Little Mermaid Jr

Right from the opening number I realised that we were going to be in for a good show, there was good strong singing from the principals right from the start. This was evident with the singing of Ryan Swanborough as the Pilot in ‘Fathoms Below’, he was joined by Leo Saville as Grimsby and Barney Cooper as Prince Eric, these three gave us this good opening number together with a chorus of sailors filling the stage with movement colour and sound. This was the only number for Ryan and he made the most of it, his characterisation was also good. Leo had one other number ‘The Contest’ which was also good, he also worked well on stage and gave a polished performance working with Barney’s Prince Eric. Barney has grown in confidence over the last few shows I have seen him in, his singing is good and he has a good presence on stage, a confident and strong performance. A young man who smiles on stage he had a good rapport with Ariel and gave us a nice performance with ‘One Step Closer’. The other principal male was Otto Forkin, hiding towards the rear of the chorus but he came to life as French chef Louis giving the audience a very entertaining performance of ‘Les Poissons’ having practiced his French accent there was good energy and timing.

With the principal females, there was a very strong line-up, headed by Isla Joyce as Ariel. She gave us a very strong rendition (twice) of Part of Your World, this was a well performed role, a lot of Ariel’s role comprised movement, finding her legs, being able to walk and having lost her voice having to act out her emotions, this was well done. A good rapport with Prince Eric, I loved the scene in the boat when Ariel tried to attract Eric’s attention, well-acted. She also had a good rapport with her friends Scuttle, Flounder and Sebastian, played respectively by Chloe Banham, Phoebe Chick-Holland and Millie Jackson. These three were very well cast and played their characters well. Chloe gave an excellent rendition of ‘Human Stuff’ along with her fellow seagulls, clear dialogue with good movement on stage, entertained the audience well. Phoebe also excelled with ‘She’s in Love’ entertaining us alongside the Mersisters, these two girls were outdone by Millie as Sebastian, but mainly as she had two songs – ‘Under the Sea’ and ‘Kiss that Girl’ both of which were strongly sung. As I said these three were well cast, portrayed their characters well and oozed confidence in their performances. No songs for King Triton, however Jasmine Hunt gave a good performance, showing his love and softness for his daughter, but also displaying disappointment and anger as the role required, finally disposing of Ursula.

Carmen Stones gave us an outstanding performance as Ursula, this was helped by her very effective make-up and magnificent costume, but it was her vocals that brought this wicked sea witch to life. I can still hear her song ‘Poor Unfortunate Souls’ reverberating around the theatre. Ursula was ably supported by Flotsam and Jetsam, Pippa Challis and Hannah Collins who were also suitably wicked. The speaking role of Carlotta was nicely played by Amelia-Rose Tatum.

All these principals were supported by a large cast, including the 6 Mersisters and the 6 Princesses. All these youngsters filled the stage with colour, sound and movement, the singing was good throughout the show. If anything lacked it was the volume of dialogue and song from some of the youngsters who were hampered by the fact that the principals were mic’d and they were not. There were some big show numbers well-choreographed with good synchronicity even with the youngest cast members such as ‘Fathoms Below’, ‘Under the Sea’, ‘The Storm’, ‘Les Poissons’ and more with a rousing finale ‘Part of Your World’. There was a lot of hard work put into creating all the matching costumes, good make-up and good props, particularly the boat. The use of a digital back cloth allows instant scene changes and the exits and entrances onto stage were very slick and smooth considering the number of youngsters on stage.

This was a well performed and produced show greatly appreciated by the audience. Only made possible by a very large back stage team. Congratulations to Charlotte and Poppy.

Leslie Judd

 

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