Little Mermaid opens in Denver tonight — Page 6

The orchestra list, as it appeared last night:

Conductor: Michael Kosarin
Associate Conductor: Greg Anthony
Electronic Music Design: Andrew Barrett
Keyboard 1: Andrew Grobengieser
Keyboard 2: Aron Accurso
Keyboard 3: Greg Anthony
Drums: John Redsecker
Music Coordinator: Michael Keller

This doesn't seem right, since it certainly sounded like there was a full orchestra last night.

And yeah, it's clear that Ariel's parts in the quartet and "Beyond My Wildest Dreams" are her inner monologue. Carlotta even says "I wonder what's going through her head?" It works very well; I was afraid it would be really cheesy but it's not.

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Danny Troob is orchestrating the show. I agree that that list of musicians is probably very partial. I notice that for many tours, the program usually only lists the musicians affiliated with the production's own touring orchestra. Most shows employ local musicians for wind, brass, and string parts and these folks many times don't get listed in the programs.

Is Max (the old english sheepdog from the movie) featured at all? Or did they cut him out?

Yes, that's what I meant. And I was referring to the B'way posters color.

I thought the same thing about the poster. It's not that I dislike it, but if this creative team wants to branch out from the image of the film, why would they use an image that's so similar to it? It's in no way my largest concern for the show, but I'm still curious. I guess they figured a classic never dies

I hope they have fun merchandise for this

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There is an overture and entr'acte, both of which are medleys. I wasn't nuts about the overture, but that's probably because I was really eager for the show to start. I wouldn't miss the overture if they scrap it.

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There's a quick scene underwater; no dialogue or singinig, just enough to give us a taste. Then everyone looks up and swims away. Then we start to break the surface and the ship lowers with Eric and Grimsby and the crew onboard and "Fathoms Below" starts. Again, it plays much better than I can describe it. I don't seem to be very good at descriptions...

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I should rephrase that - I don't mean it in the sense that Fathoms should be the 11 o'clock number, but I really just hope it's the kind of song that immediately engages the audience and gives them goosebumps; just one that sets a good inertia for the rest of the piece.

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i think a giant ursula on stage could be stunning - somehting creative done with puppets/sillouhettes on fabric could be really interesting.

not if it was done properly.

I'm not sure how I would feel about a giant Ursula, but I really don't like the whole contest idea. I am really, really hoping they rework the end to be closer to the movie. I wasn't expecting a carbon copy of the movie, but I guess I was expecting more than what we got.

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Wasn't there an alternate ending to the movie? I recall seeing on the 2-disc DVD an alternate ending where Eric defeated Ursula with the trident, I think. I don't remember what it was. She didn't get huge, but they had a little battle bit.

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>> The orchestra list, as it appeared last night:

Conductor: Michael Kosarin
Associate Conductor: Greg Anthony
Electronic Music Design: Andrew Barrett
Keyboard 1: Andrew Grobengieser
Keyboard 2: Aron Accurso
Keyboard 3: Greg Anthony
Drums: John Redsecker
Music Coordinator: Michael Keller

This doesn't seem right, since it certainly sounded like there was a full orchestra last night.

See the credit for "Electronic Music Design"? Chances are, were you to look in the pit, you'd see one performer sitting in front of a computer that's running something like Notion, a software package that has the stunning capacity to recreate a full orchestra. I saw it in use at the Greensboro Ballet's "Nutcracker" last December, and it's pretty incredible stuff. A little distortion on the far end of the scale, but everything inbetween sounded bang on. Notion uses sound sampling from the London Philharmonic, so the recreation is about as good as it gets.

One of the "Thoroughly Modern Millie" tours used a similar computer-based performer. I dont doubt that "Mermaid" is doing the samr thing, just as a cost saving. Whether or not the NY musicians union will allow it is another question, but I'm willing to bet that Disney will find a way.

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