Review: THE LITTLE MERMAID at Kennedy Center

Most of us know the story of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid from the Disney animated feature and subsequent stage musical adaptation. What people forget is how dark the original story is and how a Caribbean crab and an absent-minded bird are not elements of the original story.

Hamburg Ballet's production of Andersen's tale is plays through this Sunday in Kennedy Center's Opera House. Artistic Director John Neumeier has come up with some striking images and choreography for his take on the material, which is reason enough to see this production.

First off, Neumeier has The Poet (Lloyd Riggins) manipulate the action. The Poet is Andersen and it's almost as if he is creating the story in front of the audience. This proves to be the first of many great ideas in this production.

This version follows the Andersen's story very closely. The Little Mermaid (Silvia Azzoni) lives at the bottom of the sea. She yearns to be human and see what's up above the sea on dry land. Desperate for this to happen, she sells her soul to The Sea Witch (Karen Azatyan) who bears a striking resemblance to Boy George. Once up above, she falls in love from afar with a prince named Edvard (Carsten Jung) who helms his own ship. The only problem with this plan is that Edvard is to marry a princess named Henrietta (Carolina Agüero.) From there, everything starts to unravel for our heroine. I'll leave it right there.

Neumeier is not only the choreographer, he also did the production design and I can honestly say, this is one of the few examples of a production where one man proves he can do all. His scenic genius includes a model of the ship sailing up above the action onstage. Also noteworthy is when the ceiling from the wedding scene in Act Two transforms into the floor of the set for the Epilogue set in another world.

The musical score by Lera Auerbach is brilliantly played by the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra under the direction of Luciano Di Martino. Auerbach's compositions utilize voicings you might not be used to hearing in a classical ballet orchestra. There are several sections that feature alto saxophone solos. This gives the music a distinctly European flair and the solos are ably paid by a 24-year veteran of the US Air Force Band named Andy Axelrad. There are also plenty of solo violin sections, which are played by Anton Barakhovsky.

While this version of The Little Mermaid is not necessarily for really small children (under age five), Neumeier and company give us a take on Andersen's material that is lovely to hear and watch.

Note: The casting reflects the performance seen on March 31, 2017.

Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission.

The Little Mermaid runs through April 2, 2017 in the Opera House at the Kennedy Center which is located at 2700 F St NW, Washington, DC. For tickets, click here.