The Broadway touring production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid has several high bars to leap. First, it adapts the wildly popular 1989 movie of the same name, from which certain 30-somethings (ahem) have every lyric etched into their brains. Secondly, Mermaid follows a spate of successful Disney theatrical adaptations, including Beauty and the Beastand The Lion King, each of which have set high-water marks for their artistry (and profitability).
The Little Mermaid, running at the Aronoff Center for the Arts through Sunday, checks many of the right boxes. At the very top of this list is Diana Huey as mermaid Ariel. I simply could not get enough of this star with the honey-dripping Disney Princess voice. Huey’s Ariel is charming, plus as silly and rash as the teenager she is supposed to be.
Huey manages to be a quadruple threat: she can sing, she can act, she can dance and she can swim. In this production, a mermaid can swim in two ways: through aerial stunts on wires (such as during the “She’s in Love” number, when a smitten Ariel backstrokes through the air), and through a constant full-body undulation that must give these actors aching abdominal muscles for days. Other actors use Heelys skate shoes or skateboards to glide across the stage.
The effects work, but they seldom tap into the level of imagination of the live-action stampede scene of The Lion King or the Beast’s transformation into a human in Beauty and the Beast. Both of those shows employ stage trickery and scale to make their effects feel supernatural, magical. Mermaid rarely takes our breath away, including in its would-be-showstopper “Under the Sea.” Melvin Abston gives an incredible performance as Sebastian the Crab, but this number never gets big enough. The scene is entertaining, but falls short of magical. It does not help that the “touring orchestra” for Mermaid consists of a keyboardist and a drummer. It often sounds as though the actors are singing along with a CD.
More than half the songs are new additions by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater, including a few that have borrowed formerly instrumental music and added new context. For instance, the lively movie-soundtrack tune “Jig” has been transmuted into “One Step Closer,” a piece for Prince Eric (Matthew Kacergis) and a voiceless Ariel in which the couple learns to communicate through dance and gesture. Other songs seem to be completely new concoctions, including numbers to give brand-new backstories to King Triton (Steve Blanchard) and Ursula the Sea Witch (Jennifer Allen). The originals remain the catchiest numbers in the show — but that might be a purist talking.
The story has changed in subtle but important ways as well. As a role model for young women, the character Ariel often has taken flack as not being much of a feminist — after all, this is a story about a young woman trading her talent and identity for access to a man. The theatrical version clearly endeavors to give Ariel more strength. Prince Eric chooses Ariel, voice or no voice, after getting to know her better. Onstage, Ariel takes care of Ursula with a little help from her friends, unlike in the movie, where Eric saves Ariel from Ursula. And when Eric asks for her father’s blessing in the musical, Triton steps aside because “Ariel can speak for herself.” Mermaid is likely still missing Gloria Steinem’s seal of approval, but these edits are a step toward contemporary feminism.
Kenneth Foy’s scenic design is effervescent and bright, with creative use of blacklight and neon. Amy Clark and Mark Ross’ costume designs leap straight out of the movie, right down to the golden epaulets on Prince Eric’s jacket. There were hundreds of turquoise sequined mermaid tails on display on opening night — a dozen onstage, gads more in the tween-packed audience. If this rapt and giddy crowd is any indication, kids won’t care that Ursula’s story arc has changed or that Triton has been given a slight Aquaman makeover. However, the adults in the audience might not be quite so enchanted, and devotees of Disney’s The Little Mermaid movie will wish this production had stayed closer to its roots.
DISNEY’S THE LITTLE MERMAID is onstage at the Aronoff Center through Sunday. Tickets/more info: cincinnatiarts.org.
This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 1, 2017.
