‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’: Broadway’s Aladdin on singing in the Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert
Michael Maliakel is now in his third year of starring as Aladdin on Broadway, and even after all this time, it continues to be a role that takes his breath away — literally.
“Eight shows a week I fly a magic carpet,” he said. “It’s a very physical show. We’re running around, and most of the singing happens when you’re fully out of breath or dancing or sword fighting.”
Singing as a guest artist for the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s Christmas concert isn’t quite as action-packed — “It’s nice to just stand still and sing some beautiful music,” he said — but it still managed to take his breath away.
Maliakel, a self-described “choir boy” who grew up watching the Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas program on PBS, said the annual program introduced him to many of his musical heroes, including artists like Renee Fleming, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald. But even all of his Christmases spent watching those concerts couldn’t come close to preparing him for taking part in it.
“The first time walking into this space was breathtaking,” Maliakel said during a press conference Friday morning, his eyes scanning over the 21,000-seat Conference Center. “It is unlike any other space that I’ve performed in.”
And, he joked, the venue is “just a little bit bigger” than the 1,800-seat New Amsterdam Theatre where he brings Aladdin to life night after night. But for all their differences, playing Aladdin and starring as a guest artist with the Tabernacle Choir are both roles that he sees as a “responsibility” that “feels really, really huge.”
“I feel really blessed to get to do both of them, and to be able to present music that speaks to so many people is really important to me — to be able to represent people that look like me that might not have as much exposure on these stages,” said Maliakel, who is the son of immigrants who moved to the United States from India in the 1980s.
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Funny enough, Maliakel, a New Jersey native, isn’t even the first person in his family to perform with the choir. That distinction goes to his younger brother, who got the chance to sing with the choir as a member of the American Boychoir School in Princeton — an opportunity that came a year after Maliakel graduated from the school.
“I’ve been sore about it ever since,” Maliakel said with a smile. “But it only took me 20 years. … It is surreal to be a part of this and to be standing on that stage. I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
Lesley Nicol, well known for her role as the cook Mrs. Patmore on “Downton Abbey,” starred alongside Maliakel as narrator in the opening Christmas concert Thursday night (the event continues through Saturday night at the Conference Center and will air on PBS and BYUtv next year). The morning after their first official performance with the choir, the guest artists reflected on the significance of taking part in what has become a beloved annual tradition.
One message in the concert: ‘To love is to act’
Compared to Maliakel, Nicol’s history with the Tabernacle Choir isn’t as extensive, but she was quick to heed the advice of her fellow “Downton Abbey” star Hugh Bonneville, who acted as narrator for the concert in 2017 and told Nicol, “You’ve got to do this.”
“HIs whole feeling was, you will never get an opportunity like this again,” she said.
As narrator, Nicol’s part of the concert doesn’t come until close to the end. Although she was nervous leading up to her big moment, once she stepped onto the stage and took in her audience of nearly 15,000 (there’s a capacity restriction due to ongoing construction at Temple Square and parking limitations), she said she felt at peace.
“It’s strangely intimate,” she said. “I don’t know how that could be. But it is.”
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Nicol’s narration centered on how “Les Miserables” author Victor Hugo and his wife, Adele Foucher, opened up their home to impoverished children, holding weekly dinners and giving children in need clothes and toys.
“To love is to act,” Hugo wrote just three days before his death at the age of 83.
It’s a message Nicol has been thinking a lot about lately, and one that Maliakel believes deeply.
“I think we’re at a time in the world where things are just so truly chaotic and divisive, and there’s so many people that are suffering,” he said. “My parents sort of built a life from very little, and my mom growing up would always say ... as we were crafting our dreams for the world, our careers ... that rather than looking at all the people that have more than you … you keep in mind those that have less because it’s so important to remember how far you’ve come, how grateful you should be for everything that you do have, and keeping all that in perspective.”
The Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert: A massive undertaking
For Maliakel, many of the songs he performs in the concert carry special meaning. “I Wonder as I Wander” was a Christmas carol he often sang in his youth as a cantor at his church.
Having his parents — who instilled in him a love for choir music at an early age — and other family members in attendance this weekend makes the moment all the more meaningful.
“It’s a strange feeling to sing the songs that are so familiar in these extraordinary circumstances,” he said. “It will be hard to top the Christmas after this Christmas.”
Both Nicol and Maliakel praised the attention to detail that goes into putting on the Christmas concerts. It’s a massive undertaking, they said, but everything from the aesthetics to the music to the narration is intertwined and connected in theme — as choir director Mack Wilberg noted at one point during the press conference, many of the songs in the program are French carols to tie in with the narration about Hugo.
“It’s astonishing how much work goes into it,” Maliakel said. “I can’t think of another performance opportunity where I felt more taken care of. I mean, every aspect of this enormous production has the most attentive, generous eyes on it, and every single thing has been taken care of, every detail tended to, and so meticulously, and so respectfully.”
But even as tens of thousands of people attend the Christmas concerts over the weekend and take in all of those little details — including the intricate stage design that features a European chateau to go along with the Hugo theme — Wilberg’s mind is already somewhere else.
“We’re already thinking about next year,” he said.
