#1
Posted: 10/25/07 at 2:10pm
An excerpt from Liz Smith's column in the NY Post:
"WHAT IF you had an ani mated film that had been enthusiastically embraced for 18 years and you wanted to take it to Broadway . . . but almost the entire thing happens underwater? Well, you'd be in the spot Disney was in bringing "The Little Mermaid" to life on the stage.
People who went to the out-of-town tryout in Denver were surprised at how many adults came without children. And surprise, surprise - the mermaid has had new life breathed into her by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/actor Doug Wright of "I Am My Own Wife" fame. (He is said to have begged for this demanding job.) The Alan Menken-Howard Ashman songs remain, three of which were nominated for the Oscar, with "Under the Sea" winning.
Then there is the matter of a little girl named Sierra Boggess, who was just 7 years old when she first saw "The Little Mermaid" at the movies. She was "discovered" by Disney when playing Christine in "The Phantom of the Opera" in Las Vegas and stepped right into those mermaid fins in Denver, her hometown. (I'm not making this up!)
Disney turned to the opera for director Francesca Zambello and her designer George Tsypin, who has created a mind-blowing new life under the sea.
I do predict that the Great White Way will glow red-hot when this musical previews Nov. 3 and opens Dec. 6. "
An excerpt from Michael Reidel:
"Hopes that Disney's "Little Mermaid" might be another "The Lion King" rather than a "Tarzan" fizzled when Variety theater critic David Rooney harpooned the show in Denver.
Disney's busy sewing new costumes (the fish are starting to look like fish, I'm told), but that's like pouring a fresh pack of soy sauce over 4-day-old sushi."
Hey, atleast they are doing something!
"WHAT IF you had an ani mated film that had been enthusiastically embraced for 18 years and you wanted to take it to Broadway . . . but almost the entire thing happens underwater? Well, you'd be in the spot Disney was in bringing "The Little Mermaid" to life on the stage.
People who went to the out-of-town tryout in Denver were surprised at how many adults came without children. And surprise, surprise - the mermaid has had new life breathed into her by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer/actor Doug Wright of "I Am My Own Wife" fame. (He is said to have begged for this demanding job.) The Alan Menken-Howard Ashman songs remain, three of which were nominated for the Oscar, with "Under the Sea" winning.
Then there is the matter of a little girl named Sierra Boggess, who was just 7 years old when she first saw "The Little Mermaid" at the movies. She was "discovered" by Disney when playing Christine in "The Phantom of the Opera" in Las Vegas and stepped right into those mermaid fins in Denver, her hometown. (I'm not making this up!)
Disney turned to the opera for director Francesca Zambello and her designer George Tsypin, who has created a mind-blowing new life under the sea.
I do predict that the Great White Way will glow red-hot when this musical previews Nov. 3 and opens Dec. 6. "
An excerpt from Michael Reidel:
"Hopes that Disney's "Little Mermaid" might be another "The Lion King" rather than a "Tarzan" fizzled when Variety theater critic David Rooney harpooned the show in Denver.
Disney's busy sewing new costumes (the fish are starting to look like fish, I'm told), but that's like pouring a fresh pack of soy sauce over 4-day-old sushi."
Hey, atleast they are doing something!
Updated On: 10/25/07 at 02:10 PM
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