Petty's Aladdin is full of streetwise characters, lively music and dancing, jokes that arouse raucous laughter from adults, and giggles from children, for whom the show is meant, but not the jokes necessarily. Most importantly, Petty's Aladdin, as all of his shows, offers up a fractured fairytale that is taken out of its original time and place, and set in a world of magical nowhere.

This reprise has even more oomph than the original production although the performers are, for the most part, making a repeat performance. They seemed to be so much more at home in their characters, perhaps borne out of the fact that this version has just completed a cross-Canada tour that began in Vancouver.

New is the increased emphasis on 'The Barenaked Ladies's' song "If I had a million", which considering the cost of living in Toronto, wouldn't go very far these days. That, in itself, is a fine satiric parody on which to muse.

Jennifer Dale has returned to play the Librarian Narrator who later turns into the seductive Sheherazade. Ross Petty, as can be expected, has reappeared in the role of the villainous Abanazeer, and Derek McGrath in the role of the 'Dame' — a style borrowed from the English Christmas pantomime — gives it his all as the Widow Bender. Am I mistaken, did I hear a lot more booing going on when the evil wizard, Abanazeer, appeared than in previous years? The show has retained the humorous aspect of the constant mispronunciation of Sheherzade and Abanazeer by Aladdin, played in this production by Jamie McKnight, last year's Prince Willie Wanderoff in Petty's Snow White. Rhoslynne Bugay reprises her role of The Princess with the same delightful effect as in the original production.

Most importantly, one mustn't forget the return of retired wrestling superstar Bret 'Hitman' Hart as the Genie of the Lamp. He was certainly a 'hit' with the opening night crowd, and deservedly so. Without giving away too much, his performance in the ring, in which he does his best to stick it to Abanazeer, is an absolute hoot.

In Petty's version, Aladdin is a lazy and inept skateboarder, a dreamer, who thinks not only that money can be easily come by, but also buys happiness. Of course, the moral of the tale is that this isn't quite the way things go.

On the production end, Tracy Flye's choreography of the dance scenes shines, but there is less of Sven Johansson's aerial choreography of the Magic Carpet ride — or at least so it seems in my memory — than had been staged in 2004. Director Ted Dykstra has a firm hand on the whole, having now shaped Petty's fractured fairytales into a new form of entertainment that — dare one say it — is completely Canadian in look and feel. The one new name on the production team credits is Rick Fox in the role of the music director. His credits include Lord of the Rings, The Who's Tommy, Disney's Lion King, and Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Thumbs up, all around.

[Aladdin runs as the Elgin Theatre, Toronto, until Dec. 24, and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa December 26 - 31, 2006. Don't miss it.]