The Little Mermaid

When I was asked to deputise for Mr Hayter in attending Watlington Young Players performance of the Walt Disney classic “The Little Mermaid”, I accepted without any real hesitation. I mean how difficult could it be? 3 factors occurred to me after such an acceptance, that place me in either the best or worst possible place to cast an opinion. 1. I was involved in a production of the same show only last year; 2. I was onstage with a large quantity of the leading cast not 2 months ago in ‘Grease’; 3. I happen to be a massive fan of all things Disney. These factors will undoubtedly affect my viewing, and would like to make that clear from the offset.
For those unfamiliar with the film (hang your heads in shame), I’ll give you a quick overview. King Triton rules over the seas, having defeated the sea-witch Ursula. His daughter, Ariel, is desperate to live ‘where the people are’ and during a visit to the surface she saves the life of Prince Eric, much to Triton’s annoyance. After an argument between the two, Ariel is whisked off to see Ursula who agrees to turn her human for three days in exchange for her voice – if the Prince kisses her she will stay human, if he does not her soul belongs to Ursula. With the help of her friends Sebastian, Flounder and Scuttle, Ariel succeeds in making the Prince fall in love with her but runs out of time. Triton sacrifices his power to save Ariel, and unable to control the power of the sea Ursula falls. Triton sees that Ariel and the Prince love each other and turns Ariel human himself. The end.
 As always with a Watlington Players performance, the hall was beautifully and appropriately decorated with various nautical themed items (credit to Chris for this) and accompanied by pictures of mermaids and the like created by the youngsters – a nice touch. The hearts of the audience were all sufficiently melted before the first curtain by little notes on the backs of the chairs from the children thanking us for coming and expressing hope that we enjoy their show. Too cute!
 Lighting and set design was well done, I liked the use of the coloured filters – in particularly the purple wash for Ursula’s lair was very effective. Time was saved on scene changes by projected images creating the backdrop, which worked well. One of the biggest laughs of the performance came from stage manager Steve Brooks’ battle with an uncooperative table cloth, and the backstage team did a good job of hiding in plain sight with a simple but well planned set. Music was all on backing track, which aside from one technical hitch right at the start worked nicely throughout, and credit to the cast, and the efforts of Mike Cooke, that they all seemed to know the tracks very well.
 The chorus work was well rehearsed and choreographed, though perhaps it is to be expected in a youth production that the chorus singing did not quite have the impact of an adult performance, with most of the volume in the big numbers coming from the named characters. I have to say they all looked terrific though, and I tip my hat to the costume design (Eileen and Leslie) – plenty of people talking about the jellyfish during the interval!
 The best thing about the Disney Jnr scripts is that, in the main, they allow all of the cast plenty to do. As such, relatively minor parts from the films, grow to become an integral part of the stage show. The finest example of such parts in ‘The Little Mermaid’ are Scuttle the Seagull and Flounder the...Flounder. As the self-proclaimed expert on ‘human stuff’ (particularly dingle hoppers), Millie Steer gave a good performance. She was larger than life and the comedy of the part really came across. She also sang nicely, and was well backed up by her fellow gulls – with the audience particularly enjoying Dean Wallace’s squawking. Abbey Harvey gave an accomplished performance as the loyal, yet cowardly, Flounder. I was most impressed with the way she handled herself singing against the 6 mersisters, who also performed well, in ‘She’s in Love’.
 At this point I feel it wise to draw attention to a creative decision, presumably made by director Hugh Pearce (who should feel very proud of the show he and his team achieved), to relocate the show to England. This, for the most part, worked nicely – in particular it seemed appropriate for the royal court. However, I felt that Ethan Robinson as Sebastian was somewhat hindered by the decision. Whilst it truly was an excellent characterisation, it was not the Sebastian than would be expected, with bombastic Caribbean energy replaced by a far more reserved Englishness. If anything it’s a testament to the talent that Ethan possesses that he managed to completely reimagine the character, but I felt it meant that the show lost some of its usual energy.
 Katy and Lucy Beeton gave us a nice rendition of ‘Fathoms Below’, as Pilot and Prince Eric respectively, to open the show, and were both vocally strong. Doubling up as Chef Louis, Katy did not disappoint and had the audience in stitches with her rendition of ‘Les Poissons’ – which was a real highlight.
I previously mentioned the best thing about the Disney Jnr scripts, well onto the worst thing. As seems to be traditional in a Disney Princess story, the Prince is not afforded much of a character and only really exists as vehicle for the Princess’ story to progress. That said, Lucy Beeton gave a tidy performance in this role, and did well to avoid a pantomime style performance. She was ably supported by Dominic King as Grimsby, and Kate Ryan as Carlotta.
 A youth production always throws up the tricky situation of youngsters of a similar age playing very different aged parts. I thought that Bertie Ellison gave a good performance King Triton, particularly in the early stages. However, I did feel that being of a similar age to his daughters meant that the struggles of being a widower trying his best to raise a difficult daughter didn’t quite have the emotion that it might have otherwise had.
 The Little Mermaid herself was very well played by Kia Long. ‘Part of Your World’ was expertly delivered, not only vocally but also nicely acted as a conversation with Flounder. I was already a fan of her voice before the show, so it perhaps surprised me that I thought she performed equally well in the second half of the show when she was unable to speak or sing. She managed to squeeze every ounce of comedy possible from having to communicate through mime.
 I reserve my final praise for Anna Pearson who was perfectly cast as Ursula. With evil eels, Flotsam and Jetsom (well portrayed by Philly McPherson and Cerys Brooks), in tow, she looked excellent in costume and make-up, and appeared in total control of all of her scenes. I was most impressed with her vocal performance – she sang with grit and maturity beyond her years.
 One criticism I have of the show as a whole, not just this performance, is that there are various scenes that would ideally lend themselves to very large production values – something which is rarely going to happen in a youth production. Scenes such as the storm scene where Arial saves Prince Eric’s life, and the demise of Ursula are too big to achieve on a small scale, and as a result no matter how good what has gone before has been, or indeed how well the scene is handled, the audience is brought back to the reality that they are watching on a stage in a village hall. This was a real shame, as in parts I really got lost in the action, and in the performances of the talented bunch before me.
 Congratulations go out to Hugh, Mike, and all involved in what was a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday afternoon.
 

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