Review: ALADDIN JR. BY VICTORY PLUS SCHOOL STUDENTS at Amartha Hall

(Contributed by Albertus Raynaldi and Amelia Anjani)

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression of knowledge. An excerpt that I took from Albert Einstein, possibly wanting to start the review to appreciate the teachers and the board of education of Victory Plus school for letting their students explore the world of performing arts.

The performing arts in Indonesia, especially Jakarta, is still very unknown to a lot of the citizens hustling and bustling in the capital city. A lot of local communities have started to ignite the fire and interest of musical theatre through musical performances and sharing information through social media. It is always a fresh sight when local schools take interest in the world that we love, and try to make a performance happen.

Victory Plus school conducted a musical performance of Aladdin Jr. in the Amartha Hall, 24th of February at 18.30 PM onwards. The hall was packed with a lot of enthusiasm and joy of parents, musical aficionados, and children who are already familiar with the Disney Classic itself.

"The massive of a musical production is always done once in every 2 years." Musical director Mr. Dasrizal stated that more than 200 students including the cast and crew, as well as the orchestra, worked hard to make the show happen. None of it will ever take place without the students endeavour to make Aladdin a success.

Adapted by one of Disney's greatest works, I felt a big enthusiasm by all of the cast and crew that has been involved in this production. Visually, the show was beautiful. The choice of costume, settings, and backgrounds, etc, everything is very colourful and set meticulously to make the audience felt that they were in Agrabah. A musical with an orchestra just fits the icing on the cake and I applaud the students for the great job in the orchestra. Although there are a few unsynchronised parts but it definitely lifts up the mood of the musical itself.

The dancers should be given a lot of appreciation for their hard work, their expressions and soul put into their performance made the show alive.

I'm happy to see every cast their parts as best as they can, But the ones that caught my eyes are Jasmine and Genie. Annieza Faydranoora as Jasmine's performance was definitely memorable and amazing. Her presence and poise as a princess was divine but her rebel side of wanting to go out the palace walls was also well represented. The way she sings her songs like sentences meant to be read is one of my highlights of the show, since she articulated it well enough for people to enjoy and understand. Ardhiyanto Mulyono as the Genie also made the character his own, and I absolutely was entertained by his amazing presence. Aladdin's fun and wittiness is also magically portrayed by Putera Pratama Tambunan, a very interesting sight to see his minuscule expression but brought big impact on the scenes.

There has to be room for improvement in this production. The sound system still needs to be well adjusted since some of the microphones were off for quite a while, and the vocals, pronunciation and articulation of some of the casts still needs to be developed.

Overall it was a very enjoyable show to watch, and I appreciate how youngsters still have this enthusiasm for musical theatre, and how the school fully supports the performance fully in any way they could.