Review: THE LITTLE MERMAID at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, Invites You to Come and Be Part of Their World!

Grand Rapids Civic Theatre, one of the largest and oldest community theaters in the nation, is proud to present Disney's The Little Mermaid, which opens this weekend and runs through December 16th in Grand Rapids.

Ariel (Mary Lehmann), a sixteen-year-old mermaid princess, is dissatisfied with underwater life in the kingdom of Atlantica and is fascinated by the human world. With her best friend, Flounder (Joey Collins), she collects human artifacts for a shrine in a cave, where she sings and longs to be "Part of Your World." She often go goes to the surface of the ocean to visit Scuttle (Trevor Straub), a seagull, who offers very inaccurate knowledge of human culture, ignoring the warnings of her father, King Triton (Jeff Kemperman), and Sebastian (Titus Hankins), a crab, who is Triton's adviser and court composer, that contact between mermaids and humans is forbidden. One night while on the surface, Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian observe

Prince Eric's (Adrian Almas) ship and she instantly falls in love with him. Shortly after a violent storm arrives, wrecks the ship and tosses Eric overboard, Ariel rescues him and brings him to shore. She sings to him, but immediately leaves as he starts to wake up to avoid being discovered. Fascinated by the memory of her voice, Eric vows to find the girl who saved and sang to him, and Ariel vows to find a way to join him and his world. Seeing something strange in Ariel's behavior, King Triton questions Sebastian about it and learns of her love for Eric, a human. He then confronts Ariel, and destroys the artifacts she has collected. After he leaves two eels, Flotsam (Khari Neal) and Jetsam (Liam Bulkowski) convince Ariel to visit Ursula (Emily Diener), the sea witch. She makes a deal with Ariel to transform her into a human for three days in exchange for Ariel's voice, which Ursula puts in a shell, and makes her sign a contract that states, "within these three days, Ariel must receive the kiss of true love from Eric." If she gets Eric to kiss her, she will remain a human permanently, otherwise she will transform back into a mermaid and her "Pour Unfortunate Soul" will belong to Ursula. Ariel accepts and is then given human legs and taken to the surface where Eric finds her on the beach and takes her to his castle, unaware that she is the one who had rescued him earlier. Ariel spends time with Eric, and at the end of the second day, they almost kiss to the enchanting "Kiss The Girl" as they go for a ride on the water. Will they kiss and have a happily ever after? Come see Grand Rapids Civic Theatre's Disney's The Little Mermaid to find out if Ariel gets her happily ever after!

I admit I was a little nervous to go see such a well-known show, since regardless of the show you tend to go in with preconceived ideas of how it should look. This one for me hit it exactly right of what I was expecting and so much more. I was very impressed by how you can do so much with only three major set pieces and some smaller multi-use pieces, one cyclorama (A seamless piece of canvas or muslin that is usually all the way to the back of the stage. It is usually white, and is used to project different lighting effects, images or back grounds), and no drops. I'm use to experiencing a show with two to three different drops and huge sets so this was very awesome to see for me experience visually as I enjoyed the show. The vocals of the entire cast were right where I would have predicted for a Grand Rapids Civic Theatre production - powerful vocals - but they were, also, able to be soft and subtle when needed, and blended really well with the orchestra. I would give away the best technical note I have for the night, but it would ruin the show! I think that should be reason enough to go see the show for yourself, but I will leave you with a hint...It has to do with how you would appear you were under water and all of a sudden end up on land. This is two separate effects that work seamlessly together to create it and it is quite magical!

Disney's The Little Mermaid is currently running now through December 16th at Grand Rapids Civic Theatre in Grand Rapids. For more information and specific showtimes, visit www.grct.org. Tickets can be bought directly at: https://www.etix.com/ticket/v/13170/grand-rapids-civic-theatre#_ga=2.115621955.416758018.1542377834-1355059814.1537648891

Connect with Grand Rapids Civic on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GrandRapidsCivicTheatre, on Twitter https://twitter.com/grcivictheatre, and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/grcivictheatre/.

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