The Little Mermaid

It was lovely to return to The Taliesin for the first time in 2024 to see Cockett’s production of The Little Mermaid.

I have seen the Junior version of this musical a number of times but this was the first time I had seen it as an adult show. As with most Disney shows the company used a rear projection for the backdrop of all the scenes and this worked well apart from a couple of instances where the timing was slightly out.

The story is a popular one of the mermaid princess, the youngest of King Triton’s daughters who wants to explore the land beyond the sea, the Disney cartoon introduced us to many memorable songs like, Part of your World, Under the Sea and Poor Unfortunate Souls.

The orchestra under the batonship of Musical Director Jonathan Lycett were well balanced and controlled.

There is quite a large cast in this show and the society were lucky in getting a youthful mix of cast.

Ariel was played by Natalie Edwards and this is a substantial role in the show, I really liked Natalie’s portrayal of this lead character. She had a lovely singing voice and good stage presence. She was indeed a perfect disney princess.

Dylan Stapley took on the role of Prince Eric who fell in love with Ariel after she rescued him from the sea. Another young actor that the society were fortunate to get.
Ursula, the evil sea witch who tricked Ariel into giving her her voice was played by Rachael Morris who gave another good performance , I liked her rendition of Poor Unfortunate Souls, her two minions, Flotsam and Jetsam were taken by Millie Tanner and Rebecca House and both girls gave a strong performance which I really liked, especially with Daddy’s Little Angel and Sweet Child.

King Triton was played by Joe Morgan, you could see that Joe had worked professionally as he had a lovely baritone voice which really shone through.

Sebastian the Crab was played by Jodie Baker, whilst I liked the first entrance over the overture, I do not think the character was helped by the Southern Drawl as an accent. As most people remember the excitable character from the movie , the accent did slow down the movement. I know that the
character is written as Jamaican and this could not be the case with the society, possibly a different accent would have worked better and helped Jodie with her characterisation, as it was quite clear that she was a talented actress.

These characters were well supported by, Ellie Morgan as Flounder, Saul Woods as Scuttle and a really nice performance by Nick Ruggieri as Prince Eric’s faithful adviser Grimsby.

The Mersisters roles were played by Jessica Miles, Lucy Allan, Jodi Fraser, Suzy Hambridge, Catrin Jones and Lauren Williams and each of these actresses added to the production with their performances.

Finally I must mention Daniel Moses’ cameo as Chef Louis in what was a very funny sequence..

There were some lovely ensemble moments during the show especially Kiss the Girl, and Under the Sea.

I’d like to congratulate the society on taking a chance on this musical and am glad that they had the audience numbers that they deserved.

Thank you once again for your hospitality.

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