Diving Disney: ‘The Little Mermaid’ finds life in the SCERA Shell
Hannah Bayles stars in "The Little Mermaid" at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre.
Kyle Baugh (left), Hannah Bayles, Samuel Murdock and Cameron Smith star in "The Little Mermaid" at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre.
Kyle Baugh (left), Hannah Bayles and Samuel Murdock star in "The Little Mermaid" at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre.
Hannah Bayles and Cameron Smith star in "The Little Mermaid" at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre.
Kyle Baugh stars in "The Little Mermaid" at the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre.
The impulsive nature of the teenage brain is an emerging subject in neuroscience. The human frontal cortex, necessary for rational decision-making, doesn’t fully develop until it’s nearly 30 years old, recent studies say. Add the feeling of being in love — and being half-human, half-fish — and Disney only knows just how impetuous the young mind can be.
“Ariel’s young, and so I think that there is some impulsiveness that says, you know, ‘Yes, I’m going to trade my voice and go chase after this boy that I don’t really know,’ ” said Hannah Bayles, who plays the teenage sea creature in the new SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre production of “The Little Mermaid.” “But it’s also relatable. When we were teenagers we all did things like that.”
The Disney film, originally released in 1989, kicked off a revival period of animated musicals at the company that led to “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin” and “The Lion King.” The secret ingredient to the studio’s new success was Howard Ashman, a stage playwright and lyricist, and his musical collaborator, Alan Menken. Together, they injected traditional Broadway structure into the Disney storytelling formula.
It was a strategy that happened to work lucratively in reverse as well when Disney adapted all those films, and others, into successful Broadway shows. Friday, one of those shows, “The Little Mermaid,” will kick off the SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre summer season.
The adaptation brings with it more depth than the original, especially in terms of that impulsive central romance, Bayles said.
“You get to know (Ariel) a little bit better, and you get to find out more about Prince Eric, and so the characters, even though they are cartoons, in the show they feel so real,” Bayles said. “The relationship between Ariel and Prince Eric is explored a little bit more in the musical, so there’s more of a chance for the audience to root for them, to really fall in love with their love story, and I love that. … There’s a big waltz that we do (together) that’s just so unbelievably romantic you can’t even … “
The show has some new songs that aren’t in the film version. Since Ashman died at age 41 in 1991, the lyrics come from Menken’s “Tangled” collaborator Glenn Slater. Bayles’ favorite of the new ones is “Beyond My Wildest Dreams.”
“(It’s) after she becomes a human,” Bayes said. “She is very excited to see everything and she is running all over the place and having the time of her life, and that is my favorite song to perform. It is just such a blast.”
The choreography for the show is crafted by Pat Debenham, a well-known and respected figure in Utah dance since the 1970s.
“He is amazing,” Bayles said. “I wish I knew how his brain works. He’s able to come up with these dances and these moves that are just so amazing. The numbers look so good.”
When director Shawn M. Mortensen found out Debenham was available to choreograph “Mermaid,” he said he was intimidated as much as he was excited.
“He brings such a huge background,” Mortensen said, “and such a vision of the art of it. This is, I think I can say, one of the first times I’ve ever watched choreography and thought, ‘Oh, this is art in motion right here.’ “
The SCERA Shell Outdoor Theatre has the capacity to accommodate more than 4,000 patrons at each show, and Mortensen expects many of them — given the geographical affinity for Disney — to come to the show knowing the original movie in precise detail.
“It’s a little daunting to bring such a well-known story to the stage, and you have to get it right or people will hate you forever,” he said. “Ariel, she has to look like Ariel: The purple shells, the red hair, you know, when she comes on stage every 7-year-old girl has to squeal that it’s Ariel. Sebastian, he has certain elements, Flounder has certain elements, Ursula has certain elements.”
One of the elements typically associated with Sebastian is a Caribbean accent. The role was originated — in both animated and Broadway versions — by African American actors. In the SCERA show, Sebastian is played by Kyle Baugh, who Mortensen describes as “a white guy from Orem, Utah,” but the accent stayed.
“He’s perfect,” Mortensen said of Baugh’s performance. “The accent, I think, kind of goes with the character, and it’s even written that way, a little bit Caribbean, some of the dialogue, so I think that accent kind of naturally happens.”
“I was so worried about it at first, honestly,” Baugh said, “because when we went for auditions, auditions were good, I got called back for Sebastian, and there was a black guy and an islander there. And I was like, ‘Well, whatever, game over, no chance,’ but apparently they liked what I did in the callback to the point where, no, we’re going forward with it.”
Mortensen said that during the auditions, his biggest concerns were with finding the right booming voice for Tritan, and finding an Ariel that could carry such a demanding role. He knew he could work with the actors in the other roles, and he said he is quite happy with how all the performances have come together.
“It’s been fun to play with different personalities, different accents, different vocal ranges,” he said. “It’s just been so much fun to kind of dive deep into the hidden flamboyant side of Kyle and kind of get to pull this out and have fun with it.”
Ultimately, Baugh found a take that felt right to them.
“I’m trying to play it as a Jamaican, but a white Jamaican, if that makes sense,” he said.
Mortensen said he is also happy with the talent working behind the scenes. To make the show feel properly “animated,” the production uses puppets and stage effects, including 8-foot-long light-up eels, controlled by multiple performers on stage. The sea witch’s tentacles, too, have taken work to get right.
“Those elements add a fun surprise and amp up that animation factor a little bit,” he said. “Ursula will scare you to death.”
For Bayles, the effect that makes her most excited is in the character of Ariel herself, whose update from the animated version Bayles appreciates.
“What I love about Ariel is that she is completely, unapologetically herself,” she said. “And I think as I have gotten to know her better, I’ve grown as a person, because she is feisty and kind and loyal and passionate and all these wonderful qualities, and she doesn’t care what people think of her, and I love that. And I hope that audiences will be able to get that more from the show, get to know Ariel more instead of just somebody who doesn’t talk half of a movie. But that she’s a real person.”
THE LITTLE MERMAID
What: The stage musical based on the Disney film
When: Friday through June 18 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.
Where: SCERA Shell Theatre, 745 S. State St., Orem
Tickets: $10-$14
Info: scera.org, (801) 225-ARTS