Thursday 28 October 2021

AMATEUR THEATRE REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - The Garrick Playhouse, Altrincham.


Altrincham's Garrick Playhouse is this week producing the Northern Premiere of Alan Menken's Disney version of 'The Little Mermaid'. It's school half-term, it's a family favourite, and with production values this high, and a professional production team, there should be absolutely no excuse for not being there!

We all know the story don't we? The youngest daughter to King Triton, Ariel, falls in love with a mortal and dreams of being able to have legs and walk on land, as well as (obviously), marrying the man of her dreams, a chap by the rather unglorious name of Prince Eric. She trades her voice for legs with a spell from her wicked aunt Ursula, and with the help of Sebastian (a crab), and Flounder (a....flounder!) her wishes are eventually granted and the Prince and her fall in love. 

The score is filled with well-known hits such as "Under The Sea", "Part Of Your World", and "Kiss The Girl", and with a 9-piece live band and some superb voices and harmonies from the cast, all under the direction of Mark Goggins, the show sounded wonderful. [my only criticism being that the sound levels were too high this evening, and occasionally this gave us a little unwanted buzz or feedback, and hurt our ears!]

The choreography (Koda Holland-Smith) was slick, imaginative, and used both the cast and the space to their best advantage, and the directing (Joseph Meighan) was tight, clear, and told the story without fuss, using a very cleverly thought-out set design of little more than 3 long blue pieces of material as a base upon which to work their magic. The design was by Barry Purves, Joseph Meighan, Vicky Hughes, Mandy Cooke, and Paul Simpson, making full use of the stage with different levels and perspectives which worked superbly. Add to this a whole array of colourful and imaginative costumes (with the merfolk dashing around the stage on roller shoes - the kind with a small wheel inside the heel... ingenious!), and creative lighting, and all we're missing is the actual cast...

...who were sensational! It really is so hard to believe that this production was an amateur one, the standard was just so high. Little wonder they are privileged enough to be able to stage the northern premiere of a Disney show! All the cast simply gave everything they had to their roles, and this paid dividend a hundred fold; however, let me just give a special mention to a few of my personal favourites:
First, the two Moray Eels known as Flotsam and Jetsam, played by Myles Ryan and Connor Ryan. as secondary antagonists, they could easily have been overlooked, however, their togetherness, and insidious presence was impressive, as was their singing. Second, (although he was actually my favourite character), is Scuttle, the gull. (Sean Duvall). With a brilliant costume and long glove puppet (puppetry designed and constructed by Barbara Biddulph), he was comedic and entertaining adding a different dynamic to the main characters. 

And my favourite song / dance from the show simply had to be the one sung by Ariel's sisters along with Flounder (Ryan Coxon), "She's In Love". [pictured above].

Of course, it must go without saying that the lead role of Ariel, our renegade long red-haired mermaid with a love of all things human was just amazing! Emily Leeland performed this role with seeming accustomed ease, and her singing voice was just wonderful. 

I was watching a couple of very young girls with their mother sitting in front of me during the show, and they did start to get a bit bored towards the end of the first act (perhaps it was just a little long for their target audience), but they were absolutely delighted by the whole production and despite their tiredness (the show finishes at 9:45pm), they were smiling and giggling at having thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I have to admit, I also enjoyed the show immensely and would wholeheartedly recommend anyone and eveyone to witness this family-oriented, feel-good Musical.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 27.10.21

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