**** I have been a follower of the Uptown Music Theater for several years. It is community theater that truly is for the community and brings many young talented people to the forefront. Their current production, Disney’s The Little Mermaid is a spectacular and beautiful love story for the ages – about identity, community, and finding the strength of your inner voice. While many consider this a “children’s play”, I feel it is far more than that. In fact,it is one for families to see together and perhaps even after have a discussion about each family member’s interpretation and feelings.
The primary story is about Ariel ( a powerful performance by Julia Evette), King Triton’s (Jeffrey Charles) youngest daughter who dreams of exploring the human world and falling in love. After bargaining with Ursula (Chelle Crotinger), the evil sea witch, to trade her tail for legs, Ariel needs the help of her colorful friends, Flounder the fish( Carmelo Kelly), Scuttle the seagull ( deftly played by Owen Gainer), and Sebastian the crab ( played to perfection by Michael Davis-Arnold)to restore order under the sea.
Presented by Uptown Music Theater, this is a two-act musical with a lot of music and many songs that are well known, such as “The World Above”, “Kiss The Girl”, “Under The Sea” and “If Only”. Prince Eric (Ethan Lupp is in fine voice) is the human that Ariel selects, and he finds himself enchanted by her despite their differences. Smoothly directed by Tor Campbell with some very special choreography by Zak Jacobs on a set designed by Bob Knuth, Uptown has once again brought a solid production to their community. Sitting in the audience, watching the families, made me see just how important live theater can be in bringing people together. The audience was composed of all ages, all races and all religions. I saw people with babies as well as older people in wheelchairs with nurses or aides. While they were all enjoying the show, there was a mishap. One of the effects they were using was working beautifully when it caused the smoke alarms to trigger, causing us to evacuate the theater until the fire department came and di a check and an “ALL CLEAR”.
As it turned out the experience was one that might be taught in school, as this is something that could happen ( and did!). An almost full house quietly made their way out to the parking lot of Deerfiled High School and waited for the fire department to give us the all clear. We then quietly re-entered the theater, took our seats and watched the remainder of : The Little Mermaid”. All safe! All happy! All entertained.
The tech aspects were terrific including some very neat special effects. I loved the use of pedi’s and roller skate shoes, a ship that comes apart, and various lighting to make us feel that we are indeed under the sea ((Joel Zishuk) and the costumes and wigs by Jazmin Aurora Medina were quite professional. The music, being an important part of doing a Disney show, is directed and conducted by Aaron Kaplan ( probably the busiest musical director in Chicago).
Alan Menken’s music, along with Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater’s lyrics, bring the book (Doug Wright) based on the story written by Hans Christian Andersen to life and from my point of view, far better than the cartoon version. I will admit, live theater is my true love and will always take priority over film and cartoons.
“Disney’s The Little Mermaid” will continue thru August 2nd with performances as follows:
Fridays 7:30 p.m.
Saturdays 2:00 p.m. ( on August 1st also at 7:30 p.m.)
Sundays 2:00 p.m.
Deerfield High School is located at 1959 Waukegan Road
For tickets 312-488-9408
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