“The Little Mermaid”, a stage adaptation of the original 1989 Disney animated movie, finishes up its run at EMU this weekend, with its final four performances on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening, along with a Sunday matinee. According to Director Justin Poole: “Students had been wanting to do a Disney musical for some years now” and doing one “is a great way to bring in the community.” “The makeup of the audience has been kids, college students, grownups, which is great. We wanted people from all walks of life to come see the show.”
Senior Afton Rhodes-Lehman says playing the titular Little Mermaid is a “really lively experience.” “There’s so much movement and playfulness with Ariel’s character that I get to explore, especially in the second act where she has no voice and I have to express her just with my face and body, it really feels like a new type of acting for me.” The mermaid characters have an added acting challenge, as well. While in the merperson costumes, their knees are effectively “fused together”. “Your range of leg motion is a lot less,” says Rhodes-Lehman. “When I do move around it’s like a little shuffle.” Many of the merperson characters, including Ariel and Joe Seitz’s King Triton, are wheeled around on boxes, chests, carts, and other set pieces. Junior Rhea Clymer draws appreciative gasps from the audience as she drives around on a “scooter cart” as Ariel’s friend Flounder.
The stage musical adds a lot to the story of the original movie. At nearly double the runtime, the adaptation adds a number of new songs, and allows for clearer characterization for most of the cast. But as much as Poole says “audiences really enjoy the classic big numbers like ‘Under the Sea’ and ‘Kiss the Girl’,” additions like the harmonious quartet ‘If Only” are favorite moments for the cast and crew. Rhodes-Lehman says she “[loves] the musical more than the movie because there’s so much more character depth for everybody and Ariel has more agency.”
“It is a 30 person show being done by 14 people, so everyone is very busy throughout,” says Junior Adam Hoover. “Everyone has lots of quick changes, which is one of the results of having a small cast but we work with it and it leads to some interesting choices in the show”.
Hoover has more practice than most in his role. He is playing the crab Sebastian for the second time, having previously played him in high school. This time, it’s an entirely different feeling with a scaled back set and a smaller cast, but nevertheless Hoover “really likes the simplicity of this performance” and thinks it is a “more rooted adaptation than Disney musicals usually are.” Unlike his performance in high school, Hoover is “not doing appropriation” and is “not doing a Jamaican accent this time”, which he thinks is for the best. Compared to other shows, multiple actors said the process of putting on The Little Mermaid was definitely a more collaborative process, with Justin looking for ideas and feedback from within the cast for even big scenes like ‘Under the Sea’.
“The silliness is so much fun, the music is spectacular, the cast is phenomenal,” says Poole. “Like all the shows we do at EMU, we really sucked all the marrow out of life. We create great spectacle out of nothing and it’s wonderful to see.”
EMU’s production of The Little Mermaid runs this Thursday to Sunday in the Mainstage Theater. Tickets run from $6 to $20 and can be purchased online or at the door.
