Fort Worth Man Who Towered Over Times Square Brings the Iconic Aladdin Genie Home — Major Attaway Gets Jazzy

The longest running Genie on Broadway, Fort Worth native Major Attaway embodied the role in Disney’s Aladdin for years. Attaway began his run in Aladdin in 2016, when he made his Broadway debut by alternating between three main characters in the show ― playing and understudying the roles of Genie, Babkak and the Sultan. His standout performance of the loveable and gregarious Genie won him the full-time starring role by 2017.

Now the  20-year veteran entertainer, who graduated Fort Worth’s Arlington Heights High School, is coming back home to reprise his role of Genie (in a way). You can catch Attaway at Downtown Cowtown at The Isis in The Genie’s Jukebox on February 12 at 7:30 pm.

Sans the makeup and elaborate costume of the Aladdin genie, Major Attaway puts on what he calls his “magical cabaret Disney date night.” Two of his former Broadway cast members were also part of The Genie’s Jukebox when it first debuted in New York City.

“Between the three of us, we had a full choir of voices,” Attaway tells PaperCity Fort Worth. “They were also standbys on the show. Then I brought it to Fort Worth last October where I stepped on stage solo for the first time. It’s still evolving.”

Attaway inhabited the role of The Genie three years, becoming the actor with the longest run playing the iconic role.

“It was my first Broadway show — and my face was on the sides of  buses all over New York,” Attaway says. “I would leave the show and head down to the subway, and find I was staring at a poster of my own face.”

In Times Square, Attaway, in full costume, towered larger than life on a giant billboard above The Disney Store. That was always the goal. To make it big. Still, when it happened so quickly, Attaway found the experience to be surreal. He’d certainly come a long way. Attaway began his musical theatre career at Fort Worth’s famed Casa Manana.

“So working with Broadway caliber actors was nothing new for me,” he says. “But in Aladdin, my face is the first one people see when the curtain opens and that was a big responsibility.”

His contract playing the Genie was coming to an end in February of 2020. As chance would have it another prime role overlapped the last two weeks of his performance. Attaway had the chance to play Fatty Arbuckle in NY City Center Encores! production of Mack and Mabel. Simultaneously he was busy filming his role as a prison guard in the last season of Orange Is The New Black.

Just before Broadway went dark and the world shut down for months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With that many opportunities presenting themselves all at once — and so many plates spinning ― it was an abrupt shift when everything shuttered.

“I’ll never forget how it felt standing in Times Square when it was empty and silent,” Attaway admits.

When curtains began to slowly lift once again, Attaway looked to his magical Genie for answers and decided to use that role as a launchpad for something brand new.

Inside The Genie’s Jukebox

The Genie’s Jukebox is a different spin on the character’s well-known Aladdin escapades. It is anything but a straight up rendition of what Attaway did on Broadway. It’s very flexible, and improvisational ― a true performance.

“It’s a celebration of my connection to the Genie,” Attaway says. “He is omnipotent. The show begins with a theme, but it can go in many different magical directions. It will be different every time. It is Disney music reimagined. A jazzy Disney moment.”

Major Attaway has been doing plenty of voiceover work as well, and is exploring future television and movie roles. In the meantime, he’ll let the Genie back out of the bottle, exploring and embracing the flexibility and creativity the character allows him.

Including back in Fort Worth where it all started for him.