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Little Mermaid Musical
I had the great pleasure of seeing the Little Mermaid musical tonight, and it was… wow. Fantastic. Happy. Cute. Everything I want a fairytale to be. It’s hard to have a funny, romantic, and fantastical musical I think–too often it gets drama heavy, the songs are too shrill (due to lots of high pitched girls), or the humor takes center stage and obscures the romance.
Just like when I came out of Stardust, all I could think at the end of night was how darn happy I was and how cute the musical had been. This is the Disney version, but bits have been rewritten to give King Triton, Ursula, and Prince Eric more back story and personality. Of course, there are also a great deal of new songs and all the old favorites. The only scene I noticed missing was when the sharks chase them, but oh well. A bit of the ending was changed as well, due to changes made previously in the musical. The biggest changes are that Ursula is Triton’s sister in the musical and their father left half the sea to each of them, and then Ursala acted up and Triton banished her. Also, Ursula never takes on human shape, but instead attacks them at the palace at the end. It all worked out though and things stayed essentially the same. I really liked the additions to Eric’s characters and that we do see that while Eric and Ariel have love at first sight, it also grows from there. One great scene is a song about how dancing can be just another language and it’s the beginning of Eric and Ariel’s infatuation growing into love.
Plus, Flotsam and Jetsam rock! So did Ursula. And Flounder’s actor was adorable.
Staging was also beautiful, with Eric’s boat coming down from above the stage and the waves constantly go up and down to signify if they are on land or in the water. Underwater creatures use heelies (those sneakers where you walk on the toes and skate on the heels) to glide and dance around the stage and black lights and fluorescents are used to create the underwater world.
If you get a chance (and you like musicals) see this! It’s finishing up the pre-Broadway tour in Denver on Sunday, and then it goes on to Broadway. Unfortunately, it’ll probably cost a gazillion dollars to see it on Broadway, but when it goes on tour and hits your town, remember to check it out!
Oh, and Young Frankenstein was also wonderful. I’ve had a musical filled month and saw Spamalot the night before Young Frankenstein as well. The lead was wonderful, being the pharmacist from Desperate Housewives and also the gay assistant to the director in Producers. He was adorably crazy and it was a great adaptation of the movie.
Anyways, sadly, my musical month is over. Nothing to see until Whistle Down the Wind, unless I decide to go by myself to Camelot.
Oh, that sounds so cool! I’ve only seen… heheh… just one “huge” musical/broadway show thing: WICKED. I read the book before the show… and, to be honest, I didn’t think that the show was overly spectacular and amazing… but it was good. It felt so different from the book, though (and I can say all this because I didn’t pay for the ticket… a friend of mine had an extra since her younger sister didn’t want to go… so, yeah : )
If the “Little Mermaid” suddenly thought to become interantional and come to Indonesia, then I’d be happy to welcome her with open arms : )
The only time I’ve gone to musicals is when the high school does them. I really should go to them, shouldn’t I? Just haven’t gotten around to it. Little Mermaid sounds really cool.
Personally, I’ve always loved musical theater. Some of my earliest memories are watching musicals with my parents, and getting to see Man of La Mancha when it traveled into town.
I really liked Wicked, but I don’t think it was much like the book. Personally, I loved the music and the story - I found it more intersting than the book. The staging, sadly, was nothing spectacular though. The musical focused alot more on Elphaba than the book did, since I felt like the book was mostly a politcal story that used Elphaba as the main character, because it was convient. Book was good, but they are very different.
High schools can do some great performances and its a good way to expose teens and kids to something they might think is “geeky” otherwise. Still, nothing compares to a Broadway musical, and even traveling shows are pretty good. There have been some great movies lately, like The Producers.