An all-around splendid cast, inspired direction, delightful choreography, and an absolutely gorgeous production design combine to make Disney The Little Mermaid one of Candlelight Pavilion’s best productions ever.

Like the animated feature that re-started it all for Disney back in 1989, Broadway’s Little Mermaid’s recounts the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale of a sea sprite with dreams of walking on dry land (both literally and down the aisle with her human prince).

 Disney Studios added their trademark brand of supporting characters including Sebastian the Jamaican crab, Flounder the blue-finned Flounder, Scuttle the word-inventing seagull, and Ursula the evil sea witch and her aquatic henchmen Flotsam and Jetsam, ocean creatures which the stage adaptation tweaks ever so slightly.

 And since a movie running well under ninety minutes does not a full-length Broadway musical make, book writer Doug Wright has expanded (and occasionally revised) Ron Clements and John Musker’s screenplay, with Alan Menken and Glenn Slater adding a bunch of new songs to join the Menken/Howard Ashman classics “Part Of Your World,” “Under The Sea,” and “Kiss The Girl.”

 The result of all this masterful tinkering is a Broadway crowd-pleaser that may not follow the movie to the letter (gone, for example, is Ursula’s transformation into an Ariel-voiced “Vanessa”) but fleshes out characters with catchy new songs.

Candlelight’s John LaLonde once again proves himself as adept in the director’s chair as he is on stage, breathing fresh life into the Disney classic every step of the way.

 As for recent UCLA grad Erin Dubreuil, not only is the Star-Making Performance Scenie winner a picture-perfect live replica of the animated heroine every little girl (and more than a few little boys) dreamed of becoming, she lights up the stage, sings like an angel, and does some nifty dancing once rid of those pesky fins.

 Tyler Matthew Burk’s Prince Erik, a Star-Making Performance Scenie winner too, is boy-next-door likable and shows off princely acting chops in addition to golden pipes in “Her Voice” and opposite Dubreuil in “One Step Closer.”

 Desmond Clark is a scene-stealing red wonder of a Jamaica-charming Sebastian, Alex Allen’s winged Skuttle is wacky as all get-out and one heck of a tapper in “Positoovity,” Bob Bell is a winningly avuncular Grimsby, and the uniquely brilliant Andrew Metzger makes nutso Chef Louis’s “Les Poissons” one of the evening’s most outrageously funny numbers.

Donovan Wright’s King Triton is as imposing as he is paternally loving, and when joining voices with Dubreuil, Burk, and Clark in “If Only (Quartet),” the effect is simply sublime.

 Ryan Watson could not make for a cuter, more adorably smitten Flounder, and just wait till you see Cody Bianchi’s transformation into the most drag-o-licious of Ursulas (singing a sizzling “Daddy’s Little Angel”) as Nicholas Alexander and Anthony Vacio slither sensationally as her evil hench-eels Flotsam and Jetsam.

 Ariel’s “mersisters” are in the multitalented hands of Emily Chelsea (Allana), Yadira del Rincon (Aquata), Judy Fernandez (Atina), Erin McIntyre (Arista), Helen Tait (Andrina), and Samantha Wass (Adella), the sextet not only creating deliciously delineated characters and harmonizing to match the best girl groups opposite Watson’s button-cute Flounder, but scoring loads of laughs as Princesses attempting to outdo each other’s’ “vocal gifts” in “The Contest.”

Evan Borboa, Fernando Carsa, Daniel Justin, Matthew Ollson, and Aaron Shaw compete Little Mermaid’s supremely talented ensemble as assorted sailors and sea creatures, and along with their female counterparts make “Under The Sea” the production’s most cheer-worthiest showstopper thanks to choreographer Chelsea Morgan Stock (Broadway’s original Andrina before taking over for Sierra Boggess as Ariel), who proves herself a couldn’t-be-better choice to breathe fresh new life into “Kiss The Girl,” “She’s In Love,” “Positoovity,” and more.

 As a bonus, LaLonde and Stock have Ariel and her fellow underwater creatures maneuvering round stage on skate shoes throughout the show, gliding moves that approximate swimming as much as humanly possible.

Candlelight’s Little Mermaid not only hits the bulls-eye in direction, performance, choreography, and song (kudos to musical director Julie Lamoureux), Chuck Ketter’s breathtakingly beautiful scenic design and Nick Robinson Events’ stunning use of black light to bring out the iridescence in underwater sea plants and creatures along with Huntsman Entertainment’s eye-catching costumes (coordinated by Merrill Grady and Linda Vick) and Michon Gruber-Gonzales’s wigs prove production design winners as well, with Flotsam and Jetsam’s puppet-costume combos earning best of show, the first time ever that I’ve seen Disney’s animated eels brought to movie-faithful life.

Oh, and thanks to ZFX, Inc., audiences will actually get to see Ariel swim all the way up to the surface in one doozy of an Act One closer.

Caleb Shiba is stage manager.

Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theater’s season opener, an enthralling, emotionally eloquent Ragtime, set the bar high for 2018. There’s not been a lemon in the shows that have followed, and Disney The Little Mermaid may well be the finest of the bunch. It’s easily the summer’s best family entertainment east of L.A., and you don’t have to have kids in tow to have the swimmingest of times.

Candlelight Pavilion, 455 W. Foothill Blvd., Claremont.
www.candlelightpavilion.com

–Steven Stanley
July 29, 2018

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Tags: Alan Menken, Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theatre, Howard Ashman, Los Angeles Theater Review