The Little Mermaid

This was the first time that I had seen the Disney Little Mermaid and I thought that it was a thoroughly charming show.

The entire cast of Debut Youth Theatre performed well and there was some wonderful singing, with some excellent voices. Rebecca Reed was a delightful Ariel and Rhys Coombs was her suitor Eric. Abbie Miller was a suitably evil Ursula and Bethany Hampton and Thomas Woodcock provide some of the humour as Flounder and Sebastian.

The costumes were outstanding, very bright and colourful, and the make-up was superb, with some beautiful effects. The lighting was good (not easy in such for such a large flat area) and the sea and storm effects were quite spectacular.

The scenery was beautifully painted, but it was a bit too time consuming to change scenes, and at times the production lacked momentum.

My only disappointment was the delivery of the dialogue as some of the cast did not or could not project their voice – perhaps a voice production workshop sometime? However, even though some of the words were difficult to hear it was such a pleasure to hear a company perform without microphones. I think that unamplified singing has such a lovely sound and it’s a pity we don’t hear it more often.

This was a lively, energetic production and was enjoyed by the audience.

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.