Too bad . . . Little Mermaid panned by NY Times

[AKV707]

I think it's all subjective. I've seen every Disney Broadway show with the exception of LM, which I'm seeing Feb 25. I loved Beauty & the Beast, saw it 4 times. I greatly disliked Lion King & it's supposedly "the best Disney show on Broadway". Thought Tarzan was better than Lion King & it closed. Marry Poppins was so incredible that I saw it twice in 3 months. I love it. I'm going to Little Mermaid with an open mind & if it's that bad, than at least I'll get to see it before it closes, like Tarzan.

As for best Broadway show I've ever seen... Jersey Boys, hands down... sorry Disney.

Loved Beauty and the Beast. Loved Aida. I wish I had seen Tarzan. I am so so on Lion King. Plan on seeing Mary Poppins. Now I am not sure if I will see LM. I know that the initial reviews of Beauty were not good. But i think that was an anti Disney stance by the Broadway elite. I think that Disney has been accepted there by now.

If LM truly turns out to be this bad, that is very sad. It should have made an excellent stage musical.

In terms of my favorite Broadway experience? It would have to be Les Mis on its true closing night in May of 2003 at the Imperial. That was memorable!!

 

[JenM]

I wonder if they got the Idea of Heelys from all the kids wearing them in the parks. We have been to NYC in the winter for the holidays many times but I'm thinking a nice spring or summer bus trip is in hand and would like to catch a show.

They did. According to an article I read, one of the designers saw a kid in Disneyland rolling around in Heelys and asked his parents where they got the shoes.

Haven't seen LM yet, but the critics response is expected...the only Disney show they ever liked was Lion King. Most of the negative reviews of LM basically called it "as bad" as Beauty & the Beast, which ran for 13 years in spite of anything they had to say about it.

I think their biggest problem was that Lion King was such a huge success that everything they needs to be that good, which is hard to do. Anything the comes up short, the critics think they're not trying hard enough. Which really isn't fair...I've yet to see any show stage anything as incredible as the opening scene of Lion King.

 

[KimAshton]

It just a personal taste. One person may hate it in the press and another love it.

 

[AKV707]

There has been an historic disdain for Disney Theatrical in NYC since they took over 42nd St. and then "Disneyfied" Times Square.

The Broadway establishment viewed Disney as behemoth corporate giant with endless piles of $$ that they could throw at a show, an advantage that even the most successful producers did not have.

They completely missed that Disney was also a company of imagination, creativity, talent, and show.

I believe that some of this still remains. And I agree with the PP that critics are using Lion King as the benchmark for the company. Oddly, they don't compare all other Broadway shows to the standards of the Lion King.

I think that ultimately, the verdict on LM will be determined by ticket sales and the reaction and support of audience members, not critics.

 

[Cinderella89]

Theatre people are iffy.

You can take a movie or a book that wasn't a musical originally and make it a Broadway smash, (ie "Hairspray", "Wicked", "Young Frankenstien"). Personally, I thought both films were extremely boring but the shows are hilarious! Anyways... What they truly praise in the theatre world is originality. Look at "Rent", "Aida", "42nd Street", "Guys and Dolls", Neil Simon shows (for straight plays), Bob Fosse shows, and "West Side Story". But when you have movies that were originally musicals and then they go onto Broadway, it's obviously held up to a higher stander than the huge hits. Granted, "The Lion King" was fabulous, (I saw in London in 2001)... That was most likely pure luck. They got the right original cast, the right set design, the right costume design, etc.

You also have to keep in mind that "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast" came out within a few years of the movie, unlike "Tarzan" and "The Little Mermaid". "Mary Poppins" has the fact that it's a childhood classic and I think Ashley Brown makes a great Mary Poppins. She has an amazing voice and a charm about her. And Disney was smart with opening it in London before they opened on Broadway as it's like "Peter Pan" in the sense that it's completely British.


I think we have to await the fate of "The Little Mermaid" until the summer season if it gets that far. "Lestat" with Hugh Panaro, which was an AMAZING show by, I believe, Elton John and Tim Rice (I know Elton John was attached to the project), did not get to see the summer season. And we have to keep in mind that "Rent" is closing on June 1st so a lot of people are seeing that last runs of it right now before it goes away for a good ten, twenty years.

I'm waiting in anticipation to see what happens to my favorite Disney movie turned Broadway.


Alyssa

 

[AKV707]

Theatre people are iffy.

You can take a movie or a book that wasn't a musical originally and make it a Broadway smash, (ie "Hair spray", "Wicked", "Young Frankenstein"). Personally, I thought both films were extremely boring but the shows are hilarious! Anyways... What they truly praise in the theatre world is originality. Look at "Rent", "Aida", "42nd Street", "Guys and Dolls", Neil Simon shows (for straight plays), Bob Fosse shows, and "West Side Story". But when you have movies that were originally musicals and then they go onto Broadway, it's obviously held up to a higher stander than the huge hits. Granted, "The Lion King" was fabulous, (I saw in London in 2001)... That was most likely pure luck. They got the right original cast, the right set design, the right costume design, etc.

You also have to keep in mind that "The Lion King" and "Beauty and the Beast" came out within a few years of the movie, unlike "Tarzan" and "The Little Mermaid". "Mary Poppins" has the fact that it's a childhood classic and I think Ashley Brown makes a great Mary Poppins. She has an amazing voice and a charm about her. And Disney was smart with opening it in London before they opened on Broadway as it's like "Peter Pan" in the sense that it's completely British.


I think we have to await the fate of "The Little Mermaid" until the summer season if it gets that far. "Lestat" with Hugh Panaro, which was an AMAZING show by, I believe, Elton John and Tim Rice (I know Elton John was attached to the project), did not get to see the summer season. And we have to keep in mind that "Rent" is closing on June 1st so a lot of people are seeing that last runs of it right now before it goes away for a good ten, twenty years.

I'm waiting in anticipation to see what happens to my favorite Disney movie turned Broadway.


Alyssa

Excellent points. I for one am one of these theatre people who generally do not like movies that are made into stage musicals. I am not a Hairspray fan. But I like Producers. Wicked, Beauty and Lion King.

I am still not sure if i am going to see Mermaid. I want to believe that it is better than what the critics have written, but I am not hearing many positives.

 

[Beachangel]

I saw it and thought it was pretty good. I saw a mid week evening performance and I can say that there were few children in attendence. The audience seemed to enjoy and I did not notice people leaving during intermission. It was an entertaining evening - just what I expected.

 

[LMO429]

The girl that played ariel was amazing!

the costumes were terrible. the kid that played flounder wore a yellow tee shirt with some blue dots on it with blue spike hair!.....so bad!

overall for me it was a big thumbs down..if you want to see this show gets tickets soon..i dont see it being on broadway that long!

 

[mermaidbride1108]

I'm a huge mermaid fan so my opinion might be skewed...

I saw the show on January 6th and I took my mom, DF bought the tix for my B-day.

I enjoyed it to be honest, but I was not WOWED as I was when I saw Beauty & the Beast. I was extremely disappointed in costuming. I understand that they have to work with most major characters having to swim and not have legs, but to me it just looked like Ariel had two tails...it was especially weird when she sings Part of your World where her one tail is behind her and the other is in front. And don't get me started on Flounder's costume!!!!

What I liked - the segue into Land to sea and back again, most of the time anyway... But I did think this was cool

I also liked most of the additional songs... But I liked Beyond My Wildest Dreams on the demo better, it was sung a little differently. I also kinda liked If Only on the demo too since it was just Ariel & Eric, but I did enjoy the quartet too but I think I prefer the duet.

I thought the actor who played Triton was Awesome!

I that Sierra Boggess did a pretty good job, out of all the Disney Princesses, IMO, Jodi benson's voice is most recognizable so she had a lot to live up to. I liked her, and I thought she captured Ariel's personality really well.

I liked all the additional scenes with Scuttle, I really like him as a character and loved that his part was bigger.

What I didn't like.... The actor who played Sebastion, it was just ok and honestly Sebastion kinda helped carry the movie. I just didn't think he was up to it...

Ursula... I thought she was too pretty and not 'scary' enough... I remember when I was like 10 and seeing TLM on Disney on Ice, the Ursula then was awesome and I was terrified! I also didn't like her additional songs at all. She didn't have enough sass for me.

The costumes.. I wasn't impressed, the double tails freaked me out.

It didn't add alot more jokes either, most of the jokes where from the movie but just in different areas of the script... I thought Beauty & the Beast added a lot more humor to it....

So as a Mermaid fan, I did enjoy it and would probably pay money again....but I just didn't think it was as spectular as Beauty & the Beast. It just wasn't as perfect as I thought it was going to be...but I did enjoy my 2.5 hours in the theater and so did my Mom.

I was also very disappointed in Lion King.... I love the original score, but didn't like the show. I saw it in Philly though so maybe because it was traveling it might have been different...

Hopefully that helps...

 

[PatriciaH]

Sierra Boggess did a pretty good job, out of all the Disney Princesses, IMO, Jodi benson's voice is most recognizable so she had a lot to live up to. I liked her, and I thought she captured Ariel's personality really well.

We saw the show in early January and agree. She was the best part. Our Flounder was also very good-great voice and I loved the "She's in Love" song. Everyone else was blah. The sets, costumes, singing and acting were not up to Broadway standards!!! This could have been a theme park show.

We also saw Marry Poppins and liked it but no where near as much as The Lion King. We did not have Ashley Brown so that was a bummer. Also one of the kids (Michael) was just awful.

Lion King really was a wow experience. And the "theater people" should be bowing down to Disney for what they did to The New Amsterdam. That is the most amazing theater I have ever seen.

 

[JRoyster86]

I, for one, loved The Little Mermaid. I work in the theater and I see alot of different shows (including all of Disney's previous NYC theatrical ventures, my favorite being Aida), and while it wasn't the best thing on Broadway right now, it was a fun filled evening. The costumes and sets could use some work, but the cast is top notch. Particuarly Sierra Boggess who plays Ariel and Sherie Rene Scott as Ursula.