The Little Mermaid. Jr

Disney’s “The little Mermaid” junior version has music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater it is adapted from a book by Doug Wright, and is based on the Hans Christian Andersen story and also the Disney film. “The Little Mermaid” includes some iconic Disney songs which have been played and sung by most little girls over the past 25 years while dreaming of being a Disney princess. I was really looking forward to the “Chorley Youth Theatre” production and I was not disappointed as this lively enjoyable production directed by Sammi Offord brought back some lovely memories and took me back to some wonderful family holidays taken in Disney World Florida.

The cast worked well together as a team producing some very good energetic performances, Charlotte Bradbury made a lovely Ariel acting well and giving a good rendition of the iconic song “Part of Your World” which was well received by the audience  and Ciaran O’Brien made a very gallant leading man Prince Eric. Kira Brookfield was spot on with her characterization of the proverbial baddie Ursula producing an all-round good performance and Miranda Entwistle mastered the accent for Sebastian perfectly and had good comic timing, she also sung other well-known songs from the show such as “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girls” very well. Rachel Offord was very good and energetic in her role of Flounder and Joe Mansfield as King Triton, Tom Mainon as Grimsby and Charley Burke as Scuttle also produced very enjoyable performances in their roles. Nathan Devlin as Flotsam and Jack McLoughlin as Jetsam made an intimidating pair of baddies; I liked their slow movements which added to their interpretation. The principles were well supported by the smaller roles and the chorus, these included Owen Pope as Pilot, Molly Watkins as Carlotta, Lucy Aspinall as Seahorse, the Mersisters, Gulls, Princesses and Lucas Burns as Chef Louis who with the chorus of chefs gave us a comedic rendition of the song “Les Poissons”. Diction was very good so dialogue could be heard and the story could be followed very well by the audience, although there was an occasional technical problem with the microphones.

Music was by backing tracks played at a suitable volume, however it is not always easy to sing to tracks but in this case all the singers coped very well indeed so well done to musical director Paul Carr for the good singing produced by the cast. Choreography arranged by Pearl Williams was affective and suitable for the production and performed nicely by the cast.

Scenery again was very good and colourful, enhancing the production and providing a good platform for the cast to perform on, well done to the set team, props and set painter Howard Bates. Costumes as usual were very good and colourful, they were well thought out adding to the production so well done Sandra and Rebecca Dickinson.

This was a very happy entertaining production from some talented young people very much enjoyed by the audience, congratulations to the Director Sammi Offord and to the Producers   Ashley McLoughlin and Patrick Balcombe and to all involved including front of house. Thank you for inviting me.
 

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