The Little Mermaid

For some unknown reason I’m a sucker for Disney musicals; they put me in lyrical mode, and if it’s a score by Alan Menken, even better. So PRIMA’s Queensland Premiere production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid ticked all the right boxes for me. That it delivered in spades was the icing on the cake – good performances, good vocals, and just enough magic and make believe to enchant.

Chief reason for the enchantment was Amy Winner’s winning performance of Ariel, the mermaid who’s prepared to sell her voice for love. A character with spunk thanks to Doug Wright’s witty book, Winner charmed from the moment she opened her mouth bringing a touching freshness to one of Menken’s loveliest ballads “Part of your World”, and feistiness to “Beyond my Wildest Dreams”, a new song that’s almost a second cousin to Beauty and the Beast’s “Belle”.

As her above the sea Prince, Simon Chamberlain also charmed as Eric, the royal who lusts for the open sea. His “Her Voice” was robust, haunting and nicely nuanced.

In the comic role of Sebastian (the lobster) Kirk Fitzpatrick led the chorus exuberantly in the show’s two happy calypso numbers “Under the Sea” and “Kiss the Girl”, while a sextet of Ariel’s sisters sashayed-in-sync irresistibly to the doo-wop “She’s in Love”.

Vanessa Wainright’s Ursula had just the right amount of mean and ate up “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, Mal Christian’s King Triton was a strong anguished dad, Andrew Beckitt’s Flounder was cute and an audience pleaser, as was Antony Beadle’s exaggerated Gallic Chef Louis who made a meal and a half of “Les Poissons”.

Vocal highlight of the performance was the second act quartet reprise of “If Only” by Winner, Chamberlain, Christian and Fitzpatrick.

Not an easy show to produce with its extensive underwater scenes, Andrew ‘Panda’ Haden’s sets kept it simple with pop-up book type cardboard waves and rocks while Ashleigh Creek’s costumes blazed with colour.

Alicia Caruana’s direction was fluid and pacy but the star of the night was Ben Murray’s superb keyboard programming of the score. It made the production soar and gave it a big Broadway blockbuster sound. Every community theatre orchestra should sound as good as this!

Peter Pinne