NEW YORK\u2014Adam Jacobs is an actor with a wide smile and a lot on his plate.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s about to star in the title role of the new Disney blockbuster \u201cAladdin\u201d on Broadway. He\u2019s also a new father\u2014of twins.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a big year,\u201d he says, laughing. \u201cIt\u2019s just mind-boggling to me how everything is working out right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
His wife, fellow Broadway veteran Kelly Jacobs, is just a few weeks from delivering twin boys. \u201cAladdin\u201d starts performances at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a good thing Jacobs is an easygoing guy with a California-bred cool. \u201cI think it\u2019ll be good to just take things as they come,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s one of my fortes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs has paid his dues since graduating from New York University, including singing on cruise ships, being a Broadway replacement for Simba in \u201cThe Lion King\u201d and Marius in \u201cLes Miserables,\u201d and being part of four national tours.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was grueling,\u201d he says. \u201cI got to learn all the tricks of making Top Ramen in the coffeepots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now he\u2019s the star of a new show that he helped create from the ground up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to take a character and really make it your own was one of my dreams I always wanted to do as an actor,\u201d he says. \u201cNow I\u2019m getting to do it so it\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll be joined by James Monroe Iglehart as the Genie, Courtney Reed as Jasmine and Jonathan Freeman as Jafar. All were part of the show\u2019s out-of-town tryout in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cAladdin,\u201d based in the 1992, Robin Williams-voiced animated version with songs by Alan Menken, is directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw, whose previous hits include \u201cThe Book of Mormon\u201d and \u201cThe Drowsy Chaperone.\u201d Bob Crowley, who has a Tony for \u201cMary Poppins,\u201d designed the sets, and Chad Beguelin wrote the story and additional lyrics.<\/p>\n
Beguelin, who also wrote the book and lyrics for \u201cThe Wedding Singer\u201d and the lyrics for \u201cElf,\u201d has been impressed by Jacobs\u2019 instincts and his willingness to try anything, including learning to juggle and ride a \u201cmagic carpet\u201d with aplomb.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just seems to take it all in stride. He\u2019s got such a positive outlook on life that I think he only focuses on the positive,\u201d Beguelin says. \u201cIt\u2019s refreshing. There\u2019s no neurotic-actor-thing going on with him. You feel totally confident that he can carry the show and have twins and juggle and tap dance on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacobs was raised near San Francisco in Half Moon Bay, the son of a\u00a0Filipino\u00a0mother and a Jewish father of Polish and Russian descent. His younger sister, Arielle Jacobs, is also a rising musical theatre star, with a Broadway credit for \u201cIn the Heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
A gifted pianist, young Adam studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for eight years and flirted with the idea of becoming a concert pianist. His love of soccer and a desire to be a normal kid won out.<\/p>\n
He fell in love with musical theatre after seeing the\u00a0Filipino-American actor and singer Paolo Montalban on tour as the Prince in \u201cCinderella.\u201d His response? \u201cI think I can do that.\u201d He found his mixed ethnicity useful in landing all sorts of parts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a mix and I think that\u2019s really helped me play a lot of different roles,\u201d Jacobs says. \u201cI think the landscape has changed in terms of nontraditional casting. It\u2019s changed for my benefit for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
He met his future wife in 2001 while playing Santa Claus in a Christmas show in Hershey, Pa. He was in a fat suit and she played a ballerina and his waltz partner. They soon bonded offstage, spending hours talking beside a fireplace over free hot chocolate.<\/p>\n
The couple kept their romance warm while he was touring in \u201cThe Lion King\u201d and she was in the road company of \u201cMary Poppins.\u201d They were married in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a rule that every three weeks we would try to see each other at least for 24 hours, which is tough to do. But we made it work,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd we stuck through it and now we have that foundation and gotten through those tough times. Now we can get through the next tough time.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a weird twist, Jacobs\u2019 wife was in the Broadway company of \u201cMary Poppins\u201d when it closed last year at the New Amsterdam Theatre, the new home for \u201cAladdin.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of wild, right? When does that ever happen?\u201d says Jacobs. \u201cI said to her, \u2018Keep the seat warm for me.\u201d\u2018<\/p>\n
Now the couple may be in need of a magical nanny of their own as they prepare for what Adam calls the \u201ctwo little Aladdins on the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to be a cakewalk, I know that. It\u2019s going to be challenge,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s something we\u2019ve wanted for a while so we\u2019re up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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