The Little Mermaid Musical REBORN (In Europe)

[Xedex]

Hey everyone!


As some of you may know Disney did a The Little Mermaid musical for Broadway in 2007 (replacing Beauty and the Beast which has been running since 1994 and after it closed it went on tour) Now The Little Mermaid didn't took of like Disney hoped it would. Even tough the show had a good cast and Alan Menken on board for the music it didn't feel right. They changed the ending of the story by dropping the Vanessa story and replaced it with a singing contest looking for Ariel's voice. The costumes where detailed but also felt off (it's hard to make mermaids come to life on stage) Also the character Ursula changed from pure evil to annoyed diva (while Sherie Rene Scott acted and sang nicely it still wasn't Ursula to many of us) Sebastian's voice got pitched up (which I really didn't like) and many more changes where made.

The Little Mermaid On Broadway - Under The Sea - YouTube (Under the Sea higher pitched on Broadway)
The Little Mermaid On Broadway - Part Of Your World - YouTube (Part of your world, which was slowed down making it more a balled)

BUT here is the twist!
Stage Entertainment (who do major musicals in Europe like all Disney shows, Phantom, Sister Act ect) bought the rights for The Little Mermaid and wanted to do the musical and start from scratch. They kept the basic songs Menken had written for the show but also added 2 new (now it not released what they are but Ursula is rumored to get one of them) The costumes and sets will be ALL NEW! (I'm really looking forward to that) Also the story is getting tweaked making it more adult. (I heard rumors of Flounder getting more back story) Not a word yet if Vanessa is back in the show (though I really hope they do) Today was a press presentation for the show in Holland (which is where the reborn version will premiere) For the sets they released some facts like that the mermaids will 'Fly' instead of "Gliding across the stage' (which they did on Broadway) They also said that the 'World Above' sets will look like a story pop-up-book (A lyric in Beyond My Wildest Dream' says "Oh just Look! It's like I'm in a storybook!" and is about Ariel looking at the human world as if it is one big Fantasy/Fairytale)

Optredens tijdens de persbijeenkomst voor de musical The Little Mermaid - YouTube (The press presentation including the songs: Under the Sea, If Only and Part of Your World)
Musicals.nl - Verwacht: The little Mermaid Musical (the official Dutch site)

I'm really looking forward to this because I've seen what stage can do with a show! (They revamped Tarzan and it was AMAZING)
If the show is a success (I hope) it will go around Europe because Stage Entertainment has the rights.



~Dex

[Xedex]

Pictures form the press presentation!



The one on the far Left is Labeled Ursula!

Looking at the sketch above this will be Ursula (The actress who plays her has a low voice like the movie, while Broadway did a higher pitched voice. I'm happy it is low again)

Swimming ('Flying' Ariel)

The world above (With the Fantasy/Storybook sets)

The Leads: Tessa Sunniva van Tol and Tommy Christiaan

(All pictures belong to Disney and Stage Entertainment and can be found here: Musicals.nl - Artikelen The Little Mermaid )

[yoyoflamingo]

Thanks for sharing! It'll be interesting to see if they can change this flop into a truly wonderful show. It definitely has the potential.

Though, after seeing it, while I love Pat Carrol, I do think Sherie Rene Scott grew on me as Ursula, despite a little campy. "I Want the Good Times Back" is my favorite new song in the show.

[Xedex]

No problem! I will try to post as much as possible about this show (even though the Theater section of the boards seems dead :P )

If Only and Sweet Child are the 2 new songs I really think fitted the characters best. I found scuttles songs to be useless and random.


A nice thing is that when they do a Disney stage show in Holland they ditch the translated songs from the movie and translate it all over again. So they can connect the whole piece with the new songs/story/sets. In the NEW 'Part of Your World', 'That's where my heart lies' in dutch ('Daar ligt mijn hart') That lyric also is placed at the end of the NEW 'If Only' (instead of the original 'But if I never find a way to tell you so, Oh what I would give, if only you could know!') to 'But even if I never would be able to tell you so, Oh what must I do?, My heart lies here with you!' ('Maar stel dat ik het nooit aan jou vertellen zou, Oh wat moet ik doen? In dutch (Mijn hart ligt hier bij jou!') So I'm happy they translated everything all over again.

Also a new thing is that Flounder will be played by a young adult men rather than a child (Broadway)
They also confirmed that all mermaids + Trition + Flouder will fly 'Swim in the air' (on Broadway triton didn't even 'float')
Sebastian will be one of the few that doesn't fly 'swim'
Ursula's costume will have 8 PEOPLE/SLAVES dancing with her legs/arms!
Flotsam and Jetsam will be on wheelies like Broadway (probably the only wheelies in the show)

~Dex

[TweedlDum9]

Thanks for sharing! It'll be interesting to see if they can change this flop into a truly wonderful show. It definitely has the potential.

I hope so! The soundtrack has some GREAT music! But when a friend came back from NYC and showed me the program she bought, I was shocked. What the heck were they thinking???

[DragoHarley]

I honestly believe "Part of That World" is the most beautiful song ever written. I just adore it. I saved up my money to go to NYC just to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway...and my soul was crushed by how bad it was. I was expecting to see costumes of the caliber of The Lion King because I thought, "If they could do THAT with African animals then just imagine the costumes they'll do with ocean creatures". Instead, the whole show looked like a high school production. Did you ever see the movie "The Object of My Affection" with Jenifer Anistan? At the end of that movie there's a children's theater production of Little Mermaid and it had costumes BETTER than the Broadway version! The singing was bad, there were weird changes to the story, and the sets looked like volunteers made them.

I remember leaving the theater and feeling like the biggest fool in the world because I shelled out something like $125 for the ticket. I don't make much money, so to save up for that trip I had to skip lunch every day for three months and also not go out to eat or see any movies or do anything fun for that whole time so I could put every spare penny into my "Little Mermaid Fund". I could only afford to stay in New York for two nights, and seeing Little Mermaid on Broadway was my whole purpose for going.

It was so bad it spoiled the whole trip and made me feel like such a fool for blowing $800 on that misadventure.

I am still peeved about the whole thing and so upset that Disney dropped the ball that badly on what should have been a slam dunk musical.

[Xedex]

^I'm sorry to hear your experience with the Broadway show


Left top: Daughters of Triton (Look at the wigs, curious to see what they are going to do with them)
Right Top: The Underwater World (Part of Your World?)
Left Bottom: Kiss the Girl
Right Bottom: The Human World


Showing more ensemble sketches Including: Tropical Fishes (bottom) Starfish, Sea urchin, Seahorse, Sea snail, Sea anemone.
Something interesting on the far right top is what looks like an eel (possible Flotsam/Jetsam?)
In the background you see a Jellyfish puppet and the Sea anemone 'hoop' (in which a person dances)
All sizes | little_mermaid_280312-014 | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (link to bigger picture)

There is some news about the mermaid/Triton costume's
The fish tail will be made up from leather scales (each scale will be hand made and takes a lot of time to make because they have to slam each scale by hand out of the leather)

~Dex

[konekobus]

I really don't like them changing ALL the lyrics. The only reason I would want to see the show is out of nostalgia. With the lyrics being different from how I've known them for more than 20 years, a lot of the fun already isn't there anymore.

They're probably gonna change the names of Flounder, and Flotsam and Jetsam as well, as they have done in musicals in the past. I'm kind of surprised that Disney would allow this lack of continuity.

[Xedex]

^I don't mind it because I have more love for the English lyrics (grew up with other Disney movies) I know mermaid more from Alan Menken (English version) then I do from memory (Dutch version) I see you're point but I think it will be like The Lion King Musical, based on the movie but a WHOLE NEW experience.

The Dutch names will be Botje (like the movie) and Slijmbal & Slijmjurk (instead of Gruwel en Griezel) Grimbert becomes Grimsby and all the other names will stay the same.

[Xedex]

Training for flying/swimming has started:
https://twitter.com/#!/LittleMermaid...054144/photo/1
In the back you can see Eric his boat!

~Dex

[yoyoflamingo]

I understand the pain for the money spent on the show. I took my Theater class to see it, and since it's the only trip we attend during the year, we all pretty much agreed it was a letdown. What was interesting was that the thing that annoyed them the most was the lack of Max Eric's dog!

And Scuttle's songs (as well as his character) were easily the worst part of the show. Terrible songs, sung terribly, by a terrible character. I keep remembering his Ronald MacDonald shoes more than anything else!

[Xedex]

^Aww that really sounds disappointing for you and your students

Funny you mention Max, it was one of the things I didn't miss at all(?) He was nice in the movie and good for some laughs and it was nice seeing him with Eric but I didn't missed him in the show at all.
And I sadly agree with Scuttle, I somehow have a feeling we will still have those songs (I hope not, but I haven't heard anything about them yet)



The Little Mermaid hoog en droog – Shownieuws.tv
A vid of the flight/swimming training!

~Dex

[yoyoflamingo]

Funny you mention Max, it was one of the things I didn't miss at all(?) He was nice in the movie and good for some laughs and it was nice seeing him with Eric but I didn't missed him in the show at all.

Me too. I just thought it was so odd and a little funny that's the thing that bothered them the most. Especially in a show with so much to be bothered about!

[Xedex]

TV commercial | Facebook
The first (awfully generic and non revealing) trailer is out!
It basically says in Dutch: After the success of The Lion King and spectacle of Tarzan Disney and Joop van den Ende (Stage Entertainment) proudly present: The Little Mermaid

[Xedex]

NEW picture of the stage with underwater effects!

Imagine merpeople flying/swimming in this: