Following the movie-to-stage-musical paths of The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast (which continue to earn for Disney the kind of money that haunts Scrooge McDuck’s dreams), comes the fish-girl-out-of-water tale The Little Mermaid. Acclaimed theater/opera vet Francesca Zambello is directing the show, which will feature songs from the 1989 movie (including theOscar-winning "Under the Sea"), as well as 10 new songs written by AlanMenken and Glenn Slater. Here is the one of the very first photos from the production, showing the moment when Ariel (Sierra Boggess) sees Prince Eric (Sean Palmer) for the very first time. First impressions, PopWatchers? Any of you planning to catch any of the first Broadway performances, which begin November 3? And who else thinks Mulan would make for a pretty spiffy show?
An exclusive first look at ‘The Little Mermaid’ Broadway show
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Comments (1-30) of 38
This looks weird.
It looks pretty good. Personally, while Mulan is considered by most to be decidedly second tier for Disney, I absolutely adore it. Wouldn’t be awesome to get someone like Zhang Yimou to direct it for the stage?
I’m so excited to see this! After seeing what they did with Lion King, I’m sure this will be great.
i’m excited for it, though i don’t think it’s going to get the same priase as lion king. still, those fins have a lot of pull – disney sure doesn’t need to worry about selling tickets.
If it’s as good as Lion King and B & the B, I will definitely be there.
While I hated the stage version of Beauty and the Beast, I loved Julie Taymor’s vision for the LION KING. The Little Mermaid is my favorite animated Disney film, so I will definetely see it…
This show just looks more and more awesome, each time I see a new pic. I will definitely be there (though, not during previews). And yes, I think Mulan would make an Excellent Broadway show. If anything, just to hear the excellent Matthew Wilder work again.
Mulan already was a pretty spiffy show, you can buy the rights on Music Theater Internationals website, and it was done at some regional theatres.
Great photo, though it is not “the very first photo from the production,” as at least two others have been out for some time now. I saw the tryout in Denver, and although it needs a LOT of work from where it was then, I still have high hopes.
Only three songs from he original? That’s a little disappointing. I would think that “Under the Sea,” “Part of Your World” and “Kiss the Girl” would make the cut but that means that “Poor Unfortunate Souls” would get cut and that song is sooo Ursula. I’m glad Alan Menken wrote the new songs, though. Can’t wait to see what he did for “Enchanted.”
I am not terribly excited about the actual show (I never liked any of the Disney princesses) but I would love to see how they do the underwater scenes and the mermaid tail.
Mulan would make an excellent Broadway show, if they make the little dragon’s costume a puppet like Zazu’s, Timon and Pumba’s in the Lion King. Mulan is my favourite Disney “princess” (Though she is not technically royalty in the context of the story, Disney’s marketing of her downplays her warrior qualities and emphasises the more feminine aspects of her characters.) so I would run to see the show.
Yeah, this is at least the 3rd photo I’ve seen from the production. And there’s at least 6 songs from the film featured in the musical.
The musical seems to be using “Daughters of Triton,” “Part of Your World,” “Under the Sea,” “Poor Unfortunate Souls,” “Les Poissons” & “Kiss the Girl.”
I grew up with Disney, so I’ll be sure to see it eventually. Since I’m not in the area, I’ll just wait for the tour, though. Even though it’s not Disney, I always thought ‘Anastasia’ would make a good musical. ‘Mulan’ would be good too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were many more Disney musicals to come.
I saw it in Denver, too. It’s no Lion King, but it is definitely worth seeing. A very creative, fun production.
I saw the preview in Denver, and it was kind of weird but not bad. If you’re under 16, and a girl, I think you’ll love it. Otherwise, it gets to be a little tedious.
They use wheelie-shoes to do the “swimming.” And they used every song from the movie, plus many new, superflous songs. Again, I saw a preview, and those tend to be kitchen sink productions, so much might be trimmed out once it actually debuts on Broadway.
It sold out every show here in Denver, though.
I saw the show in Denver also. It needs some tweaking in the 2nd act. However, Disney said that they are not making any major changes from the “frozen” show in Denver. And “Under the Sea”, “Kiss the Girl” and “Part of Your World” are in the show. The Kiss the Girl Production number is quite nice to look at. It was an enjoyable evening at the theatre. The scene where Ariel saves the Prince is pretty cool. The underwater effect is done well. Sheri Rene Scott as Ursala is wonderful.
Because the Little Mermaid is hands down my favorite of the the Disney movies, I’m excited. If I could make it to New York to see it, I would. But I’ll definitely catch it when it comes to the ATL. The set design is very crafty. I hope they also do Kiss the Girl and and Part of Your World. Those three are my favorite songs. And Poor Unfortunate Souls.
Mulan on Broadway? It would bring honor to us all.
After seeing the show twice in Denver, I must admit that I was quite disappointed – other than the songs. Much of the show’s pacing, costumes and set designs were questionable – if not, just confusing. Having seen several of Disney’s other Broadway shows, my expectations were high. However, The Little Mermaid left me floundering for a more splashy, innovative production. I would not see the show again.
I saw it in Denver too, and was kinda disappointed. They do use heelies to give the feel of gliding through water, but I found them distracting (once you’re finished gliding, you come to a sudden stop). Ursula, however was AWESOME. And like someone else mentioned, they used at least 6 songs from the movie. The underwater/extraneous sealife effects were cool, but some of the main character wardrobe was just weird.
This is everything that is wrong with Broadway these days. They’ve run out of ideas, so they just make popular films into musicals simply because they can. There’s a Spider-Man musical in production, people.
Wow… it looks beautiful. I have my tickets for Nov 22. I can’t wait!
I surprised myself at how disturbed I was upon hearing there were only three songs from the movie rep’d in the musical! Glad to hear that Pop Watch (is that supposed to be a pen name, like Ma Earth??) may be misinformed; I enjoy the soundtrack to the film waaaay too much to have anything left out!
I was lucky enough to see the show in its Denver preview. As a stage manager, it was one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. Plus its one of my Disney favorites!! Anything that makes me drop my jaw for the first three minutes, gets an A+ in my book.
“Mulan” definitely needs to get more love from Disney. I was dismayed she’s not included in their “Princess” line with Jasmine, Ariel, Cinderella, et al. In my book, she’s the only chick who actually DID anything, other than bat her eyelashes.
I know someone in the show, and they are doing some pretty extensive rewrites, especially in Act II. For those who saw the show in Denver, they are completely redoing the demise of Ursula. Lots of the costumes are changing too. I think it will pretty awesome. Disney should bring their Berlin production of Hunchback of Notre Dame here. Supposedly that blew all of their other shows out of the water. Wish I had seen it!
all songs from the movie made it into the stage show. relax.
What’s funny about this (in that I can’t believe what a dork I was way)is that when I was about 12 my best friend and I set out to write a stage show based on The Little Mermaid. We used songs from the movie, plus some other songs we knew, and rewrote the lyrics. But in our version there were actually two couples, the standard mermaid/prince and a princess/merman couple. So almost all of the songs were re-envisioned as duets (or quartets). I don’t know if I’ll see this version, but I imagine I’ll buy the cast recording at some point. Should be interesting to see how they do it.
A MULAN show would be very kickass! There would be alot of choreographed dances and martial arts!
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