DVDizzy Forum

Toky wrote:well i believe a statement made in America was that the show looked to plastic(according to Stage), which would probably be referring to the purple/pink glittery stuff, so I'm sure, looking to Stage's and Joop van den Ende's past shows they will alter the decors in a positively way.

I think so too, he's a real professional.

Mmmadelon wrote:I get why they use bright, colorful costumes, but there's a lot of pink and purple. They also use a lot of glitter. It's just my opinion

But why are those things even seen as girly? Purple used to be a color for royalty and even a lot of football players used to use it. What is it about those colors and glitter that makes boys not like it? Boys like sparks and explosions and stars, which is just like sparkles...what it is it, what is it?

I'm a boy and my favorite colors are purple, pink, and aquamarine and I love glitter, that's why I love Disney dust so much and it's in my avatar!

I really wonder what happened to the proposed 2010 tour of this show, and I wish it had happened. Maybe it will happen later, but...

I don't know if any of you knew this, but Disney released the rights to The Little Mermaid exclusively to three theatres, and it seems to be because they want to "try it out" and make it good before they release the rights all over the place? Or maybe they aren't letting the rights go just yet, and are only letting the rights to theatres that they think would put on a good show, because they did past Disney shows well or something. I think it's to make The Little Mermaid show look good by word of mouth before they release the rights. It seems they picked towns far, far away from the really big, well-known, artsy and sophisticated cities so theatre big wigs wouldn't know about and possibly pounce on the show.

Anyway, the first theatre to put on the show with these rights was the Tuacahn Ampitheatre in Ivins, Utah. It opened June 2nd and is playing till October 21st. The girl who plays Ariel was an understudy for Ariel on Broadway! But when I first saw the costumes...well, see for yourself:
Ariel
Sebastian
Ursula

However, don't panic! There was this trailer for the show, which makes it look a little more promising, doesn't it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gl7T5TzcUU

And then, here are the images of the actual show:
Tuacahn Little Mermaid Gallery

So, I will say that I like quite a few things, and think some is actually, actually, a lot better than the Braodway production, aside from the horrible low quality of how everything was crafted because they don't have a Broadway budget! First is I like the level of realism and literalism used in this production, it looks better than the Broadway one in this aspect. The ship is absolutely spectacular and looks much better in three dimensional glory. As I had complained before, the ship, and a lot of pieces in the Broadway version, had looked way too flat, and needed more dimension. Scuttle, Sebastian, Flounder and Ursula finally look like the actual sea creatures they are supposed to be, with Ursula's colors finally being right as well as less gross. But Ursula needs to have a nautilus shell like in the movie, not a conch shell.

The best thing of all has to be that the mermaids finally look like they are actual mermaids, as in they just have tails, not tails and legs, thanks to their legs being all black. The effect is one I had thought of before, and I'm glad to see it actually works! It's just that the stage needs to be more black and the mermaids need to be choreographed to avoid being in front of anything not black at all costs. The simplest and best solution would be to make everything low on the floor black (or almost black, very dark), and anything at the level of their tail can be whatever color or brightness they want it to be. Why Flounder and some other sea creatures didn't have this same "black hiding their legs" effect, I will never know, but they should have.

I also love how Ursula becomes huge in the end by simply staying the actress' size but her body and tentacles growing beneath her and raising her upward. It's another thing I thought of before, and it looks better and more dramatic than what the Broadway production did. The only thing is we need to see what looks like actual huge tentacles coming from her, not just black fabric!

Apparently this version had a "water screen", which I'm still not sure what or how that is, that they projected undersea images onto...for part of the background? I dunno, just search for "tuacahn little mermaid" and key words like that, or visit the Facebook page, to find out more about the production. Remember, it's still playing till Oct 21st!

But wait, another production happened, too! The one at The Muny Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri. This one is over, it started July 6th and ended July 14th. This one had Ken Page, the original Old Deuteronomy in Broadway's Cats and the original Lion in Broadway's The Wiz, as King Triton, and, you'll never believe it, that heavy guy from MadTV, Paul Vogt, as Ursula! I wish I could find a video of his performance! But here's a gallery of the show and...oh boy...well, look for yourself:

Muny Little Mermaid Gallery

So, I think that while the Tuacahn production took a lot forward for the show, this Muny production took a big step backward. The more literalness is nice, but the mermaids are just wearing plain dresses that kinda sorta are cut to look like tails, with their feet able to be seen sticking out sometimes, and they are clearly walking everywhere, when the star of the show's desire is to have feet and walk!

And generally the production just looks atrocious, with the only thing I like being Prince Eric's wedding costume and Triton's throne room and costume are kinda neat. Emphasis on kinda. But Triton doesn't even look like he has any attempt at a tail, ugh! Ursula's lair has kind of a cool, venemous, dark scariness to it...but it's horribly done and what's with the octopus being all still and painted in there?!

For more info on...sigh...this production, you can search for "muny little mermaid" and things like that or visit the Facebook page.

The last of these productions is the one at the Music Theatre of Witchita in Witchita Kansas, and it's coming up soon, and that one better be better! It's August 5-7, and 10-14. For more information, search for it and here's the official web site. The video on the front page at least makes it look very promising!

Purple is now used more with pink and blue, thus making it "girly"

Well, the Tuacahn production looks awesome (though I think they could have had someone a little younger play Ariel, since the actress playing her looks kinda old, but that's just me.)

Why couldn't the Broadway version look anything like that?!

DisneyJedi wrote:Well, the Tuacahn production looks awesome (though I think they could have had someone a little younger play Ariel, since the actress playing her looks kinda old, but that's just me.)

Why couldn't the Broadway version look anything like that?!

Yeah, I agree with everything you said. Ariel looks too old and the theater looks incredible! The special effects (Ursula flying reminds me a lot of Defying Gravity) and the size (the Kiss the Girl set looks amazing) are awesome.

How did they get the rights anyway??? It's not out yet! But, they are making rights for elementary/middle schools, so....I wonder if they're using that?

I love the costumes BTW!

the Tuacahn version looks nice and I hope that the Dutch/European version looks as good as that one and hopefulley even better!

However, you guys seem to forget that besides new costumes, the Dutch version will also have a rewritten script and will add two new songs. They want the show to appeal to an older audience.

So my guess is they wil make the new sets a little bit darker and less 'girly'.

This is a great news to me. I saw the board way show and loved it ! I'm a big fan of TLM anyway, so anything is great to me.

For the new songs, I prefer it to be solo Ariel song. Part of your World was so great, the way they arrange it for Broad way, but I want more original song for her like "Home" to Belle.

I hope Sierra Borgess returns as Love never dies will close soon !

^ Well, she's currently starring in the revival of Master Class on Broadway and she'll be playing the role of Christine in the 25th anniversary concert of The Phantom of the Opera.

Probably not much, but....

Perhaps by the time The Little Mermaid is ready, then she can go back to being a mermaid !

Did you guys like the tail being stuck up like that ?

Well since Sierra is American and the show will be here in the Netherlands, I'll doubt they will choose her (actually I'm sure they wont) . It will be translated to dutch. Maybe afterwards it will be transfered back to broadway, but it has already been there, so....

But there is no news here on TLM musical, only huge rumours, and since Van den Ende(producer) is doing Wicked here right now and producing some other shows, it could take a while before it reaches the stage...

Toky wrote:Well since Sierra is American and the show will be here in the Netherlands, I'll doubt they will choose her (actually I'm sure they wont) . It will be translated to dutch. Maybe afterwards it will be transfered back to broadway, but it has already been there, so....

But there is no news here on TLM musical, only huge rumours, and since Van den Ende(producer) is doing Wicked here right now and producing some other shows, it could take a while before it reaches the stage...

They're probably developing it while Wicked runs, so they have a hot new ticket to replace Wicked with when that ends in about 3 years.

Stage Entertainment, in cooperation with Disney Theatrical Productions, will present the Dutch premiere of The Little Mermaid, which premiered on Broadway in 2007. The Netherlands is the first country to scoop the European premiere of the Disney musical. Disney's The Little Mermaid opens on Saturday May 12, premiering at Martini Plaza in Groningen and then playing larger theaters in the Netherlands. Tommie Christiaan has been cast as Prince Eric. The rest of the cast will be announced soon.

The script for the musical is written by the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Doug Wright and translated by Martine Bijl. Disney's The Little Mermaid will play from May 2012 in theaters in Groningen, Heerlen, Breda, Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam and Eindhoven. Ticket sales will open next week. Tickets are available at (0900 - 1353 45 cpm) or the theaters.

Source: http://broadwayworld.com/article/THE-LI ... y-20120208

I had already heard about this a while ago. Notably that they're planning on doing a dark adaptation.

The poster art is gorgeous.

Not sure about Tommie Christiaan as prince Eric though. He has a great voice, but not the looks. And Prince Eric is supposed to be pretty damn handsome.

All in all, this production is promising.

Oh, this is cool! I saw the Broadway version and enjoyed it for the most part. It was visually beautiful.. I just wasn't crazy about the newly written songs. Hopefully some videos of this end up online!

PatrickvD wrote:I had already heard about this a while ago. Notably that they're planning on doing a dark adaptation.

Somehow, I really don't think I like the sound of that...

It can’t possibly be worse than the neutered, overblown, glitzy version that ended up on Broadway.

I saw this in New York, three years ago and liked it. It was fun. And the cast was so kind!

Can't wait to see the Dutch version, altho I'm afraid they'll probably have Chantal Jansen or Kim-Lian as Ariel (dutch musical stars who are practically in all the productions), I'm actually surprised Jim Bakkum (who was in Idols) isn't Erik.

The poster is rather gorgeous (and a thousand times better than the US Broadway one), but I odn't get the pencil sketch/chalk/Rafiki's young Simba drawing look to it. Also, I think the dark blue background should look like the sea, while the light blue silhouette of Ariel is golden red, to represent her fiery self not belonging in the ocean. Plus, the red hair.

Disney's Divinity wrote:It can’t possibly be worse than the neutered, overblown, glitzy version that ended up on Broadway.

Perfect description except overblown makes me feel like there was a lot, but really the set mostly looked empty. But I guess story and drama were also empty too. How do expand a story and make it less full than the movie?

PatrickvD wrote: Not sure about Tommie Christiaan as prince Eric though. He has a great voice, but not the looks. And Prince Eric is supposed to be pretty damn handsome.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

tsom wrote:

PatrickvD wrote: Not sure about Tommie Christiaan as prince Eric though. He has a great voice, but not the looks. And Prince Eric is supposed to be pretty damn handsome.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Indeed. I think Christiaan is quite cute/handsome actually;)