Daily Archives: November 24, 2011

Disney’s Little Mermaid Flips Fins in Manila

PHOTO CALL: Disney’s Little Mermaid Flips Fins in Manila
Playbill.com
By Matthew Blank
23 Nov 2011

The Manila production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid takes a new approach to the musical, incorporating Eastern and Western styles of design and puppetry to delineate its unique worlds.

Bobby Garcia, who has staged Next to Normal, Xanadu and Avenue Q for Atlantis Productions, directs The Little Mermaid alongside Chari Arespacochaga. The production will run Nov. 18-Dec. 11 at the Meralco Theatre.

Here is a look at the production:

erik santos
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Under the spell of ‘Little Mermaid’

Under the spell of ‘Little Mermaid’
By: Lea Salonga
Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 23, 2011 | 7:08 pm

erik santosI brought Nicole out for a mommy-daughter date to the theater last Friday, the opening night of Atlantis Productions’ mounting of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” at the Meralco Theater.

All of us in the family have seen the Disney film on which the stage version was based. But we haven’t seen the stage production, so I jumped at this opportunity.

From the moment the music played (under the excellent musical direction of Ceejay Javier), we were magically transported to this kingdom under the sea.

The plot is similar to that of the movie, besides moments that would have been impossible to stage (there is no shark chase here, nor is there a gigantic Ursula).

New songs by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Glenn Slater (the same team behind “Tangled and Sister Act: The Musical”) were added, which seemed to blend seamlessly enough with the original tunes from the film.

This stage version stars Rachelle Ann Go as Ariel, Erik Santos as Prince Eric, Jinky Llamanzares as Ursula, OJ Mariano as Sebastian, Calvin Millado as King Triton, Ikey Canoy as Scuttle, Felix Rivera as Flotsam, Jamie Barcelon as Jetsam and Raymond Concepcion as Grimsby.
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