Have you heard the one about the sexy princess who married her own hunk of a brother? It's a story that the Disney Company doesn't want to even cross your mind (Oops, sorry!).
It's also one of the reasons that sibling actors Arielle (no relation to the little mermaid) and Adam Jacobs haven't seen much of each other over the past year.
The Half Moon Bay natives, cast as princess and pauper in "Disney's Aladdin," the musical, have been kept continents apart: Arielle played plucky Princess Jasmine for six months in the Sydney, Australia production, while Adam �- who originated the title role in workshops and on Broadway - has been leading the show's first U.S. tour, now at the Orpheum Theatre, here through January 7.
With Arielle between gigs and Adam on the boards by the Bay, the pair saw an opportunity to perform together. San Francisco has long offered "A Whole New World" of un-Disneyesque couplings, so hey, why not?
The Jacobses will present their cabaret act - a mix of songs they've performed in theater productions, personal pop favorites, and family stories complete with multimedia (Read: Slightly embarrassing old videos) - this coming Monday night as part of Bay Area Cabaret's Venetian Evenings series at the Fairmont Hotel.
It's an expanded remounting of "Sibling Disobedience," a show they debuted at Manhattan's 54 Below in the spring of 2016. (Sibling Revelry has long been claimed by Broadway stalwarts Liz and Ann Hampton Calloway).
"We've actually performed together at the Fairmont before," says Arielle. "When we were kids, we were in a San Francisco children's theater group called Razzle Dazzle Kids" (Cue multimedia!).
Arielle is four years Adam's junior and claims to have been a childhood copycat of her big brother.
"When he did painting, I wanted to paint. When he played soccer, I wanted to play soccer. I was always trying to do the same thing as Adam." But she caught the theater bug first and lured him from after school sports to join her in the kids' troupe.
The bug bit Adam hard, though, and there was never much thought of doing anything else for a career. He dove headlong into community theater, playing an apostle in "Jesus Christ Superstar," a performance he humorously reenacts in the cabaret show. By the time he was a senior in high school in 1996, Jacobs was singing the role of Young Harvey in SF Opera's production of "Harvey Milk."
Arielle, on the other hand, long nurtured a serious interest in science as well as the performing arts.
"When I was really little, I honestly hoped to be an astronaut," she recalls. "And when I found out I couldn't because you're required to have 20/20 vision, I was actually kind of heartbroken. But I was still very interested in science, and then ecology. When I applied to college, it was half to music theater programs and half to environmental science programs. And it was the theater programs that accepted me."
Like her brother, Arielle attended NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Each of the siblings had great luck in auditions immediately after graduation. Adam won major parts in regional theater and national tours and Arielle's first post-grad gig marked the beginning of the pair's burgeoning relationship with Disney: she was in the live touring spin-off of the enormously telemovie, High School Musical.
(Actually, the Disney bond began years earlier, in a sort of fraternal "Freaky Friday," when it was Arielle who played Aladdin in her fourth grade show).
Ultimately, both ended up on Broadway, Adam playing Marius in "Les Miserables," followed by two stints as Simba in "Disney's The Lion King," and Arielle playing opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda in "In The Heights," before a spell as Nessaroe in "Wicked."
Currently, Arielle, based in New York, is working on a solo recording project and is involved in the workshop process for "Between the Lines," a musical based on a Jodi Picoult bestseller.
"It's the first time I'm originating a role," she says, "which is an opportunity you really want as an actor."
Post-"Aladdin," Adam, along with his wife, actress Kelly Jacobs, and three-year-old twin sons, who are traveling with him on tour, will relocate to Chicago, where his in-laws live and where he hopes to explore film and television roles (" 'Chicago PD,' 'Chicago Fire,' Chicago whatever.") while remaining open to major Broadway opportunities.
For the moment though, it's a family-style Bay Area homecoming.
"I want to show my boys the house we grew up," says Adam. "Take them to see the sea lions at Pier 39. I don't think Kelly has ever been to Alcatraz. And we're definitely going to eat at Barbara's Fish Trap in Half Moon Bay."
"I'm coming! They have the best clam chowder," chimes in Arielle. "How fun!"
Arielle Jacobs and Adam Jacobs perform 'Sibling Disobedience: Breaking the Rules on the Way to the Great White Way,' at The Venetian Room at the Fairmont Hotel, 950 Mason St., Monday November 20, 7:30pm. $55-$65. http://www.bayareacabaret.org/artist-Jacobs.html
'Disney's Aladdin' plays at the Orpheum Theatre, $55-$162. Tue-Sat 8pm. Wed, Sat & Sun 2pm. Sun 1pm. Thru Jan. 7. 1192 Market St. https://www.shnsf.com