Little Mermaid - Best it could of been?- Page 2

[Patash]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 8:22pm

I love these threads. Little Mermaid is currently the only musical I haven't seen on Broadway (until TOS), and these threads make me feel I'm really not missing much.

[toanythingtaboo 2]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 8:45pm

I may be wrong because its been a while since I've seen it.

But, doesn't Ariel or one of her sidekicks, realize that Ursula's/Vanessa's shell necklace holds Ariel's voice...so they attempt to steal it during the wedding.

They eventually get it, destroy it and the voice returns back to Ariel.

I think thats when Vanessa/Ursula gets really pissed off, transforms into that massive she beast sea creature and tries to take over the world.

Even if thats not what happens in the film, it could work on stage.


On another note. I think Pocahontas would redeem the Disney Broadway cred.

Colours of the Wind has the potential to be a jaw dropping special effect extravaganza.

[James885]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 8:57pm

Yeah in the movie Scuttle discovers Vanessa singing with Ariel's voice and alerts Ariel. Then they crash the wedding and Ursula/Vanessa's shell gets smashed.

Then underwater, Ursula faces off against Eric and Ariel and the two escape to the surface, which leads to Ursuala transforming into the terrifying monster.

I realize there's no way to re-create the climactic battle from the movie on stage, but I think they could have figured out some way to make the end battle a little more exciting.

Updated On: 7/21/08 at 08:57 PM

[toanythingtaboo 2]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 9:08pm

To recreate Ursula's 'rise to power' so to speak, they could have...

- used a hell of a lot of smoke, flashing lights....maybe make lightening come out of the trident as she points it here and there (possibly at some points in the audience, which would have sparks or something to bring the action closer).

- physically raise Ursula up a bit more?

- have her tentacles be far bigger and maybe have them creep over the stage a bit? They could achieve it by having the tentacles pumped with air so they would rise from effectively nothing and have fluid movements.

- put a bloody booming echo on her voice?! She just sings normally in a reasonably pleasant diva voice. Pathetic.

[fanpires]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 9:15pm

I thought it was a very cute. This is geared towards young children - not so much for the adults. So, it doesn't have to be PERFECT. Kids wouldn't know the difference. So, relax, jeez. Recognize it as a kid's show, not some musical that should be Tony-worthy.

[toanythingtaboo 2]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 9:15pm

Rather like the Lion King?

[broadwayboy522]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 9:28pm

I also don't get why they rushed so much to get it open when they could of waited a little bit longer and have Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, and Mary Poppins open too. This way they would of accomplished their goal awhile back when they watned to have 4 shows open on Broadway at once. Remember when they rushed the openings of Tarzan and Mary Poppins? So they could have four shows open at once.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 9:29pm

Beauty and the Beast and Mary Poppins received multiple Tony nominations, despite being "kid's shows". Even Tarzan got one and that show was crap. It doesn't have to be PERFECT to be entertaining to both children and adults. Disney perfected that dichotomy in their movies, why shouldn't we expect it to translate to their theatre?

Blue hair and a yellow tshirt will not convince any kid that they are seeing Scuttle.

Well, yeah, because Flounder has blue hair and a yellow t-shirt.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 7/20/08 at 9:55pm

"Blue hair and a yellow tshirt will not convince any kid that they are seeing Scuttle."

It wouldn't convince me I'm seeing Scuttle, either - since the child with the blue hair wearing the yellow T-shirt would be Flounder...

And I have to slightly disagree with the poster who commented on the score. Was the score the best I have ever heard? No, but I think it is one of the stronger aspects of the show. I don't think that is necessarily as much of a weakness to the show as much as the costumes, set and storyline are.

[Fosse76]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 10:33am

"When Mary Poppins came to the stage, they departed from the movie, but it worked. Some things were cut, some things added, some things remained the same but were presented in different ways (supercali, spoonful of sugar etc)."

Mary Poppins is more of a Cameron Macintosh show than Disney. I shudder to think how much worse the show would have been if it were solely Disney's property.

[PotO2]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 1:29pm

Really, like some other people, I believe the main problem in this show was the story line. I didn't have any gripes with the costumes, and the sets weren't too bad (if a little bland), but the story line of Act II is where it falls flat.

I have no idea why they didn't include Vanessa in the story line. It would have fit perfectly. It would have gotten rid of the shallow (no pun intended) storyline, making this show much better in my opinion. I did enjoy the climax, but I still agree that it could have been much more, well, climactic. All it would have taken was some smoke and lightning. Get some flashy lights and people will be wowed.

Every time I watch the movie, I get sad because I think about what this show could have been. I blame it on the director. That said, I still enjoyed the show a lot, but it could have been so much more.

[fvalle24]

Posted: 7/21/08 at 1:56pm

I guess it's hard making a show for kids AND adults. Adults are more critical and don't take things face value (well some of them, lol) and kids are amused by visual aesthetics. Someone mentioned having more smoke, and thunder, and echos...I think that would be a bad idea. As it is, when Ursula took the "throne" kids were becoming and uneasy and some of them crying. Not very enjoyable, but I managed. I guess all in all, it's hard to put on a broadway show. Can't please everyone!

I vote of Aladdin the Musical! They have a 40 minutes musical in Disney's California Adventure that works well. It's amazing.