Little Mermaid opens in Denver tonight- Page 6

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 1:00am

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.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 1:07am

Who's credited for orchestrations? Alan Menken?

[clarkstallings]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 1:18am

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.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 1:23am

Those are the NYC musicians there with the show. There is a full orchestra.. as was said, sometimes, local musicians aren't listed.

[jexi]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 2:39am

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

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 2:57am

Max isn't in Little Mermaid.. he's over in Grease.

[Funny Face]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 3:10am

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

[mikeyb16]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 1:48pm

Is there an Overture & Entr'acte used in Little Mermaid? The Beauty & The Beast ones are fantastic and want to know if Little Mermaid ones are fantastic as well?

[misschung]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 2:20pm

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

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 2:27pm

i'll give someone $5 for a pic of the stage.:)

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 4:12pm

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.

[misschung]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 4:53pm

I was wondering what type of overture they could have that would lead into Fathoms Below. Did they go right into Fathoms, or was there dialogue before it?

I really love overtures, but I want Fathoms Below to blow the roof off in NY. That's such a great opening number, I cant wait to hear it performed with a full orchestra.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 5:00pm

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...

Posted: 7/28/07 at 7:38pm

I ****ing love Fathoms Below as well but don't and can never see it being a "blow the roof off" type number...

[misschung]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 7:57pm

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.

[PhantomMag234]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 9:55pm

It sounds like it's a fine show but I think they should move the contest to the beach. And they should make the confrontation/battle longer by having Ursula create an undertow with the trident and Ariel tries to wrench the trident from Ursula but is stopped by Flotsam and Jetsam but Eric comes and grabs the trident and uses it to destroy Ursula and he swims to the beach and lies on the sand exausted. Then Triton picks up the trident and aplogizes to Ariel and tells her that he has accpeted her realtionship with Eric. She hugs her father and swims off to find Eric. Triton sings his song and gives Ariel her legs. As Eric wakes up Ariel runs to Eric they kiss and Ariel gets her voice back. What do you think? Because it's hard to translate a giant Ursula on the stage.

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 10:13pm

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

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 10:19pm

I think it would have looked cheesy....

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 10:22pm

not if it was done properly.

[misschung]

Posted: 7/28/07 at 10:42pm

Moving the context to the beach takes away from the tension between the underwater world and "the world above" that the characters are all struggling with through the whole piece.

For me, one of the most memorable, and frightening (as a child) moments was seeing the huge Ursula emerge from the water. It's a haunting image, and I agree that it could be done on stage.

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 1:35am

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.

[BroadwayBenny]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 1:43am

So...the ending sounds more like a cross between The Bachelor and American Idol than Disney's The Little Mermaid.

Granted, Disney completely rewrote Anderson's original ending, but it seems odd that they are deviating THIS much from their film. I was hoping we'd get to see Sherie as Vanessa

[BroomstickBoy]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 2:31am

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.

[BillFinn]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 4:08am

Yep.

Also on the DVD, in a cut-scene, they explained originally in "Fathows Below" that Ursula and Triton are related. But I think they cut that, in favor of Ursula trying to seduce Eric as Vanessa. They didn't want the kids figuring out "Ariel's Aunt is trying to shack it up with Eric!!! WORD!" you know? Hehe

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/29/07 at 8:09am

>> 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.