INTERVIEW: In new cabaret show, Major Attaway is looking for friends like him
Photo: Major Attaway will bring his new cabaret show, The Genie’s Jukebox, to Feinstein’s / 54 Below. Photo courtesy of Hannah Midkiff Photography / Provided by Kampfire with permission.
Major Attaway has been embraced by the creative influences of Disney. As a child he used to enjoy the animated movies and sing some of the well-known tunes. Then, as a professional actor, he took over the role of Genie in Broadway’s Aladdin, and he continues to show his Disney love in various projects, from the recent holiday show at Paper Mill Playhouse, A Jolly Holiday, to his new cabaret offering, The Genie’s Jukebox.
Attaway will bring The Genie’s Jukebox, with special guest star Korie Lee Blossey, to Feinstein’s / 54 Below Monday, Jan. 31 at 9:45 p.m. At the performance, Attaway plans to open up the Disney vault and offer his unique renditions of the classics. As press notes indicate, he is now free of the lamp and ready to explore a “different, slightly evil version” of the Genie.
“I’m diving deep into Disney currently,” Attaway said with a laugh in a recent phone interview. “I took over for the role of Genie, replacing our Tony winner James [Monroe] Iglehart. … The chance to get to do the show on Broadway gave birth to this cabaret idea where you get to meet every version of the Genie that you don’t get to see in the show, so you’re getting to see a myriad of Disney songs that are all themed for the evening. And I am on my way to becoming a Disney villain, so we get to see what my take on some of those ideas will be as well. And it’s an idea that the Genie is free of the lamp, so he can listen to whatever he wants to. And when you’re joining The Genie’s Jukebox, you get to take a trip with him that day as well, to wherever he goes.”
Attaway first formulated the idea for this cabaret show while he was still performing in Aladdin at the New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street. He had two standbys for the Genie role, and he started to think about the possibilities of having that musical trio perform together.
“Between the three of us, we had a full vocal choir, so I wanted the chance to work with these same Genies,” he said. “But we couldn’t all be on the stage at the same time, and I wanted to fix that. And that’s what The Genie’s Jukebox did. It allowed all of these men who looked and sounded in some way like me to be able to work together because we all worked so hard to fill that same space, in the lamp technically, and I didn’t want to see all of the same Black men competing with each other for the same role forever. I wanted us, whenever we’re outside of the lamp, to be able to use our energy and work together to create something beautiful. We’re brought together by Disney, and I just wanted to celebrate that really.”
Joining Attaway for the special concert will be Blossey, who played the Genie on Aladdin’s national tour. August Haas will serve as music director, and patrons can enjoy the concert in person at Feinstein’s / 54 Below in Midtown Manhattan or streamed live online.
“I would say it is amazing to be able to say that my first Broadway [role] was the Genie,” said Attaway, who has appeared at the cabaret venue numerous times. “My first job on Broadway I got to replace a Tony winner. That’s amazing, but I spent 20 years prior working in theater nonstop so that I could handle the responsibility of being able to carry the role. So that first performance, I still remember it like it was yesterday. At the end of ‘Friend Like Me,’ there was like this gentle rain, this confirmation of the piece that comes with the art. That space reminded me that that’s exactly where I wanted to be. My favorite part about the show is that the Genie opens the show, so without question I am someone’s first Broadway memory. That is so important to me, such a beautiful thing, and I carried that with me every time the curtain opened. That was probably the absolute best part.”
Attaway’s love of Disney stretches back to his younger days. He remembers one memory from his childhood when he had recently undergone surgery for a bone disease, and he and his family decided to make a video to the song “Friend Like Me.”
“We made a video where I sang ‘Friend Like Me,” and I sang half of the song,” he remembered. “And the surgery that I had required me to have a cage on my bottom right leg, so halfway through the song I sang, ‘Can your friends do this? Can your friends let it rip and make the sucker disappear?’ We filmed half the song, and then after my second surgery, took that [cage] off and finished it. And that’s floating around on a VHS somewhere, along with years and years of going to Disney on Ice to every event possible. It really feels like a return on a lifelong investment, and I love it.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Genie’s Jukebox, featuring Major Attaway, will play Feinstein’s / 54 Below in New York City Monday, Jan. 31 at 9:45 p.m. Tickets are available for the in-person performance and streaming online. Click here for more information and tickets.
