De tweede van de Denver Post is positiever, 3 van de 5 sterren.
Review: “The Little Mermaid”
*** RATING
By John Moore
Denver Post Theater Critic
Article Last Updated: 08/24/2007 01:17:59 PM MDT
Mer-mania is on.
It began in earnest with Thursday’s colorful and entertaining opening of “The Little Mermaid,” the latest entrant in Disney’s quest to take over Broadway, one children’s spectacle at a time.
“Mermaid” was greeted by a thunderous and appreciative (and undemanding) Denver audience. How likely that love is to carry over to New York in December depends on how willing the creative team is to accept that their very adorable little guppy has not quite yet found its full sea legs.
But that’s exactly why these multimillion-dollar high-risk ventures incubate in smaller cities like Denver before going up against a school of nasty New York piranhas (critics!) who, if given the chance today, might pick this fish to the bone.
This Denver run (through Sept. 9 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House) is an opportunity for the team to confirm what works, identify what doesn’t (most notably, a chaotic ending and a few bizarre set pieces) – and fix them, fast.
What’s good about “Mermaid” is very, very good, starting with diminutive Denver native Sierra Boggess as the animated Ariel virtually come to life. Boggess simply inhabits the headstrong, 16-year-old princess who defies her well-meaning but ill-equipped single father. Bet on it: This tiny kid’s gonna be a big Broadway star (hey, it’s not homerism when she obviously hit a home run).
More propitious is its faithfulness to the beloved 1989 film, which all but guarantees the show a long life in Times Square. There are those who will quibble with its liberties – Prince Eric’s wedding to disguised sea witch Ursula is replaced by a silly singing contest, for example – but this expanded telling from an essentially slight source solves far more storytelling problems than it introduces.
(Though I’m still not sure just how the Mer-king Triton and the octopus Ursula can be siblings. And while writer Doug Wright smartly addresses that nagging question, “Just what did
Denver native Sierra Boggess stars as Ariel in “The Little Mermaid.” (Joan Marcus / Disney Theatricals)happen to Ariel’s mother?” he never answers it – and therein could lie a much more satisfying explanation for Triton’s feud with his “sis.”)
The waterless staging conceit is original and magical in execution, though not without its problems. Through an innovative intermingling of lights, multimedia projections and lots of streaming clear plastic strips, director Francesca Zambello and scenic designer George Tsypin move us fluidly (sorry) from above water to below simply by having “sea level” rise and descend. One moment we’re on the ocean’s floor, mingling with fishies gliding around effortlessly on their “heelie” shoes; the next Eric’s ship lowers until it hovers just a few feet above the stage, the waving plastic strips underneath creating the sense his ship is floating on water. Wonderful.
Despite the intoxicating spectacle – and there is lots of it – Zambello wisely isn’t trying to fool anyone into thinking we are actually underwater, or that her human actors don’t really have legs. It’s a much more evocative and suggestive approach. She establishes place, then lets your imagination do the rest. And by not simply trying to replicate the animated creatures on stage, she smartly allows the humanity of the actors to come through.
The inhabitants of this underwater world owe much to “The Lion King.” These aren’t puppets, but their headdresses similarly imply species. Actually, there’s fairly liberal borrowing throughout the show from any number of stage spectacles: Ariel’s wonderful human transformation is pure “Peter Pan”; the hit-and-miss costumes are in league with “Beauty and the Beast”; and, most evidently, Sherie Rene Scott’s fantastic first entrance as the eight-armed Ursula will make you think “Audrey II” from “Little Shop of Horrors” – with a little Madam Morrible thrown in (“Wicked”). You’ll also notice trace elements of “Cinderella,” Crazy for You” and more.
Ironically, it’s only when the story moves to dry land that we start to encounter real staging problems. At the messy climax, we don’t know whether we’re in water or on dry land. The writer, Wright, wisely takes the final conquest of Ursula away from Eric and gives it to Ariel, where it belongs, but how the
girl fells the great and all-powerful sea witch is ridiculously easy – and no amount of strobe lights and smoke can cover that up.
The casting is impeccable. Boggess and Scott could be destined for Tony Award nominations (Tyler Maynard and Derrick Baskin would, too, if there were a category for best dastardly, slithery eels). Composers Alan Menken and Glenn Slater have wisely given Eric (a terrific Sean Palmer) his own songs to put the story’s central romance on more equal footing, (sorry again), but his songs aren’t particularly memorable. John Treacy Egan nearly steals the show in a brilliant cameo as chef Louie.
The gigantic white elephant here are actually two gigantic, (probably million-dollar) corkscrew columns that anchor Tsypin’s stage, but to what effect I have no earthly idea. All I can say is that corkscrews are for bottle-opening, not for undersea set-anchoring.
As might be expected, the familiar songs are the strength of the score, while much of the new material doesn’t quite flow together yet. The strongest new entrants are Ursula’s “I Want the Good Times Back”; the Mersisters singing a delightful “She’s in Love” with a young Flounder who’s been polarizingly reimagined as a pouty, spiky-haired teen; and Eddie Korbich’s glorious seagull tap, “Positoovity.” (But why are the gulls costumed to look like dirty, tattered pillows?)
Audiences, of course, most loved Ariel’s “Part of Your World” (a song Menken stole from his own “Somewhere That’s Green”) and “Under the Sea” (slightly rearranged to match loveable Titus Burgess’ higher voice). This is clearly the show’s bread-and-butter number, and audiences ate it up.
But ironically, this joyful, exhaustive dance doesn’t serve the meaning of the song all that well. It’s just ... a big dance number. It makes no attempt to further the point that life under the sea is better than above (they have dancing up there, too). After seeing choreographer Stephen Mear’s revolutionary upside-down chimney-sweep dance in “Mary Poppins,” I was hoping for something similarly contextual here.
The number that best combines movement, mood and song is an evocative and visually stunning “Kiss the Girl.”
People are already asking where “The Little Mermaid” falls in the pantheon of Disney’s theatrical spectacles. Despite its innovations, it’s really not trying to reinvent the storytelling form like “The Lion King.” It’s conventional in that regard, much more in league with “Beauty and the Beast.”
Despite its flaws, Zambello’s staging would likely be a hit even if it opened tomorrow just based on audiences’ sheer love for the story, and for its positive exploration of a now complex and interesting father-daughter relationship. The emotional power of the tale of a girl learning to stand on her own two feet is not only preserved but enhanced. Families will take positive messages of inclusion and tolerance from it.
My guest was Disney’s target audience: a 14-year-old female “Mermaid” film fanatic named Jaime. She understands the creators’ need to expand and fill out the story for the stage, but warns that lengthening it also creates disjointed tangents that might make hardcore fans impatient and wanting them to get back to business.
And she’ll never understand why it is that the girl has to always make the ultimate sacrifice. After all, Ariel will never see her father and beloved sisters again. All for the love of a man.
“If he’s such a prince,” Jaime asked, “why doesn’t he just become a merman?”
