up where they walk

so i saw Little Mermaid on wensday night. As i've already stated in the previous entry, i loved the show. over all it was a great production, it had good staging, and brought a lot of new levels to a classic story. The changes that they made in the adaptation for the stage worked very well. for the new stage production Ursula (played by Sheri Rene Scott) is Tridents sister, who was banished for her use of black magic. While i'm not sure how a merman, and a squid woman came from the same family, i'm not really gonna press that detail, because what it does for the plot is give a strong reason for Ursula's hatred and resentment, it also ties it in to the rest of the shows message, which is about family, and the relationship between fathers and daughters, the duty of a child to a parent, and the the love and anguish that comes when a family is hurting. While i will admit i wish they would have developed the relationship between Ursula and Tritan even more, it was a great layer to add. Another thing they added was the singing contest, at the end of the show. There is no Vanessa, no wedding disrupted, no Eric entranced. While i admit, its not as exciting as the ending in the film. It is more touching, because while Ariel has lost her voice, she has not lost her emotions, or her feelings, and she dances for eric, because as eric tells her in the new song one step closer, "dancing is a language that is sung instead of heard." By stripping the end down and making eric realize his love by that simple moment. it makes the story alot more heartfelt and intimate. Heartfelt and intimate is a pretty solid description of the entire show. While it is a huge broadway musical and there is plenty of spectacle, some of the strongest moments for me were when it was just real people living out real circumstances. sierra Boggess, who plays Ariel, is brilliant. Every move, every phrase, every smile, every note is perfect. She is Ariel. She absoloutly blows "part of your world" ( a song that formerly had "the property of Jodi Benson" stamped all over it) out of the water. I've never seen someone captivate an entire audience like that. In the second act of the show, when she rarely speaks, she is still clearly the star of the show. When tap dancing with Scuttle in the fun musical number "Positoovity" she is hysterical, and still manages to be quite touching. with eric in the castle seeing all new things for the first time, she is so endearing. Sean Palmer is Eric to the t, he earned the new music they added for him, and uses it well. Sheri rene Scott did an amazing job with a very hard part, there is a fine line in a Disney musical where you can become to campy and she definatly did a good job of not crossing it to often. Some of the time it felt like she was playing a charachter, but she also has a wig that looks like cotten candy, and and octopus dress on. The only thing that didnt sit right with me was Sebastion. i hated his costume, it was hard to move in, and didnt fit the rest of the look of the show, nor did it look like a crab. He was buried under that calypso accent, and never really flourished into anything good. The songs they added to the show were great. they all fit together. the songs added for ariel gave her so much depth and growth, she became very multie facited. The set was gorgeous, ever flowing and evolving, the only time i felt like i wanted more was during part of your world, it felt to contined, i wanted her to be surrounded by the human world. and i was extremley dissapointed with "under the sea" it visually lacked. Over all the show did a fantastic job. they really took a classic and made a solid faithfull adaptation of it.

Please if you get the chance check it out.