The Little Mermaid: A Critique

"If only you would notice
how I ache behind my smile..."
Ariel

The Little Mermaid sailed into Broadway last fall in Disney's attempt to make yet another animated classic come to life. The smash success of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Phil Collins' Tarzan .... ok strike that -- xxxx the smash success of just Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King have certainly upped the ante for stage productions to max out their visual effects, as well as enticing younger audiences to dip into the deep end of the theatrical world.

Does anyone find it interesting that The Little Mermaid highlights a young girl's struggle to obtain "true love" at the risk of losing everything she values- her friends, her family - her FINS, for cryin' out loud. Ariel is willing to sacrifice her entire life- even her body and voice- at the shot of being with a man she hasn't even met. What a gamble!! (heads or tails? ... I mean, legs or tails?). Is this the message we want to be sending young girls and gay boys?

Naturally I was thrilled when I heard the LM would be making a splash on the big stage, and I was on iTunes the day the album was released to hear the pumped up and boisterously-belted showtune version of a childhood fascination.

Alan Menken, who is largely responsible for the Disney renaissance beginning with the LM and declining with - damn, that Tarzan again - delivered (as usual) with clever and spunky songs that swim in circles around your head all day long. And then pair up the lyrical genius of Howard Ashman with that of Glenn Slater and you get .... a tsunami.

Honestly- how can you compare Ashman's
"each little clam here know how to jam here,
that's why it's hotter under de water,
yeah we in luck here down in the muck here
under the sea"
with Slater's
"If only you could know the things I want to say,
if only I could tell you what I wish I could convey" ???

Now let me try! ... "Roses are red, violets are blue ..."

Slater!!! You are dealing with a Walt Disney masterpiece ... be careful!!!!

Which is not to say the entire production is like a fish out of water. Despite its simplistic vocabulary and a rudimentary rhyme scheme, Menken pulls through the swishy-washy words and has me singing "She's in Love" to the rhythm of jackhammers during my morning commute.

And despite its message that abandoning your family and friends can ultimately bring you to true love, there is a lot to be said about a heroine who isn't comfortable in her own scales. I remember singing Part of Your World as a kid and wishing that I, too, could cast aside my gills and breathe easier in a world where I belonged ... i.e. a world where I was "normal".

But now I can walk (in Dupont Circle), now I can run (at the gym), now I can stay all day in the sun (at Rehoboth) ... no fear of drowning here *takes in a deep breath*

I still gotta find a pair of those purple shells, though ...