It’s all swimming, all dancing this week at the Muny.
When it comes to musical theatre, selling the sizzle is just as important as selling the steak. Or, in this case, perhaps the salmon. The Muny is giving us Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and that’s the sort of fishy joke that abounds in the production.
What has the Muny done with this Alan Menken-Howard Ashman/Glenn Slater show? If you’ll forgive another maritime joke, it’s very splashy, indeed. The costumes, in particular, are stunning, and the innovation all around is a delight. The mermaid who’s curious about life on land is just an excuse to show off how much fun theatre can be, and there’s nothing wrong at all with that.
It’s not just Ariel’s mer-costume that gets adjusted to being landlocked. That’s the least of the delights from Highland, Il, native Robin L. McGee. Starting off with swaying seaweed on part of the chorus, she and crew proceed to give us all kinds of spectacular piscine looks.
Ariel is Emma Degerstedt, the youngest of the seven daughters, referred to as the mersisters, of King Triton, Jerry Dixon. Kind soul that she is, she rescues a shipwrecked sailor, Jason Gotay, and takes him to shore. Amazingly, he turns out to be a price in need of a wife. Hijinks ensue, of course. Degerstedt and Gotay seem to be having a truly great time, but Degerstedt has the bulk of the work, simply because she has to act without words for much of the second act, incredibly difficult in this immense venue. It works.
One of the high points of those hijinks, and the whole approach the Muny has taken to this show, is how Ursula (played by Emily Skinner in her return to the Muny) the banished sister of Triton, is presented. Ursula appears, almost floating, atop an octopus that’s four dancers wearing tentacles. It’s almost enough to detract from her great voice. Her sidekicks – villains always have sidekicks – are a couple of eels whose heads are puppets.
More puppetry, a la Lion King, in several situations, and it’s fun rather than feeling copied. And a final tip of the snorkel to Josh Walden, the choreographer, whose great work is an important factor in the evening.
As is often the case in family entertainment, the secondary characters are great fun. Gotay’s character Prince Eric is watched over by his guardian Grimsby, Richard B. Watson, who’s a delight, and Ariel’s pal Flounder they’ve cast as the young Spencer Jones, who’s already done a lot of work at the Muny. He’s pretty much perfect in the role, with deadpan humor. Sebastian, the crab charged by Triton with keeping an eye on Ariel, is the work of James T. Lane, very funny in his frantic if unsuccessful efforts. Scuttle, the seagull, manifests as a puppet and then as Jeffrey Schecter, and is a fine introduction to malapropisms for the young.
There’s a great deal of fairly clever dialogue in the show, in fact, courtesy of Doug Wright’s book. That helps keep the show fun for adults. There were plenty of apprentice mermaids, many showing Team Ariel colors, in the audience, but adults deserve entertainment, too. They, after all, are underwriting these visits.
Marcia Milgrom Dodge has given us a delightful evening under her direction. One wishes the score were better, but everything else worked so well, it’s difficult to complain about that.
Disney’s The Little Mermaid
through June 29
The Muny
Forest Park