Reviewed by Tony Annicone
Needham Community Theatre’s musical of this season is “The Little Mermaid” by Disney. The show is based on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale as well as on “The Little Mermaid” , the 1989 Disney musical movie. It tells the story of Ariel, a beautiful mermaid who dreams about becoming human after rescuing a handsome prince from drowning. This goes against her father, King Triton and his advisor, Sebastian’s warnings that contact between merpeople and humans is strictly forbidden. To become human she enlists the aid of the evil seawitch, Ursula who decrees that she must kiss the prince in three days or Ariel’s beautiful voice will belong to Ursula forever. The audience sits on the edge of their seats waiting to discover if true love will overcome all obstacles in its way? The Broadway adaptation opened in January, 2008. Director/choreographer Marianne Lonati picks the best performers to fill all these roles and also creates inventive dances for them to perform while musical director Alan Rodi taught the cast the melodic songs, plays lead keyboards and conducts a topnotch eight piece orchestra. Their combined expertise and the talent of this huge cast wins them a thunderous standing ovation at the close of the performance. It is the message needed in this tumultuous world that people different from each other should get to know each other instead of hating someone blindly.
