THE LITTLE MERMAID Reviews- Page 2

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:17pm

Is it rotted fish about to be thrown away because it smells?

Will it succeed despite the reviews or will it be another Tarzan?

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:23pm

It's the Little freaking Mermaid. I'd say it will fare better than Tarzan, even with the reviews. But the way this looks, I still don't think it would last more than a year. Sad, with the potential that it once held.

Updated On: 1/10/08 at 09:23 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:25pm

Katurian - say it's the Little Mermaid all you want...it still could have been more than mediocre.

Come in the chat room, one and all.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:25pm

I don't know about that. I think this show will run significantly longer than a year. The source material is far more beloved and popular. I don't think the reviews will matter much at all, to be honest.

[blaxx]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:28pm

God, even Tarzan ran longer than a year, and this is making MUCH more money than most musicals out there.

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:30pm

They will be posting closing notices this time next year. Word of mouth will kill it.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:37pm

Well the weird thing is that I think it will appeal to the tourists in NYC. At my high school in CO, the students in my Higher Level theatre class universally discarded it, but everyone who typically did not go to the theatre, and were newly adjusting to it, had an amazing time. Word of mouth among the "common man", I think won't be too bad. I'm thinking the Mamma Mia effect.

Updated On: 1/10/08 at 09:37 PM

[musicalfandukie]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:43pm

It's going to run longer than a year and longer than tarzan it's one of the most loved disney movies that alone will keep it running. tourist don't care about reviews heck i doubt they even read them.

[B3TA07]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 9:54pm

Tourists only read the pull quotes from reviews used for marketing. And then insist that it got good reviews.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:01pm

ahh- I'm going crazy waiting for the Times to come out!

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:02pm

TalkinBroadway is up

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:03pm

Mixed-Negative from Talkin' Broadway:

"This isn't to say that Zambello and company don't hit on some visually satisfying moments, if only by the law of averages. There are times that the arrangements of actors and set pieces recall nautical maps and Renaissance oil paintings, giving the show a suavely stylistic sense of time and place. And despite the bargain-basement look of actors rolling around on Heely-like shoes to simulate swimming, it gives the undersea scenes a fervently fluid look that doesn't waterspout you back to the surface. This is unquestionably the prettiest ugly show in town.

What's missing is any sense of the kind of magic and wonder that the better Disney stage shows trade on, and even lesser Disney animated films can manage in spades. There are no anthropomorphic candlesticks with burning hands or gravity-defying transformations a la Beauty and the Beast; and Zambello hasn't found a way to stage the film's unstageable moments (such as a terrifying storm or a fraught confrontation between a ship and a skyscraping octopus) with the go-for-broke creativity Julie Taymor brought to the Broadway version of The Lion King.

This is sufficient to send The Little Mermaid swimming circles around the other Disney stage ventures Aida, Tarzan, and Mary Poppins in terms of general attractiveness and appropriateness, if it's never enough to make it a good show. The book by Tony winner Doug Wright and the new songs by Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater gently expand the original story without ever improving it, give it more laughs and more music without ever making it funnier or more tuneful."

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/LittleMermaid.html

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:06pm

"This is unquestionably the prettiest ugly show in town."

lol

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:09pm

So this must be the only image Disney is allowing, since it has turned up in nearly every review!

[adamgreer]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:14pm

I actually thought Murray (TB) would be a lot less kind to this show than he was. I was expecting a full on assault from him.

I'm surprised Sherie Renee Scott is not getting better notices...I thought she was excellent, and easily the best part of the show.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:15pm

I agree. I find it interesting that the Mermaidians here GUARANTEED Sherie would get all raves. While I love her, it doesn't look like she can even save this.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:24pm

A snippet of Brantley:

"Directed by Francesca Zambello, this “Little Mermaid” burdens its performers with ungainly guess-what-I-am costumes and a distracting set awash in pastels gone sour and unidentifiable giant tchotchkes that suggest a Luau Lounge whipped up by an acid-head heiress in the 1960s. The whole enterprise is soaked in that sparkly garishness that only a very young child — or possibly a tackiness-worshiping drag queen — might find pretty. Come to think of it, the motto of this production, the latest and least of the Disney musicals to besiege Broadway since “Beauty and the Beast” opened in 1994, could be, “You can never go broke underestimating the taste of preschoolers.” In 1989 the film of “The Little Mermaid” was heralded as that rare fairy-tale cartoon that could be enjoyed just as much by grown-ups as by children. But in a perverse process of devolution “The Little Mermaid” arrives on Broadway stripped of the movie’s generation-crossing appeal."

[Mouses Magic]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:26pm

"Closely aligning a stage production to its popular cinematic source material is risky business. Look what happened to Broadway's "Young Frankenstein" and the comparisons made to the original — and more effective — Mel Brooks movie. That hasn't happened here. "The Little Mermaid" has found its own unique on-stage sea legs."

~The Associated Press

Thought I would put a little positive jab in the mix.

[H.Higgins]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:26pm

I know I"m in the minority here, but I don't like Sherie's take on the role. She's taken away all of Ursula's traits that one loves in the film. She's made a joke out of an extraordinary villainess with the choices she's made. There's no reason to fear her or love her (both of which are inspired by the original character). She's just sort of pitiful and silly.

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:26pm

Where did you find Brantley's review?

[tazber]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:29pm

I love Brantley, but he is merciless.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:29pm

Well, I expected a beating from Brantley, but... holy ****... worse than TARZAN.

Kudos, Mr. Brantley: I did NOT expect that.

[tazber]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:30pm

there's like 3 good sigs in that snippet alone.

[mominator]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:31pm

Is the full review up yet?

[ljay889]

Posted: 1/10/08 at 10:31pm

I still can't find Brantley's review on the Times site.

Link?