Under the sea onto the stage
Theater
The Little Mermaid
Nov. 18 to Dec. 11
Meralco Theatre, Ortigas Ave.,
Pasig City
The tricky part of staging a Disney cartoon — any cartoon, really — is translating memorable scenes, which were created by the boundless imagination of animators, into live theater. The task becomes doubly hard if you choose a story that takes place under the sea.
The Little Mermaid is widely acknowledged as the beginning of the so-called Disney Renaissance, a period that saw the animation studio releasing a string of critical and box-office hits based on fairy tales. The image of Ariel perched on a rock, waves crashing around her, as she sings her little heart out in the reprise of “Part of Your World” has been burned into millions of retinas. How does one recreate that on stage? And what of gliding piscine movement that has no need for — what do you call them? — oh, feet.
“There really are iconic visuals associated with The Little Mermaid and they are presented with a twist for live theater,” explained Chari Arespacochaga, who is co-directing this offering from Atlantis Productions with Bobby Garcia. “This is part of the joy, the thrill and the challenge of mounting the musical version of these animated films. — The production is massive. It is taking literally hundreds of people to put on this show.”
To differentiate between the underwater world of Ariel, the titular mermaid played by Rachelle Ann Go, and the world of her human prince, Eric (Erik Santos), the directors decided to use contrasting visual cues. Triton’s kingdom beneath the waves has Asian elements, while the land above is rife with “Western” fairy tale references.
Both directors were in Hawaii last year to participate in Asian puppetry workshops, which influenced the design of Ariel’s marine home. The Little Mermaid features wayang shadow play from Indonesia; bunraku puppet theater from Japan; nang kaloung from Cambodia (similar to nang talung, southern Thai shadow play); as well as Western hand and walking puppetry.
According to Ms. Arespacochaga, even the materials used to build these puppets, which were made by prosthetics wizards Liz and Benny Batoctoy, stay true to these references. “It is amazing how banigs [hand-woven mats], when put together, can become a sea creature,” she said, adding that this combination of back-to-basics theatricality and technology “results in magic.”
Aside from puppets, The Little Mermaid includes over 150 costumes: among them, the suckered tentacles (more accurately, arms) of Ursula the Sea Witch (Jinky Llamanzares) and the red pincered getup of Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian (OJ Mariano).
Given the technical difficulties and the “bigness” of the production, it’s surprising that two theater neophytes were chosen as leads. Ms. Go is a singing champion who is part of GMA-7’s Party Pilipinas variety show while Mr. Santos, dubbed “the Prince of Pop in Philippine Entertainment,” is a multi-awarded recording and concert artist. Both are making their theatrical debuts.
“I am so excited for Manila to see what these two have created. They have been sheer joy to work with,” said Ms. Arespacochaga, who was impressed by both. She added that Mr. Santos makes for a “dashing and charming” prince while the “luminous” Ms. Go seems to be destined to play Ariel. “I would happily work with these two again and again and again.”
All the popular songs from Disney’s cartoon version The Little Mermaid will be sung on stage. “Part of Your World,” “Kiss the Girl,” and the Academy Award-winning Best Original Song, “Under the Sea” are all there, in addition to new songs such as “Wildest Dreams” and “One Step Closer.”
“It really is a show that is filled with a beautiful score,” said Ms. Arespacochaga. “But more than anything these fairy tales endure through the years and in any form — a story from a book, an animated musical, a live theatrical performance because of their stories, the lessons they impart and the magic they represent. Nothing beats seeing such a magical story unfold right before your eyes. If you love the movie you will love the show. In fact you may want to come back to see it again and again.”
(For more information, call Atlantis Productions at 892-7078 or 840-1187 or visit www.atlantisproductionsinc.com.)