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The Little Mermaid
Last weekend for our 26th anniversary, Monique and I both took off Thursday and Friday and went into NY for 3 days and caught two Broadway shows, The Little Mermaid and Spamalot. We had a ticket / hotel package that included The Little Mermaid, so I'll review that one here.
Oh, fun little side note. I have never in my life seen so many young girls in one place all dressed up in little princess costumes. Too cute.
The tone was set negatively for us when the three top characters were all being played by understudies. I don't know why they think it's ok to give all the top stars a night time show off. We paid a lot of money for those tickets and expect the best.
The Ariel sub was kind of stiff for the whole first half. She had a great voice, but her acting just didn't seem natural. The second half she just exploded though. I don't know what happened during intermission, but she was like a whole new person in the second half. Maybe it was losing the tail, I don't know.
Sebastian was just ok. He should have been the dynamo role of the show and it just didn't quite cut it. He had a good voice, but it didn't always cut through and he wasn't as dynamic as it needed to be. "Under the Sea" was a bit of a disappointment in that regard.
Ursula was the third sub. She was almost nice in her portrayal instead of being the cold, cruel, manipulative bitch she needs to be. And the actress missed connecting with her lines. She said them. She sang the songs. Her voice was amazing. She just didn't make the role happen. For instance, when she's trying to convince Ariel to sign the contract, she should have been trying to convince Ariel to do something she didn't want to do. Instead, she was singing to the audience and Ariel was just kind of reading it with no manipulation. She agreed out of the blue. When Ursula sings the line, "Flotsam, Jetsam, boys I've got her, now the boss is on a roll!", it really didn't feel at all like Ursuala had worked for it.
You can't just take the cartoon and make it a show because obviously some things won't come over quite right and beside, the show would be too short, so Disney brought on a new lyricist to work with Alan Menken in place of Howard Ashman (who died some years back) to add some new pieces. Music is really key to a Broadway musical and I'm a real critic of this aspect of the show. A couple of pieces in the second half were ok and fit with the thematic feel of the original works, but there were two pieces that were utter flops in my mind.
In the first half, Ariel is acting weird and one of her sisters tells Triton it's because Ariel is in love. Boom, 30 seconds, we've established that and move on. In the Broadway version, they added a song called "She's In Love", an almost 50s-ish girl group doo-whop style piece of music that tells us repeatedly that Ariel's in love. Ick. Just, ick. The only redeeming quality of this piece was the showcase performance by the kid that plays Flounder. This kid was maybe 11 or 12 and had the best stage presence of the entire cast. He was awesome, very natural, animated and he had a great voice too.
In the second half, they added a seagull group song to give Ariel a pep talk to try and get her off her new found butt and go after the prince. It furthers the gag of what Flounder doesn't really know about the human world in spite of everything he's ever told Ariel about it. It's over the top, it's unneccessary and it isn't all that good.
Enough bad. Let's talk about the good to fantastic, because there was certainly a lot of that. The sets and costumes were amazing. They spared no expense and these did not disappoint in the least. Most of the underwater characters were wearing bladed shoes which allowed them to "glide" and "float"; very cool and easy. The mermaids had their legs completely hidden under wavy, gauzy costuming with big moving mermaid tails coming out of their butts; a very nice effect. Ursula had 8 huge octopus arms; just amazing (and the wavy hairdo was pretty cool too). Flotsam and Jetsam were a LARPer's dream. Their costumes would occasionally light up in various places just like you'd expect an animated electric eel to do.
The only advice I'd give to more fully appreciate all of the sets and costumes is to sit farther back. I don't usually advocate this as I enjoy sitting in the first 10 - 12 rows. To appreciate the "magic" of this show and immerse yourself in the effects, you need to be farther away. We were in the third row and could see how everything worked. The tails were wire frames with a thin gauzy covering. This made them look very real from farther back, I'm sure, but up close it detracted. Same with just about every effect there, but that was the most obvious.
The orchestra was fabulous. There's a bit of a trend to simplify orchestras for cost reasons these days. They didn't cut this group. And of course the quality of such a group is paramount to pulling off a musical. Full points on this aspect.
Flotsam and Jetsam. These two were the best actors in the show. They were dynamic. They were a perfect match. Their voices blended beautifully. They were slimy and evil, almost enough to make up for the semi-nice Ursula. They wound around each other just like in the cartoon. They were just fantastic.
At the point where Ursula is growing in the big battle scene, these giant tentacles grow out of the wall all across the front of the theatre, giving the illusion that there's a giant Ursula there. Nice.
You can tell when you've seen too many Broadway shows when you've become overly critical. On the other hand, when you pay over $140 a ticket you expect the best. That said, The Little Mermaid was a very good show and Monique and I enjoyed it a great deal.
The Ariel sub was kind of stiff for the whole first half. She had a great voice, but her acting just didn't seem natural. The second half she just exploded though. I don't know what happened during intermission, but she was like a whole new person in the second half. Maybe it was losing the tail, I don't know.
Sebastian was just ok. He should have been the dynamo role of the show and it just didn't quite cut it. He had a good voice, but it didn't always cut through and he wasn't as dynamic as it needed to be. "Under the Sea" was a bit of a disappointment in that regard.
Ursula was the third sub. She was almost nice in her portrayal instead of being the cold, cruel, manipulative bitch she needs to be. And the actress missed connecting with her lines. She said them. She sang the songs. Her voice was amazing. She just didn't make the role happen. For instance, when she's trying to convince Ariel to sign the contract, she should have been trying to convince Ariel to do something she didn't want to do. Instead, she was singing to the audience and Ariel was just kind of reading it with no manipulation. She agreed out of the blue. When Ursula sings the line, "Flotsam, Jetsam, boys I've got her, now the boss is on a roll!", it really didn't feel at all like Ursuala had worked for it.
You can't just take the cartoon and make it a show because obviously some things won't come over quite right and beside, the show would be too short, so Disney brought on a new lyricist to work with Alan Menken in place of Howard Ashman (who died some years back) to add some new pieces. Music is really key to a Broadway musical and I'm a real critic of this aspect of the show. A couple of pieces in the second half were ok and fit with the thematic feel of the original works, but there were two pieces that were utter flops in my mind.
In the first half, Ariel is acting weird and one of her sisters tells Triton it's because Ariel is in love. Boom, 30 seconds, we've established that and move on. In the Broadway version, they added a song called "She's In Love", an almost 50s-ish girl group doo-whop style piece of music that tells us repeatedly that Ariel's in love. Ick. Just, ick. The only redeeming quality of this piece was the showcase performance by the kid that plays Flounder. This kid was maybe 11 or 12 and had the best stage presence of the entire cast. He was awesome, very natural, animated and he had a great voice too.
In the second half, they added a seagull group song to give Ariel a pep talk to try and get her off her new found butt and go after the prince. It furthers the gag of what Flounder doesn't really know about the human world in spite of everything he's ever told Ariel about it. It's over the top, it's unneccessary and it isn't all that good.
Enough bad. Let's talk about the good to fantastic, because there was certainly a lot of that. The sets and costumes were amazing. They spared no expense and these did not disappoint in the least. Most of the underwater characters were wearing bladed shoes which allowed them to "glide" and "float"; very cool and easy. The mermaids had their legs completely hidden under wavy, gauzy costuming with big moving mermaid tails coming out of their butts; a very nice effect. Ursula had 8 huge octopus arms; just amazing (and the wavy hairdo was pretty cool too). Flotsam and Jetsam were a LARPer's dream. Their costumes would occasionally light up in various places just like you'd expect an animated electric eel to do.
The only advice I'd give to more fully appreciate all of the sets and costumes is to sit farther back. I don't usually advocate this as I enjoy sitting in the first 10 - 12 rows. To appreciate the "magic" of this show and immerse yourself in the effects, you need to be farther away. We were in the third row and could see how everything worked. The tails were wire frames with a thin gauzy covering. This made them look very real from farther back, I'm sure, but up close it detracted. Same with just about every effect there, but that was the most obvious.
The orchestra was fabulous. There's a bit of a trend to simplify orchestras for cost reasons these days. They didn't cut this group. And of course the quality of such a group is paramount to pulling off a musical. Full points on this aspect.
Flotsam and Jetsam. These two were the best actors in the show. They were dynamic. They were a perfect match. Their voices blended beautifully. They were slimy and evil, almost enough to make up for the semi-nice Ursula. They wound around each other just like in the cartoon. They were just fantastic.
At the point where Ursula is growing in the big battle scene, these giant tentacles grow out of the wall all across the front of the theatre, giving the illusion that there's a giant Ursula there. Nice.
You can tell when you've seen too many Broadway shows when you've become overly critical. On the other hand, when you pay over $140 a ticket you expect the best. That said, The Little Mermaid was a very good show and Monique and I enjoyed it a great deal.
Oh, fun little side note. I have never in my life seen so many young girls in one place all dressed up in little princess costumes. Too cute.
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