to the students.
Awesome. Well, that is wonderful advice. I mean, this is one of the best fun interviews I ran, and I cannot wait to meet both of you come next week.
We feel the same way.
We’re loving this. Well, most likely, I’m gonna come on press night, I believe if I don’t have another if I haven’t had an event. But if I don’t, I’ll definitely come the next night and definitely say hello, get your autographs, get your pictures, because you guys should know.
Can’t wait to meet you. And yeah, just let Amy or Greg know when you’re when you’re coming through. They can reach out to us so we can make sure that we don’t you know. We don’t want to miss you.
Excellent. Well Colt & Angelina, thank you so much for talking to me. And once again, happy 10th anniversary come December.
Get ready for a whole new experience with Aladdin at the National Theatre from April 19th to 30th. Tickets can be purchased through Ticketmaster, at the Box Office or by calling 202-628-6161. Get your tickets and keep an eye out for Colt & Angelina’s amazing performance.
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