The Little Mermaid

I’d looked forward to WAOS’ production of The Little Mermaid since I first read it had joined their exciting roster of shows.   It’s rare I see anything ‘new’ nowadays, but having only experienced the enormously successful Disney animated film up until now – having never graced the professional UK circuit, I was intrigued to see how the tepidly received Broadway adaptation would translate to the stage.

This was a joint venture between WAOS’ adult and junior members with the juniors doing the majority of the legwork during the show, with a handful of adults taking on some of the principal casting.  Director Jennifer Hawley-McGee did a great job of seamlessly juxtaposing young and old into a well-rounded production that was never distracting. I think sometimes it can be difficult to suspend reality when watching performers from a mixed age group, so a huge well done to Jennifer and the Casting Team.

I couldn’t talk about Ariel, without mentioning Part of Your World – arguably one of the best songs ever to be written by the legendary song-writing duo Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.  Tilly Kipling was a perfect Ariel and her rendition of Part of Your World was wonderful.  I loved the new Broadway arrangements of it making it much more difficult than the film, requiring a wider range and technique.   Being unable to speak, Ariel’s first big moment of the second act comes in Beyond My Wildest Dreams.  An internal monologue in which she sings about how excited she is to finally be on land whilst the witty lyrics and hummable tune remain unheard by the palace staff who are looking on.  Tilly did a fantastic job of delivering this number, and showed a different side to Ariel that we hadn’t seen up until now. 

Henry Voce really suited the role of Prince Eric and performed the role brilliantly.  He has a natural ‘pop’ edge to his voice, and whilst Eric’s big number, One Step Closer, is more of a traditional ‘musical theatre’ song, Henry made  it his own which is so important when playing a leading role and not trying to imitate the cast recording.    Despite Ariel not being able to communicate verbally with him, I thought the pairing of Tilly and Henry worked really well on stage and were a very believable couple! 

There were some fantastic appearances in supporting roles too.   Tom Hawley gave a well-rounded performance as Sebastian the Crab, leading Under The Sea with a great display of showmanship.  Owen Davis-Johnston took on the role of Flounder, Ariel’s best friend. He sang and danced brilliantly and I was really surprised by his diction - very impressive for one so young…one to watch there in the future, I think.  There was no denying, Grace Millington got the second act off to a fantastic start. She was clearly having a blast as the eccentric seagull Scuttle.  The audience gave a great ovation to Positoovity, a brilliant number – and I LOVED the tap dancing birds!!

Chloe Steadman looked and sounded the part as the villainous sea witch – Ursula.  As the quintessential Disney Villain, Chloe commanded the stage and made her audience sit up and pay attention whenever she was onstage. We never forgot she was the Baddie – she provided a lingering malevolent atmosphere that lasted long after her scenes had played making us constantly aware of what consequences lay in store for the other characters as the plot advanced– now that’s how to play a good villain!  Chloe also demonstrated some impressive vocals, as Poor Unfortunate Souls was another song to get the ‘Broadway’ treatment – higher keys, expanded vocal range and of course, a big belt to finish – it was a far cry from Pat Carrol’s iconic deep and haunting vocal in the movie – but I loved it!

Society Stalwarts Tony McGee and Andrew White gave polished performances as Grimsby and King Triton respectively, and you can always rely on Mark Stilwell to inject some comedy – this time as Chef Louis. The audience loved Les Poissons – a charming song dedicated to the Chefs favourite thing - filleting fish!  It was a fantastic number and of course it was sung with an outrageous French accent which would have befit any Monty Python sketch  - Ooo-La-La indeed! 

From a production perspective, it’s certainly not one for any faint hearted amateur group.   It’s a beast of a show requiring lots of different technical elements, big choreographic routines and not to mention most of the cast are supposed to be fish…(better grab an extra costume rail!)  

The costumes, provided by Utopia Costumes were absolutely beautiful and looked tremendous from out front.  I imagine those fishtails that many of the company wore took a while to get the hang of but everyone seemed to take to it like a duck to water!

The lighting design was fantastic, well cued and the addition of bubbles was a lovely touch – particularly for the younger audience members.   The sound mix on the whole was generally good with only one of the principals mic’s lacking the clarity of the others.    The backing tracks were of good quality and sounded very full. There were just a couple of times I would have preferred them nudged a fraction higher as I felt some of the big crescendos in the score lacked a little bit of punch. 

The production was staged on a composite set, where it’s main focal point was a stairway leading up to a rostra, and behind that a full width video wall.  I thought the curve of the rostra cladding, blending into the stage floor was a clever touch.  The video content displayed was of super quality with carefully plotted transitions which ups the game considerably for me as an audience member. Nothing irks me more than a very obvious change of footage when the operator hits the space bar – it feels very ‘next slide please!’.  We had none of that here though – the content flowed perfectly which really helped the scene changes.

There was some huge set pieces which were shifted around the stage quickly and efficiently. In one of the first scene changes, I was taken aback by the amount of crew that flooded the stage, all impeccably choreographed to ensure the scene moved swiftly.  I imagine this took some time during the tech to iron out those changes, but it all came together and was very impressive.

This was a first class production from WAOS.  It was evidently clear they had thrown everything at this production and it certainly paid off, earning them a very well deserved standing ovation from a packed crowd.

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