YOUTH THEATRE REVIEW: The Little Mermaid Jr - The Grange Theatre, Hartford. Northwich.

Having seen Mid Cheshire Musical Theatre Society's adults tackle two difficult and rarely performed musicals over the last couple of years [Big Fish and American Idiot], I was both looking forward to, and had high hopes for their youth theatre, MCYT, with their current production of Disney's 'The Little Mermaid'. Here, the company chose the JR version of the show, a one hour condensed musical, which skips along at a rate of knots, one song after another, omitting much of the dialogue and yet still retaining the storyline. The company chose to present this this evening in two halves with an interval in the middle. 

The biggest issue I have with most of the JR versions (the 60 minute versions) of musicals now available and popular with many youth groups, is that there is little opportunity for both a) the story to carry any weight - in fact, it is almost a prerequisite on the audiences' part to be aware of the story beforehand (this musical is a prime example of this), and b) there is little room for any character development, and so doesn't afford the performers much chance of showing their understanding of character arc or indeed their place within the story as a whole. 

Directed and choreographed by Stacy Hancock, she chose to use both the actual stage at the Grange Theatre as well as the large three-sided auditorium floor space giving the cast a much larger acting area, effectively a huge thrust with audience on three sides, and giving the performers two distinct levels upon which to work.... the stage proper for "land", and the theatre floor for "sea". The idea was a good one, and should have worked much better than it did; but sadly Hancock's directing was for a proscenium arch show, and no consideration at all was given to the audiences on either side, as all the action, dialogue and choreography was performed to the few lucky audience members seated directly in front of and square on to the stage. 

However, this did not deter the young cast in any way. Every one of them gave their cummulative all to this show and it paid dividend. I was uncertain as to why various different dialects and accents were used by some, but again, that did not diminish their characterisations and performances. This was a high-energy and full-on show, and it was obvious that all on stage were enjoying every minute of their stage time - just as it should be! This reviewer's favourite moments in the show - and yes, this is purely subjective - were "Human Stuff", "She's In Love", and "Les Poissons", and I also greatly enjoyed Amber Larose's Penelope Keith-esque Ursula, the sea-witch. However, these are just personal favourites, and full credit must be given to all on stage this evening, their talent and commitment was undeniable.  

The stage was set and dressed, cleverly utilising the front of the stage and a set of steps to create the underwater world of Ariel and show contrast between land and sea, and a large screen at the rear projected relevant images in order to fill in the whole picture; whilst creative lighting was used throughout. Sadly there were times when the lighting failed to illuminate a principal when acting or singing, and we also had a few sound hiccups this evening too, but nothing that cannot easily be rectified, and kudos to the youths themselves for not letting any of this distract them from their characters and performances. 

A lovely show, and one which the whole cast should be rightly proud of.

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 20.10.22