Interview: Adam Garst as Flounder in Theatre Under the Stars' THE LITTLE MERMAID

I honestly don't think I can name a single person who I know who hasn't seen Disney's The Little Mermaid. Not even one. It has been a favorite of so many since the movie premiered in 1989. The story is based off of a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen, and was adapted for the big screen with music written by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. It tells the tale of a 16-year-old mermaid named Ariel, who falls in love with Prince Eric, a land creature. This love is forbidden by Ariel's father, King Triton. Disobeying her father, Ariel goes on a quest with her friends Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle to make a deal with the sea witch Ursula that will turn her into a human so she can be with her love at last.

I have such fond memories of watching The Little Mermaid with my friends and family, and even fonder memories of performing the story as a ballet with my dance school when I was a little girl. I can still see my younger sister crawling across the stage in her red unitard and sequin shell as a little Sebastian trying to escape Chef Louis in "Les Poissons." We used to put on the soundtrack at home and choreograph an entire show! I can't wait to relive those memories when Theatre Under the Stars' THE LITTLE MERMAID come to the Saenger Theatre this coming Tuesday! In preparation for the show, I caught up with Adam Garst, who plays Flounder - Ariel's best friend - to talk about their production.

Alright so normally I do my research before I do an interview, but it was incredibly difficult to find information about this production of THE LITTLE MERMAID or this cast online. What's up with that?
Well I know this production, this version of the show, has been being worked on for a few years now. I believe two years. So you'll see instances of it in articles, but it was done at Paper Mill Playhouse and they did like a mini tour for I think the last year pretty similar to this one. I think this one is a bit more extended. I'm not really sure why there's not a lot of information. I guess in terms of synopsis if you go to the Wikipedia page it just refers you to the original Broadway production, and you'll see a small section of the revised version. This one's slightly different... actually it's a lot different. They've cut songs, they've added new ones in, they've cut the Heelys, they've added the fly system in - sort of like PETER PAN - they've cut dialogue, they've sort of transferred more weight to certain characters in terms of story. It's just a different show. They've been working on it and trying to hone it for regional productions. I don't know why it's not up, but maybe it's because it's still a work in progress.

Yeah, that does make sense if they show is still being worked on. Well since I couldn't find a lot about you guys as a cast, tell me about yourself. Where are you from? How'd you get involved with theatre? What's your story?
I was born and raised in the Houston area. Technically it's Sugar Land, but it's part of the Houston metroplex. I got involved in musical theatre, or theatre in general, during high school, and quickly decided that that's what I wanted to do. I found my niche. Finally. I went to school at Baylor University where I got my BFA in Theatre Performance. That's how I got involved, it's a love of mine. I was always a fan of watching movies and TV shows in general, and I liked entertaining people.

Awesome! So this production, you had mentioned before, started at Paper Mill... but it's a Theatre Under the Stars production at this point, right?
Oh yeah. Paper Mill was I think this.... I don't know enough about it, but that's kind of what I know is that Paper Mill had done a production of it with Glenn [Casale] as the director, but it might have changed since then. I'm not really sure because I wasn't involved during that process.

How did you get involved with it?
I got involved... I was sent out through my agency and, yeah, I just auditioned and I guess the cards were in my favor and I booked the part. I had no relationship with any of the productions or anyone involved. This is my first time working with everyone in this show.

Are you guys on tour for the long haul, or is this more of a limited run?
This is almost a year, but it's not a solid year, and it's not technically a tour. It's like a co-pro... It's co-produced by several different theatres. So, right now we're in Houston and it's under Theatre Under the Stars, and after this we're heading to New Orleans. When we head back to Texas we're doing San Antonio, Austin, and then up to Minneapolis before our break during winter.

You said that you had gone to Baylor for college. When did you graduate? Is this a new thing for you to be acting professionally?
I graduated in 2010, so it's been five years. I moved to Dallas after Baylor, and I've been doing regional productions there for about a year and a half. And then I moved out to L.A. and started doing local... I didn't do much in L.A., but I was doing like stage readings and I worked at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. We did an educational show there, and this is the... since then it was a while without work so I have to have a day job. And then this is the biggest thing I've done. This is the biggest thing I've done, so it's a very exciting time for me.

Were you a LITTLE MERMAID fan as a kid?
Oh yeah! I had a huge crush on Ariel. It was Ariel and Snow White... so, you know...

Snow White? That's one I don't hear a lot!
Well, I had a crush on her. I don't think it was necessarily because of the movie. Snow White is a not a movie I would really watch as much as The Little Mermaid, but yeah Ariel and Snow White were my big crushes. I love it. The music's great. Alan Menken always writes amazing music. Those songs stick in my head for sure.

You're playing Flounder in this production, and since so many people coming to the show know THE LITTLE MERMAID, we know that you are Ariel's best friend, her partner in crime. What is the best thing about playing this role?
It's great because I love sort of the naïve ball of energy, and I love playing characters like this, and Flounder is a fun character to play... Someone who's just like hopelessly in love that goes unrequited. He's a naïve character who... I mean it's all kind of playing this younger character so it's a lot of fun. Playing someone young like this is fun, it's a lot of character work and I enjoy being something completely unlike myself. It's great. There's a lot of fun dialogue between him and Ariel.

Is there anyone who you would want to switch roles with for the day?
Oh man. Let me think about that. The eels are really fun. I love their song "Sweet Child." Those are Ursula's sidekicks. They have a really cool duet, and it's just like a really almost sinister but sultry number. And, they've got amazing costumes that light up. They're really fun characters. But, I don't know, I'm pretty attached to Flounder. I really like Flounder.

You mentioned that the eels have really cool costumes. What are the costumes like as a whole in this show? What are some of the things you guys get to wear?
Well, you know, I haven't seen everyone else's costumes. I've only seen pictures of some of them. We haven't seen this cast in their costumes yet because we haven't gone into dress rehearsal. I can't get into too much detail about that just because I'm not really knowledgeable on the subject. I know what my costume looks like. It's fun. It's big and yellow. It's a giant yellow costume, and I have a wig... like a mohawk... a blue and yellow mohawk. It's fun. The costumes are great from the pictures that I've seen. They're very colorful, and they'll pop on stage. It's pretty magical.

Have you guys been able to see the set put together yet?
We have set pieces that we've seen, so yeah we've seen most of the set at this point. It's pretty great. I think the lights really bring a lot of life to the set, and we haven't seen that yet. We haven't gone into tech or dress yet, but the objects as they are now... the set pieces as they are now are really cool... the rocks and the reefs and things like that.

It's always very interesting going from rehearsing in a blank space to then seeing it all put together.
Exactly. It becomes a whole new show as soon as the technical elements come in, and we only see that... or at least the majority of the principals are all pretty new to this production, so for us it's going to be like a whole new show just seeing that five days before we open.

Did you see THE LITTLE MERMAID when it was on Broadway?
No, I'd never seen... I've never seen any productions of THE LITTLE MERMAID. Not stage productions.

I think that's kind of nice because sometimes people compare casts and it can be nice to go into something without an expectation of what you have to do. You can make the role your own.
Yeah, if I watch I try to limit myself, but I don't like watching other things exactly for that reason. I don't want to be influenced by others. I want to bring purely what I bring to the show without feeling like I need to replicate. Exactly.

So we can pretty much assume that most people who are coming to see THE LITTLE MERMAID are familiar with the story and know the music at least from the movie. But you said that there are some additional songs and some things that they cut out from the Broadway production. What are some of those differences that we can look for?
The song that I sing is new to the show, at least from what I remember. Even the movie I haven't seen in a long time, and I intentionally avoided that because, again, I didn't want to feel influenced by it. But, so Flounder sings a song called "She's In Love," which was not in the movie. Although, I believe it was a song Alan Menken had written a while ago. The research I did was a while back, but I think he had written it in the 80s, and but never put it in. Or, maybe it was for another movie that he had written it for and it was never used. But, it was put into this stage version. He found a way to put it in, and it's about... you know, he's realizing... he sort of has this epiphany in the middle of the song... Oh my God, Ariel... she's in love! The whole song he's trying to figure out... she's acting strange, what's going on? She's not listening to me. She's just staring up at the surface. She's acting so weird, what's going on? And then he has this epiphany... Oh my God, she's in love! What? No! He has this huge crush on her, and so it's like horrifying to him.

Well who hasn't been there before?
Exactly.

That's something you don't expect to relate to with Flounder, but everybody's had a crush on somebody who likes somebody else.
Exactly, yeah.

You mentioned earlier that in the Broadway production they use the Heelys to get around stage, but you guys are using a fly system?
Yeah, we're actually using several different ways to represent the fluidity or the movements through water. Some characters are flying. They're literally flying like they're swimming into the air. And then, for me, I don't get to do that. I'm on a... sort of like a skateboard... it's called a RipStik. It's like a wave board... that's what we call it in the show... it's a wave board. I sort of wiggle around on stage and it looks like I'm propelling myself with my tail. The eels are closest to using Heelys. It's a modified version of Heelys, so it's not like the commercial Heelys that you can buy in a store. They were made by the costume department, and they're sort of like boots. They're like high heels with wheels on the back of them. So the eels sort of slide around on stage. Let's see, what else? I think there's about only... those are the only things people really use. Everyone else walks around and we try to make it as smooth as possible.

Was it difficult to learn how to navigate or function on the wheels?
It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I've gotten it down pretty quickly. I feel pretty good on it. I still practice every day because I want zero chance of me falling on stage. That would be my worst nightmare. The people that have to... I do not envy the people that have to fly. I remember thinking oh man I really hope I'm one of the people that flies, and then seeing them fly and learning how to fly... just the smallest movements of their feet or their hands, anything that might shift their weight, can completely turn them and like make them go upside down or flip around. You really have to find your center, and you have to know exactly how you're distributing that weight. So they are really working hard, and they have to sing while up there. It's crazy.

We will cross our fingers for no mishaps for you guys!
Ha! Oh there won't be any mishaps. Everyone in this production is definitely amazing and hard working. It's great.

Ok, last question... I guess it's more of a statement. Summarize the show in three words. Sell it to me!
Magical. Energetic. And... umm... oh gosh, I can't find a good word for this. This stuff, I'm bad at. This is why I was bad in English class! I was horrible. I was the worst. It's a good... it applies to today's world. It deals with prejudices and seeing that there are good people in all types of groups no matter if it's land creatures or sea creatures. That's definitely not three words, but I'm trying to find the word that would represent that.

Catch up with Flounder, Ariel, Sebastian, and all of your favorite sea creatures in Theatre Under the Stars' THE LITTLE MERMAID that will hit New Orleans this Tuesday, September 15. Visit http://www.saengernola.com for tickets and more information.

ARTICLE MAY ALSO BE VIEWED HERE: http://www.nolabackstage.com/single-post/2015/09/12/BWW-Interview-Adam-Garst-as-Flounder-in-Theatre-Under-the-Stars-THE-LITTLE-MERMAID

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