ABC has been in the live theater business for several years now and they garner some good feedback from the genre. But this stage takes the cake.
During a press tour Monday Direct Hamish Hamilton explained how Little Mermaid Live! would differ from previous musicals done live on tv.
Hamilton told a panel that the set (a rendering of which is above) will be immersive and switch between the animated film and the live set seamlessly. Story will be told in the animated part and when a musical number begins the live set will grow out of the cartoon. I’ve seen this in lots of concerts. Where things on stage seem to interact with video also projected on stage.
Several key characters — including Ariel’s love, Prince Eric, and father, King Triton — don’t have major musical numbers, so the production, which will consist of 10 or 11 songs, will also incorporate “two or three” numbers from the Broadway musical. No new songs will be written for the production.
Auli’i Cravalho is Ariel, Queen Latifah as Ursula and Shaggy as Sebastian!