Jaystarr's 10/10 Report on THE LITTLE MERMAID with stage door pics.

[jaystarr]

with special guests... Jordangirl & WithoutATrace....


E24

The Little Mermaid
New Musical
Lunt-Fontanne Theater
1/12 8 pm
2 hours and 30 mins with 1 intermission
Tix Price : $81.50 + 8.50 service charge = $90.00

INTRO : Instead of writting my personal experience about the show..I am going to start my Report with this picture ... bec. a picture tells a thousand words...


My sisters (Gee & Roma ) are supposed to go with us... (Chris & I) but my other sister- Gee bailed out on me .. I guess she has a date... so I invited jordangirl (from BWW) at the last minute- We are supposed to see ROCK N' ROLL but I am pretty booked for the next two months with shows and she is going to London, so I guess this is a great oppurtunity to see the show together since I have extra ticket ...and we had a great time..for the first time-I will see a show with someone from here (BWW) and Without A Trace met us afterwards at the stage door... So it was fun!... almost a BWW's special event on THE LITTLE MERMAID that Saturday night...

I will start with the things I like then we'll start beating the dead horse, okay?

Things I Like about the musical (out of 10)

1. Sierra Bogess- great voice.. I really like her "Part of Your World" number- she belt it out perfectly, better than the recording.. I will add one more thing about her (that I dont see in most reviews) she does have a great presence... charisma... she's very pretty and very likeable.

2. Sherie Rene Scott- I really like her Ursula.. she really belted out her two songs.. I Want the Good Times Back" and "Unfortunate Souls" which is my favorite.

- Another thing : I have no problem with her costume... It works perfectly onstage..
like her tentacles when she was singing Unfortunate Souls.. her tentacles are hanging around that circular orb that she was standing and when she move forward (tentacles suspended in a web-like tool black fabric) -she dragged it like a train....ala Princess Di wedding gown with long train... I love it... really looks good onstage.

Ursula's tentacles suspended on a web-like tool fabric that she can drag as a train.


3. Titus Burrgess- he is very funny... everytime he is onstage ..it was fun ! though the UNDER THE SEA number was a mess for me....( I will discuss it later on Things I DID NOT LIKE) I have no problem with his costume to...though I have a problem with him being as big as the human specially the Les Poissons number- the chef is chasing the crab as big as human..but I guess you have to use your imagination...

4. Sean Palmer- I thought he is a great dancer and had a beautiful voice specially when he told the last note in "Her Voice".

5. Norm Lewis- I guess.. if there's a Norm Lewis fan club.. pls sign me in.... the guy is just beautiful... onstage and off-stage.. nice body...wow ! just staring at him the whole time...I just LOVE thsi man... soo beautiful .... though like everyone said.. he is underuse in the production.

6. Cody Hanford as Flounder (the night we saw he was the flounder) Gosh ! this kid was marvelous! I really did not like the song... She's in Love (bec. we are listening to the playbill recording while driving to NYC- I was just skipping it) then when he sang it... he really has a good voice...I like the song now... jordangirl mentioned that he was not the one in the recording... what a shame ! he had such a beautiful voice and a great presence...

-Another thing: that flounder costume that look like a housewife did it for $20.00 with materials from Jo-Ann Fabric (funny joke from WBaf)- it did not bother me as I thought it would be bec. Cody did such a marvelous job that it took away my concentration from his costume and focus it on his performance.

7. Muti-Cultural Cast- I really have to hand it to Disney -casting muti-race in the show... there's also a filipina in the cast ( Kay Trinidad) and they also cast mermaids that were not really skinny. I love how they cast the sister mermaids into different sizes too..- that was good !

8. The Score of Alan Menken- suprisingly I like the music...I listened to the OBCR and some of my favorites are : I want the Good Times Back, Part of your World, Her Voice, If Only and Positoovity - great number to start ACT 2.

Things I Did not like about the musical (out of 10)

1. Mermaid Costume- I cannot really get-over their costumes. I am sorry they do not look like mermaid... If they are facing you ... its passable.. but the side view with the tail... Its just you can see their legs with heelys and they are dragging that tail.. which is UNFORGIVEABLE to me... they look like an iguana dragging that tail.. When Ariel was human and tranformed back to mermaid.. she looks better with legs and when she put that sarong like costumes with a tail and she start glidding (now she's a mermaid again) looks awful....the switch...

They look like barbie's in a mermaid costumes... the fabric look like this onstage...


2. The transformation of Ariel from Mermaid to Human in End of Act 1 was underwhelming and it does not have that Disney's Magical Moment!

************** SPOILER *******************************************

This is how its was done.. Ariel was singing while Ursulas was taking her voice in the shell.. she went to that circular orb (that Ursula was standing)- it closes. the double went up (via wire) which was soo obvious.....she was wearing a sarong like fin..... she dangles up in the air to stimulate that she was swimming up the surface ..while doing that she was dangling her sarong-like fin .. like was undressing her shirt .. it sways and it fell down on the floor with glitters..... then she reveals her legs now...THAT'S IT ! me & jordangirl was soo shocked with her transformation..


*******************SPOILER END *********************************

3. The UNDER THE SEA NUMBER & KISS THE GIRL was a mess- its was soo busy.... that ferris -wheel thing on the stage makes everything look soo busy and christmas-sy...very distractive... so many things going on at the same time...

Or It looks something like this...


Let me point a good example ... the KISS THE GIRL moment with that Ferris wheel thing with silver umbrella should never appear onstage .. it makes you not focus on other things like the swan, the frogs in the ponds.. and they have that 3-4 butterfly waving their colorful wings on the top of ferris wheel like thing onstage-- so distracting! it make the song not very "magical" & "intimate".

4. There's really a problem with the book.... the characters are not very developed... I felt like the scene where Prince Eric was looking for his Ariel with the contest number then Ursula appear ... was so hurried up...

- the scene where King Triton reprimanded her daughter- you felt like she was a liitle "mis"-understood teenager and that soft spot where she was sitting alone with aspotlight-- then they followed up with UNDER THE SEA number- that was radical transformation and does not give you enough time to breathe in....

5. The tranformation of Ariel into a permanent human being at the end... I was like .. WTF! ...it was soo uninspired & unimaginative!.....

*******************SPOILER*****************

This is how its done... King Trition pointed his magic triton to Ariel ..her sisters came and skate around her to REMOVE that "sarong" or skirt like tail..

THAT WAS IT !

*****************SPOILER END****************

6. the 'heelys" shoes - that gliding really gets on my nerves-I am sorry ! - I dont know how can it stimulate the "underwater effect" like swimming.. more like Xanadu's roller skating..nothing more- I dont know who thought of that heelys shoes on the first place.. what an awful idea!-iMO.

I have no problem with Flotsam & Jetsam's costumes- they actually look like an eels with all their electric and lights in their clothes.. plus the changing of the light...

BTW- I really LIKE the tentacles protruding from the proscenium to the audience..


IN SUMMARY:

I guess you can see.. from what I enumerated is I LIKE the show primarily bec. of the actors - yes... I had a great time.. It was enjoyable... It was fun!.. but Was it a great piece of theater ? (like Lion King) and Will it elevate Broadway into a new level- My answer is No. though its not torturous& unbearable and its not as BAD AS EVERYONE WAS SAYING and I guess you just have to use your imagination .. like that little girl in my INTRO....her imagination fills in what this production lacks.

Score : 8/6- I LIKE IT!

Thanks !





The Lunt-Fontanne Theater























*****The Little Mermaid's MERCHANDISE**********

A. Outside the theater









B. Inside the Theater :









Production Photos
(from Disney)













The Playbill










Stage Door Pictures

The Stage Door




SEAN PALMER




Sean , jordangirl, me, my baby sister-Roma & Chris
(sorry forgot to set my camera on steady mode)


TYLER MAYNARD


SIERRA BOGGESS






EDDIE KORBICH


SHERIE RENE SCOTT




CODY HANFORD






NORM LEWIS


TITUS BURGESS


Roma, Jordangirl, Titus Burgess, Wat & Me




GROUP PICTURE:
Chris, Roma (my sister), Jordangirl, Me & WaT (without a Trace)

[folkyboy]

aw i didn't realize Derrick Baskin was in that! i love him :)

[BrianIdol]

fabulous and thorough! Thanks jay!!!

[Steve2]

Wow!!!!
Thanks for taking the time to write the review and post all of those wonderful pictures.

[Yankeefan007]

Thorough as always. Love to read 'em.

[TheatreDiva90016]

And yea for Jason Snow!

He's so nice!

[ljay889]

Nice review and pics.

Sherie has said she hates kids, lol. How does she deal at the stage door? If I remember correctly, she didn't always stage door during DRS.

[jordangirl]

Yay! It was a lot of fun!! :)

I so want one of those whatsit kechains!!! SOOOOO pretty!!

[TWSFan4Ever]

After "If Only," is there a "Her Voice" (Reprise) that is not listed in the Playbill (sung by Ursula)?

[WithoutATrace]

What a fantastic day...and so great to meet you, Jaystarr and Jordangirl!!!

[Brave Sir Robin2]

Glad you liked the show! Love the souvenirs!

[BrianIdol]

Is that man behind the souvenier counter for sale??? I'll take 1:)

[truman]

I agree with everything you said, Jay! I'm glad you liked it!

[jordangirl]

You too WithoutATrace! We should hang out more often! :)

[JKlock]

I love reading your reviews Jaystarr, they are the best!! I'm really looking forward to seeing this with my family next month :)

[uncageg]

Brian, the concession guy is mine!!! I was thinking the same thing. And thank you for the shot of his cute little tush Jay!!

Very nice pictures and review. As always.

[Dancinqueen123]

Thanks for the good review. I'm happy to hear about how well Sierra is doing. She went to my college so there's a link to her singing "Part Of Your World" on the school's homepage. My two friends are watching a video of her and pretty much are ripping her apart. They said, "I'm not a fan of Broadway voices." But their major is vocal performance and they have those classically trained voices. Oh well, I still think she's good.

[BrianIdol]

"they're ripping her apart"

-well she's on Bway originating Ariel, and they're not so screw them. She's fantastic.

[misschung]

Nicely done review, and great pictures! They have a few more souvenirs than they did when I saw it on Dec 30th.

Another thing - just to add onto what you felt was one of the show's strong points - the multilingual cast - I really liked the fact that the female Mermaids' bodies were diverse as well. It was refreshing to see that not everyone had 23 inch waists.

[jordangirl]

misschung ~ I agree. I did like that aspect. Not only that they don't all have 23 inch waists, but they didn't alter the costume visually to try and hide it. Bravo!

[uncageg]

Dancinqueen, sounds like your friends are a bit jealous!

[B3TA07]

Who is the cute boy selling merch?

[uncageg]

He's mine and I am flying to NYC tomorrow to let him know that!!

[BrianIdol]

naH I'm totally going to ask him out on wednesday:)

[n69n]

well done, jay*!