Oscar Hammerstein said a revival must always be twice as good as the original, because the original is remembered as twice as good as it really was.
“That certainly applies to the kind of thing we do,” said Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Theatricals.
And it certainly applies to this week’s parting of the waves for “The Little Mermaid.”
The fuel for these expectations has been Disney itself. Since 1994, it has launched seven spectaculars including “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins.” The best, like “The Lion King,” marry massive box-office appeal with revolutionary stage innovations. Others, like the recently shuttered “Tarzan,” are perceived as failures for “only” lasting a year on Broadway.
“The Little Mermaid” splashes down in Denver for the first time anywhere Thursday, the start of a seven-week public developmental incubation before its high-stakes Broadway launch in December.
An added treat is that it stars Denver native Sierra Boggess as the mermaid who gambles her voice to meet her human prince. Like Schumacher, our mermaid is feeling the heat that comes with life on dry land.
“It’s a lot of pressure and it’s a lot of responsibility, but I’m so ready for it,” Boggess said. “I’ve wanted this forever, and the greatest thing for me is that I am not doing it alone. I have such support around me.”
This weight of expectation is two-pronged: “Mermaid” must please its built-in audience, those legions who loved the 1989 film that catapulted Disney into a new era of classic animation. Yet it must “give flesh to the fish” by expanding what started as a 62-minute animated feature (later re-released at 83) into a satisfying, two-act stage musical.
And yet in doing so, it must also sate theater fans expecting the unexpected: an unprecedented storytelling approach. With much of the story taking place underwater, that opportunity is evident.
Check and check, says director Francesca Zambello.
“Oh my God, we’ve got plenty of splendor,” said Zambello, who is also enjoying a homecoming 25 years after helping launch Opera Colorado with theater namesake Ellie Caulkins. “That’s the world I come from. That’s opera. And we are delivering in full tilt here – or full ‘tail’ – I can assure you.
“But what is most important to me is to tell the story.”
We now take a look at how Zambello and her multinational crew tackled the separate challenges of serving both story and stage:
Story: Don’t expect a lightweight retelling of the film
The animated source film is as problematic as it is beloved. It tells an epic, mythic story. But in its initial 1989 release, it was short, with just six songs. Characters were one-dimensional. Motives and back stories underexplored. The film was all about making sea creatures into animation.
“For us, it’s about making human beings into sea creatures,” said Zambello. “You never want to lose the human side of these underwater creatures because, after all, these are human beings on the stage. And you can never lose the fact they are a metaphor.”
They are a metaphor for more than just young girls coming of age. This is an interspecies love story that argues for tolerance of all kinds.
Enter writer Doug Wright, charged with transforming the short film into a satisfying, two-act evening of musical theater. That meant deepening the characters and expanding Ariel’s central relationships with Prince Eric, her disapproving father and her evil octopus nemesis, Ursula.
That Disney hired Zambello, Wright and an eclectic creative team from the U.S., England, Russia and beyond, suggests we are in for a project of real theatrical substance – something akin to “The Lion King,” which managed to combine signature, animated elements from the source material with wondrous, avant-garde theatrical techniques largely unfamiliar to American theatergoers.
Wright’s not known for fluff. He won the Pulitzer for “I Am My Own Wife,” the intense story of a German transvestite in World War II. His biggest challenge: The superficial romance between Ariel and Eric. The prince, after all, fell in love with a voice. Worse, the mermaid fell in love with a face. What kind of a message is that to be sending young girls?
“Absolutely, and that is something we have worked very hard to address,” Wright said. “I wanted to make sure the prince was more than just a pretty face; that we really believed he was a winning match for Ariel. That meant creating him anew.
“We’ve really been able to explore why they are so well-suited for one another. How they are each a fish out of water in their own context: She’s a mermaid who dies to live in the human world, and he’s a born sailor who knows that back in the palace, there is a cold, hard throne waiting for him to accept – along with the responsibilities of adulthood.
“Now I think we’re rooting for them because it’s a romance that feels earned.”
Zambello also wanted Wright to expand all the conflicts, notably the sea creatures versus the humans, and father versus daughter.
“King Triton is clearly prejudiced,” said actor Norm Lewis. “He does not want his mermaid daughter to be with a human. And I can use that as subtext because of what I have been through as a minority in this country.”
Lewis is black – so audiences will see a black man learning to embrace someone “different,” heightening the overall message of tolerance, acceptance and understanding.
“That really is the moral of the story and very much a guiding light for me,” Zambello said. “The father ultimately embraces the daughter’s choices, which means he accepts a completely different world. And by the end, the humans are no longer afraid of the sea. They are no longer afraid of the unknown.”
Another sticking point is Ariel’s conflict with Ursula. “Mermaid” was the latest in a long line of unsettling Disney films that set a beautiful heroine against an inevitably hideous-looking villainess motivated by pettiness and envy. Their deal: Ariel must surrender her voice to Ursula if she cannot get Eric to kiss her in three days.
It was vital to actor Sherie René Scott that Ursula’s motivation be far more profound than petty envy. So in this production, Ursula grows to dislike Ariel because the girl throws away her power, and her most prized possession.
“Ariel has been given this incredible gift, her voice, and she doesn’t appreciate it,” said Scott. “It was important to me, as a woman, that it be addressed that this girl can’t just throw her voice away.
“Everyone has been given their own voice – meaning your soul, your spirit – and it’s a gift. And you especially don’t want to lose it just to get a guy. That’s where our conflict lies.”
Stage: Making an “underwater” musical offers unique challenges
“The Little Mermaid” affords its creative team an unprecedented staging challenge and opportunity: Telling an underwater story on a dry stage. Zambello’s mantra: “No water, no wires” – not to mention, “no silly swimming motions.”
In New York, there is as much interest in the world Zambello, Russian scenic designer George Tsypin and Company have created as what happens within it. But for now, Disney Theatricals is intensely protective of the specific artistic concepts as they continue to be developed this summer in Denver. So you won’t see photographs or conceptual drawings or technical explanations of the special effects just yet.
Instead, they talk about creating a new theatrical language – a language of dance, projections, costumes, scenery and lighting, all working together to create a magical and unique stage visual. They use terms like translucence and iridescent and layers and perpetual motion.
“What we want to present is much more of a suggestive and imagistic and allegorical world,” said Zambello. “So everything is made out of glass and fiberglass and sculpture.”
Some secrets aren’t so secret: We know that during the underwater scenes, dancers will wear “heelies” – shoes fitted with single wheels that allow actors to glide across the stage yet still complete complicated dance turns. We know the set will be dominated by columns that open and fly. We know that whatever “the look” turns out to be, it will be complemented by a projectionist creating live video effects like a DJ.
We know the underwater world will parallel the world above. For example, the world below will have its own underwater sun. Like the film, there will be a stormy shipwreck. But designers will toy with our perspective, meaning we will get to watch it from both above-water and underwater points of view.
And we know Ariel’s transformation from mermaid to human is the first-act climax. We know we will witness Ursula’s demise, but it won’t be a Marvel Comic moment, as in the film.
“Those are not ‘theater’ moments, they are ‘animated feature’ moments,” Zambello said. “So what you lose in those huge action sequences you gain in story, music and character. It has to balance itself out.”
No matter how intriguing all this may sound, “I think they just have to see it,” she said. She promises “unforgettable music and a visual world that I think will ignite people’s imaginations.”
But none of the stage magic means much to Zambello if the emotional power of the story does not win out.
“For a director, it’s very hard to direct air,” she said. “If you don’t have story, music and plot to make characters, you can’t cover it up with all the visual delights in the world. You have to have that essence.”
How will it all play out? Denver’s Ariel says trust in Disney. “We all saw what Disney did with ‘The Lion King,’ ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘Mary Poppins,”‘ said Boggess, “and they’re about to do it again with ‘The Little Mermaid.’ Just let your imagination go there.
“But even if I could give it away, I don’t think I would, because it’s so special. I can say all of us were basically in tears when we saw everything for the first time.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
Ticket and show information
MUSICAL | Disney Theatricals with Denver Center Attractions | THROUGH SEPT. 9 | At Ellie Caulkins Opera House, Denver Performing Arts Complex | Opens Thursday, then 8 p.m. most Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 p.m. Sundays (with some variances and added performances | $20-$77 | 303-893-4100, 866-464-2626, all King Soopers or; 800-641-1222 outside Denver.| NOTE: For ages 8 and up only
A note on the review
This entire run in Denver is considered a development, or “preview” period. It’s about testing and tinkering in advance of December’s Broadway opening. So the show may change vastly between now and September. Critics are not allowed to review the show until Aug. 23. The Denver Post’s review is scheduled to appear Aug. 26.
