BY MIKE WARING - AUGUST 2007

Mary and I recently attended what you might call a “pre-preview” of The Little Mermaid, a live musical that Disney is developing to put on Broadway later this year. The show is undergoing tryouts in Denver this summer, because it’s just like New York City – well, it would be if the Rocky Mountains were right outside town and all the inhabitants ran around looking disgustingly healthy and buff.

The preview of the show is currently running at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. We had never visited the Center before, since they apparently don’t hold monster truck rallies or rodeos, so naturally we felt little need to sample their other cultural offerings. Seriously, it’s a very nice theater complex and we’ll certainly be back up for other events in the future – especially if they tone down that highbrow stuff and get in some real crowd-pleasers, like Motocross or a Star Trek convention.

We arrived early and found a little café next to the theater where we could relax and have a drink before the show. It also turned out to be an ideal place to watch the arriving theater-goers. Based on our observations, the crowd was made up almost entirely of little girls, of which approximately one-third were princesses. The remainder of the crowd consisted of parents, grandparents, maybe three young boys who were dragged to the show as punishment for shaving their sisters’ cat, and Mary and me. I think we may have been the only couple there without children. I considered trying to rent one or two kids from those who had extras, but Mary thought this could cause problems, like we might not be able to give the kids back afterwards.

To be honest, what we saw wasn’t even properly a preview, but a preview of a preview. So there will be a lot of changes before it goes on Broadway. However, overall we liked what we saw, and that’s pretty impressive considering that we’re not the ideal audience. Clearly it is little girls, tweens and their parents who are the real target audience, and from what we observed they liked the show a great deal.

The luminous, iridescent sets are quite effective, especially the pieces that are used to give the stage an underwater look. One scene in particular really leaps out: the Prince is thrown from his ship in a storm and falls through the water to be rescued by Ariel. The use of lighting and the movement of various set pieces make this scene very visually appealing.

The show sticks pretty closely to the original movie, including all the most popular songs. The original score is fleshed out with a number of new songs. Most of the new tunes seem to mesh well with the original score and a couple of numbers, especially Ursula’s songs and an ensemble with Scuttle and his fellow sea gulls, are quite good fun.

All of the actors who are depicting underwater creatures are equipped with Heelies, which allow the mermaids and fish to glide around the stage in a somewhat more natural style than one would expect. Initially, I found the footwear a little disconcerting (I was thinking X-Games for a bit) but as the show went on, my objections were overcome and I thought they worked well. It was impressive how some of the chorus managed to dance in Heelies.

The actors are talented and well-cast. Ariel, played by Sierra Boggess, has a strong voice and is perkily cute. Prince Eric (Sean Palmer) is stalwart and true as expected. Some standouts are Ursula (Sherie Rene Scott), who belts out the showstopper “I Want the Good Times Back,” and the young boy playing Flounder (J. J. Singleton). Flounder has a really strong number, “She’s In Love,” which the audience enjoyed a lot, and Singleton got a big ovation at the end of the show.

Scuttle, the seagull, as portrayed by Eddie Korbich, has what we think is one of the better new numbers: “Positoovity,” a bunch of tap dancing seagulls in clown shoes (you had to be there). It seems to us that this number should have gotten a better response than it did, but then we’re suckers for tap dancing seagulls, so what do we know. Perhaps it needs to be moved to a different spot in the show.

Tituss Burgess, the actor playing Sebastian, has a couple of the better songs from the original Menkin/Ashman score and he does well with them, although he is somewhat hampered in his role by weak costuming. He really doesn’t look much like a crab, to be honest. In fact, we had high hopes for the costuming in this show, since the costume design was done by Tatiana Noginova, who is a well-known designer, mainly for opera. Unfortunately, the only costumes we really liked were Ursula’s extravagant ensembles and the seagulls’ footwear. We suspect there will probably be some changes before it premieres in New York.

The audience was enthusiastic, with the smaller children mostly paying attention throughout. The show may be running around 10-15 minutes too long, as the younger ones in the audience got a bit restless right at the end. Again, I suspect things will probably be tightened up as the previews progress.

I think this show will do well. With a strong female lead character and a pretty prince to woo, girls (princesses and non-princesses alike) will enjoy themselves, and parents certainly won’t find the experience painful. Well, except for the ticket prices, but what can you do?

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