The Little Mermaid

A heroine, a loyal sidekick, a villain, love, sacrifice and a happy ending are some of the key ingredients of a Disney movie, but when you put that on a stage, add stunning costumes and sets, strong vocals and an impressive orchestra, you have a fantastic show. Birdie’s production of the Little Mermaid is all this and more.

About four months ago, I was talking to Executive Producer, Rodney Bertram about his crew’s plans for the show and he told me how they wanted to bring the “Disney magic” to the stage. They certainly achieved this!

There was so much to love about this show. The whole cast gave excellent musical performances. The leads were perfect for their parts and mastered the accents and mannerisms of their characters. To mention different actors would not be fair as they were all noteworthy. The ensemble gave vibrant performances particularly in the well-known numbers from the movie, however, the stage show has some original music and I also enjoyed the “She’s in Love” and the “Positoovity” numbers. There was some especially brilliant choreography by Craig Nhobbs in the scenes where Ariel transforms from mermaid to human.

The animations used for the backdrops truly take you on a journey under the sea, making clever use of the stage, adding more depth and smoothly transitioning the audience between scenes.

What made this show for me, was the colour and detail in all the beautiful costumes. From the sea creatures and animals, to the dancers acting as waves of the water, from the mermaids to Sebastian, Ursula, Scuttle and the use of roller skate shoes to help give the effect of Flounder swimming on stage. These were a creative, visual delight and I have to acknowledge Rachael Adams as Costume Designer and Ellie May Mansfield and her team for the makeup.

Being a Disney classic and running in the school holidays, the show obviously attracts a lot of little kids. This meant there was quite a lot of noise from the audience and unfortunately there were also some hiccups with temperamental microphones so you missed hearing some lines, but the actors handled this professionally.

The extra touches of having a face painter before the show and during intermission, encouraging the kids to dress up and a meet and greet and photo opportunity with the characters at the end of the show, made the whole experience even more magical.

Wanting to follow in my footsteps as a reviewer, my eight year wrote her own notes on the show. She also loved the costumes, the different effects (sets, dance/movement and props) used to make you feel like you were underwater and how much Jamie Hadwen sounded like Ariel. This was her favourite show yet!

Shannon O’Connell

Photographer: Grant Leslie