Saturday, November 03, 2007

A MERMAID FINDS HER VOICE AGAIN




Well, tonight on Broadway, a mermaid finds her voice again as "The Little Mermaid" opens on Broadway tonight with all of the original songs from the animated amazing movie and about twelve new songs. Of course everyone should know the story originally written by dear Hans Christian Andersen:"a beautiful young mermaid named Ariel longs to leave her ocean home to live in the world above. But first, she'll have to defy her father — the king of the sea — escape the clutches of an evil sea witch and convince a prince that she's the girl with the perfect voice." The musical is based on both the Disney animated film (written and directed by John Musker & Ron Clements) and the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale. Amazingly enough (and this shows how much writers must adapt and not adopt Hans christian Andersen, the mermaid in the original story dies. Oh my! Tim Doran and I have gone through much rewriting of Hans Christian Andersen in the last two years with our own musical "The Traveling Companion".The Little Mermaid features songs penned by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman (God love you, Howard!) for the Disney film ("Part of Your World," "Under the Sea," "Kiss the Girl," among others) as well as 11 new tunes by Menken and Glenn Slater. Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife, Grey Gardens) wrote the book.
Song titles include "Fathoms Below," "Daughters of Triton," "The World Above," "Human Stuff," "I Want the Good Times Back," "Part of Your World," "Storms at Sea," "She's in Love," "Her Voice," "Under the Sea," "Sweet Child," "Poor Unfortunate Souls," "Positoovity," "Beyond My Wildest Dreams," "Les Poissons," "One Step Closer," "Kiss the Girl," "If Only," "The Contest" and "Finale Ultimo." Twenty songs in all. Today is also the 50th anniversary of the opening of "A Connecticut Yankee" by Rodgers and Hart. From that show we all received "Thou Swell" and "To Keep My Love Alive". Today is also the 47th birthday of the opening of Meredeth Wilson's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" which features the songs "I'll Never Say No To You" and "Belly Up to The Bar, Boys", "I Ain't Down Yet" and "Beautiful People of Denver" My managership continues--wow what a challenge. It takes a lot of time, but I'm having fun too! Well, until next time!

2 comments: