I'm here. I'm reading. From now on, for reasons I won't get into, I am just avoiding this mess on here until the show is up and running... Wait and see how it's done. At minimum, it will be very interesting to see.
A friend of mine who has been apprentice to the scenic designer told me about a year and a half ago that matthew borne had come to Disney with a concept on how to create an underwater, swimming feel to the show. Disney rejected his concept and moved on. If they chose roller skates of Matthew Borne, ill laugh my ass off.
"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." -Stephen Colbert
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2
For those who might not know, Napier came off the heels of designing the film version of CAMELOT with being given the plum assignment of designing the first major show at the then-new MGM Grand in Vegas. The production was to showcase every major MGM musical for the last four millenia, I think.
Problem was, Napier's a *film* designer, not a stage one, so he designed everything as though it were part of a movie. As a result, everything was *very* concrete in its approach. So the story goes that he was working on the tribute to Esther Wiliams and had this marvlous idea of this gigantic tank of water where we would see this underwater ballet. So they build this thing, fill it with water, and roll it out on the stage...
... at which point, the sheer weight of the thing causes it to crash through the stage floor and destroy the elevator drive mechanisms for the hotel (not to mention just about all of the surrounding infrastructure), setting back the opening of the hotel by at least eight months.
Butters, go buy World of Warcraft, install it on your computer, and join the online sensation before we all murder you.
--Cartman: South Park
ATTENTION FANS: I will be played by James Barbour in the upcoming musical, "BroadwayWorld: The Musical."
They wouldn't allow normal folks to roller skate through stores or malls, but they let those kids fly around everywhere with those damn things on.
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2
"TheatreDiva90016 - another good reason to frequent these boards less."<<>>
“I hesitate to give this line of discussion the validation it so desperately craves by perpetuating it, but the light from logic is getting further and further away with your every successive post.” <<>>
-whatever2
With all the flying technology Disney can afford and use in practically every Broadway production they've done that's the best solution they could come up with?
No, see, I invisioned having Ariel flying around when she's "swimming" and then sitting on a rock for songs and scene work..
See? fly sit on a rock fly sit on a rock
It'll be thrilling, just wait!!
(of course the ensemble will wear the sneaker skates
"Now she wants to know WHY, if I'm so fabulous, I would WANT to take care of her child.....I answer with as much filigree and insouciance as I can muster, trying to slightly cock my head like Snow White listening to the animals. She, in turn, is aiming for more of a Diane-Sawyer-pose, looking for answers which will confirm that I am not there to steal her husband, jewelry, friends, or child. In that order."
The Nanny Diaries
so obviously there will be NO swiming for this production. So it's either Ariel on skates, or Ariel walking with a fin type extention on her costume (which is what my production did when we did a Mermaid show) The producers are coming up with a way to satisfy the audience, who will be paying to see the show. If she "walks", people will say "why didn't they try to have a swiming effect?" So they came up with the skates, but now people are saying "Skates? What are they smoking?" Either way, they'll won't win. Unless, they defy gravity and have her "swim" on stage, we are just going to have to accept what they give us.
Heely's (or however you spell such a silly thing) are a better solution than bulky skates, but they don't solve the problem of the performers remaining in a single plane at the bottom of the stage. It will simply look like the mermaids are on treadmills at the bottom of the ocean. It's not the ridiculously campy solution full skates would have been, so in a sense it's sort of a let down.
Oh please - who wants to see two old ladies creaking around a tennis court when we could see actors singing, dancing, wearing puppet heads and roller skates AND playing live games?
Now THAT is a musical.
Have I ever shown you my Shattered Dreams box? It's in my Disappointment Closet. - Marge Simpson
On January 21, Sean Martin wrote, in part: "Napier came off the heels of designing the film version of CAMELOT with being given the plum assignment of designing the first major show at the then-new MGM Grand in Vegas."
It was John Truscott to designed CAMELOT and the famous water tank, not John Napier. John Napier is a brilliant set designer for the RSC who would never dream of designing a fish tank like that.
Mr. Martin apologizes for the confusion and any inadvertant harm this may have caused to either Mr. Truscott or Mr. Napier. However, regardless who designs it, he still thinks putting MERMAID onstage is a stupid idea, little more than easy money grubbing by a company that really should know better in the first place.