Don't be fooled - Little Mermaid is HARD

The question you're answering.
October 9, 2012
Login to flag as inappropriate
We just finished performing this show this past weekend, and let me tell you - it was a difficult run. The kids did "okay", but were very upset because of the difficulty of this show. TONS of music and cues. TONS of set changes. Special lighting effect, sounds cues, lots of costumes, difficult staging requirement - and high G abound and can't really be changed or fixed. Just hope you have some high singing sopranos! Just a lot of stuff to do and take care of.BUT the worst part, was the score. It is nearly impossible to play (I don't know who the arranger was - but they obviously *don't* play the piano. A 3rd of it was hard, a 3rd was very hard, and a 3rd of it was impossible to play. Literally impossible because of the writing. Notes out of the reach of your hands and very difficult cross patterns and runs. You would think they would have "dumbed it down" a bit for the general music market, but they didn't - so be prepared to use the CD). Also, many, many mistakes and typo in the actual score. So spend a day going through it with a fine tooth comb to make sure you are doing it right. I had kids in tears on the first show day - and we were *well* prepared. Lovely show, just very, very hard to pull off in the general music market. sigh.
22 Answers

October 11, 2012
Question for Cindy: How many hours would you set aside to rehearse for Little Mermaid, Jr.? For full productions, I usually schedule an hour per page of the script. Since the Jr. versions are smaller books plus contain the lyrics with the sheet music, I was wondering if there was a rule of thumb to apply for the Jr. versions.

October 10, 2012
This is so interesting. Thanks for the feedback. We are doing this show in an elementary school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in April. Any help is greatly appreciated. I will probably be using the CD. I was more concerned with the costume & set requirements than the music. Thanks for the heads up. I've done several Junior shows, and really, they are not as easy as one would think, but that's okay as long as you know what you are getting into. I do full productions at one of my middle schools; not the junior versions. May I ask if it is possible to see pictures of sets/costumes? Sue

Pages