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ceebeegeeMichael and I saw Disney's Broadway version of The Little Mermaid last night. I thought it was pretty damn good--not quite as good as the movie but it would be tough to top the possibilities that animation affords. For example "Under the Sea" wasn't quite as amazing as the cartoon (my favorite part is during the bridge when Sebastian is syncopating the phrases, and then the key changes--it just KICKS IT UP a notch. "What do they got, a lot of sand?/ We got a hot crustacean band!")--I was hoping for some really amazing choreography but instead the Sebastian just WAILED. Dude could SANG. I personally would've cast a smaller man as Sebastian, because I think his basic shtick is "Hysterium"-like small-harried-man-doing-the-best-he-can , but this guy was great nonetheless. "Kiss the Girl" was very good though--they built it very nicely.
Sierra Boggess was terrific as Ariel--just adorable and sounded great too. Prince Eric was great, with more personality than I expected (Disney princes can be somewhat underwritten) and a nice sound. They actually had quite a good chemistry together. As far as Ursula goes--I would've directed it differently. Sherie Renee Scott was a little too campy for my taste--Pat Carroll's Ursula was pretty campy but she was always 100% motivated and focused. She wasn't performing for us the audience, she was performing in order to manipulate Ariel, which is why as funny as she was, there was a real menace underneath it all. A similar note for Flotsam and Jetsam--they were comic rather than titillatingly scary as they were in the movie. Together...forever...
I did like Ursula's costuming--they didn't quite replicate the movie, but her tentacles were creepy nonetheless.
The kid who played Flounder was ADORABLE and very natural. He got to sing his own number with Ariel's sisters and nailed it. King Triton was smokin' hot--obviously Triton has a really good trainer down there on the ocean floor! I did like a lot of the scenery--the colors were beautiful, I liked how they differentiated between the surface of the water, and when you were underwater, and between Triton's palace and Ursula's lair. However there was some kind of bong/water pipe-looking thing that I don't think really worked.
One thing I *loved* was how excited most of the audience was; when the intro to "Under the Sea" started someone--and it sounded like an adult--kind of gulped and then clapped quietly, and then you could feel the excitement spread to others (like ME, I was trying not to bop too conspicuously in my seat). Such a great song.
This is my favorite number in the movie--I want to play Ursula some day! I love how it builds musically, so that Ariel is so caught up, she is compelled to sign at the climax of the song. Michael, if you skip ahead to 6:15, you'll see the Freudian moment I was talking about, when Ariel breaches the surface of the water in silhouette.
The fluke is the Duke of Soul (Yeah!):
Sierra Boggess was terrific as Ariel--just adorable and sounded great too. Prince Eric was great, with more personality than I expected (Disney princes can be somewhat underwritten) and a nice sound. They actually had quite a good chemistry together. As far as Ursula goes--I would've directed it differently. Sherie Renee Scott was a little too campy for my taste--Pat Carroll's Ursula was pretty campy but she was always 100% motivated and focused. She wasn't performing for us the audience, she was performing in order to manipulate Ariel, which is why as funny as she was, there was a real menace underneath it all. A similar note for Flotsam and Jetsam--they were comic rather than titillatingly scary as they were in the movie. Together...forever...
I did like Ursula's costuming--they didn't quite replicate the movie, but her tentacles were creepy nonetheless.
The kid who played Flounder was ADORABLE and very natural. He got to sing his own number with Ariel's sisters and nailed it. King Triton was smokin' hot--obviously Triton has a really good trainer down there on the ocean floor! I did like a lot of the scenery--the colors were beautiful, I liked how they differentiated between the surface of the water, and when you were underwater, and between Triton's palace and Ursula's lair. However there was some kind of bong/water pipe-looking thing that I don't think really worked.
One thing I *loved* was how excited most of the audience was; when the intro to "Under the Sea" started someone--and it sounded like an adult--kind of gulped and then clapped quietly, and then you could feel the excitement spread to others (like ME, I was trying not to bop too conspicuously in my seat). Such a great song.
This is my favorite number in the movie--I want to play Ursula some day! I love how it builds musically, so that Ariel is so caught up, she is compelled to sign at the climax of the song. Michael, if you skip ahead to 6:15, you'll see the Freudian moment I was talking about, when Ariel breaches the surface of the water in silhouette.
The fluke is the Duke of Soul (Yeah!):
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Date: 2008-01-24 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-25 04:10 pm (UTC)