Disney’s The Little Mermaid musical first appeared on Broadway in 2008. Based upon Disney’s iconic 1989 animated film, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, the stage production features music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater and a book by Doug Wright.
Known for its innovative use of underwater effects, elaborate costumes, and beloved songs like Part of Your World and Under the Sea, the musical captured the hearts of audiences despite receiving mixed reviews from critics. Over the years, The Little Mermaid musical has remained a celebrated part of Disney’s theatrical legacy, captivating audiences worldwide. Recently, the rights for The Little Mermaid were released to UK based amateur groups and productions of this timeless classic started sprouting up for local audiences to enjoy. Centre Stage London recently took on the mammoth task of bringing Ariel, Prince Eric, Sebastian and Ursula to the stage and London audiences were finally able to revisit one of their childhood favourites Under The Sea.
Just like in the beloved film, The Little Mermaid follows a beautiful young mermaid who longs to leave her ocean home to live in the world above. Ariel, King Triton’s youngest daughter, wishes to pursue Prince Eric in the human world and bargains with the evil sea witch, Ursula, to trade her tail for legs. But the bargain is not what it seems and Ariel needs the help of her colourful friends Flounder the fish, Scuttle the seagull and Sebastian the crab to win the love of the Prince and restore order under the sea before it’s too late!
As the fresh faced young Ariel, Bex Evans gave a delightful performance. Focusing on Ariel’s emotional journey, Evans delivered an Ariel that was affecting and her performance of the iconic Part Of Your World received a well deserved round of applause from the audience. As her love interest Prince Eric, Nick Dore gave a stunning vocal performance throughout and his rendition of Her voice had the audience transfixed.
As the evil Ursula, Cleo Simone delighted the audience as her eight puppeteer strong tentacle unit manoeuvred around the stage producing a very imposing silhouette. Simone’s vocal talent made easy work of Ursula’s numbers as she belted out the fan-favourite Poor Unfortunate Souls to a very eager audience. As Sebastian, Josephine Bannerman made the character her own delivering the crab’s famous quips in a fresh way and entertaining us all with a fun-filled rendition of Under The Sea that had the audience buzzing from the opening chords. As Ariel’s best guppy friend, Rosie O’Rourke gave a fun performance as Flounder. In a part expanded for the stage adaption, O’Rourke led a delightful She’s In Love mid-way through Act One with Ariel’s mersisters.
As Ursula’s henchmen, Giovanni Pillitu and Claire Brewin gave perfectly slimy performances as Flotsam and Jetsam while Will Garrood gave us his best army general in a touching performance of Prince Eric’s guardian Grimsby. Thomas Howard delivered a hilarious Scuttle and his full cast tap-dancing seagull song Positoovity was an early Act Two highlight. The large supporting ensemble cast played many roles throughout. From puppeteers, mersisters, townsfolk and sailors the directing team put them through their paces as they sang and danced up a storm. In a brief one-song cameo, Stephen Mitchell stole the show as Chef Louis with a fabulous rendition of Les Poissons. Serving operatic realness, Mitchell wowed the audience with his hilarious delivery of this song and deserved the rapturous applause that followed the end of the number. Bravo!
Disney Theatrical productions are known for their grand scale and spectacle and while smaller, more intimate productions of The Little Mermaid have found much success in recent years, Centre Stage chose to go full-out with this production attempting to recreate the full scaled production of Broadway past. I’m happy to report they achieve exactly what they set out to do! Producer Giles Burden wrangled together a large team of costume, set, video and puppetry designers to bring The Little Mermaid to life.
This production was filled to the brim with special effects including merfolk on roller skates, larger rolling trucks which housed Ursula and King Triton, pyrotechnics and flying to name a few. Puppet design was extremely effective throughout with puppets created for Ursula‘s larger than life tentacles by Rosie O’Rourke and the rest of the costume and tech crew. While further puppets created for Flounder, Sebastian and a cacophony of aquatic life that seemed to jump right off the screen by Daniel Penfold. One particular highlight came in Act Two when projected video design, Martin Walton’s lighting design, Penfold’s puppet design and Sean Westwood’s scenic design came together to create a wonderfully magical Kiss The Girl that encompassed the entire auditorium. Paul Brookland Williams (Starlight Express)and Tim Garrad’s choreography was tightly formed and appropriate for the style of show and Mark Smith’s musical direction led a fantastic 14 piece band. Overall a wonderfully entertaining production that Centre Stage should be very proud of.
Directors James-Lee Campbell (Les Misérables) and Alexis Rose did a fantastic job at wrangling the near 40 strong cast. They let each actors respective talents shine and the stage never felt overcrowded. The segregation between the human world and King Tritons under the sea universe was clear through use of clever staging adding to the central theme of Ariel’s “otherness.”
While this production of The Little Mermaid closed this weekend, Centre Stage London have an exciting season planned with productions of fan-favourite The Wedding Singer and pop-musical Bare. Information about both productions can be found on their website and if The Little Mermaid is anything to go by, the rest of their season will be nothing short of magical!
Reviewed by Stuart James
