All you Disney theatre fans out there might want to make a point of circling March 18th on your calendars. You see, that’s the day that tickets for the world premiere of Disney Theatrical‘s next production, “The Little Mermaid,” will officially go on sale.
Copyright 2007 Disney Enterprises
Of course, in this case, “world premiere” means “Mermaid” ‘s out-of-town try-out. Which — in the wake of “Tarzan” ‘s disastrous in-town preview (Where every single mis-step that was made by that show’s creative team was first posted on the discussion boards over at talkinbroadway & BroadwayWorld and then picked up by the mainstream media) — is being staged as far away from the Great White Way as the Mouse can get. Which — in this case — is the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Disney Theatrical is hoping that the nearly-1800 miles that separates New York City & Denver will be enough to keep the gossiping & second-guessing (Which — to Disney Theatrical’s way of thinking, anyway — is what seriously undermined “Tarzan” ‘s chances for success on Broadway) down to a bare minimum this time around.
Which may be a little naive. Given the public’s’ obvious interest in the live stage version of this much beloved animated film. I mean, look what happened earlier this month when word leaked out about who Disney Theatrical had reportedly chosen for the role of Ariel. The Denver Post just took that story and ran with it. Reporting that Sierra Boggess, a 24-year-old actress who had actually grown up in the Denver area, had been offered the role by Disney Theatrical.
Mind you, it wasn’t anyone at DT who’d let this news slip. But — rather — Sierra’s proud papa, Mike Boggess. Who just couldn’t contain himself once his daughter called and told him the news. It was a living Breck Shampoo commercial, people. First Mike told two friends but asked them to keep the story to themselves. But then they told two friends. And so on and so on. Until the news of Ms. Boggess’ casting finally reached John Moore, the drama critic at the Denver Post.
So John then called Mike. Which is when Mr. Boggess regaled Moore with stories about how his daughter was born to play this part. With Mike talking about how Sierra & her sisters used to sing along with the “Little Mermaid” soundtrack as the Boggess family went on long family drives. With Sierra — of course — insisting that she alone got to sing Ariel’s parts in these songs.
Which is admittedly a very cute Mermaid-related tail … er … tale. Which is why this story quickly hit the Web and then went worldwide.
But you see … Disney Theatrical had a very different plan in mind when it came to revealing who had been cast in the title role of “The Little Mermaid.” The way I hear it, later this month, DT had planned on holding an elaborate press conference at the Lunt-Fontanne theatre. Where Ms. Boggess as well as the rest of the cast were then to have been introduced to the entertainment press.
But thanks to Sierra’s dad’s loose lips (as well as the Internet), this show’s biggest secret is now out of the bag. Unless you want to talk about how Disney Theatrical plans on pulling off all of the swimming effects in “The Little Mermaid.” You see, according to DT insiders, what the creative team has decided to do is …
On second thought, why don’t I hold off on revealing that particular secret? … Of course, just because I’m now showing a little restraint when it comes to this show’s staging (Which is more than I did last March with my initial article about the stage version of “Tarzan”) doesn’t mean that that someone else isn’t going to come along shortly and spill the beans. That’s just the nature of the Web, folks. Things leak out. Nothing’s secret anymore. Which is why — whether I talk or not — this effect will be common knowledge soon enough.
Which brings me back to Disney Theatrical’s mistake in holding “The Little Mermaid” ‘s try-out in Denver. Don’t get me wrong, folks. I mean no disrespect to the fine folks who live in Mile High. According to what some justly proud Denverites have told me, the recently renovated performing arts center is now a state-of-the-art facility. Which means that the Ellie Caulkins Opera House is actually the perfect place to try out an ambitious new musical like “The Little Mermaid.”
No, where I think that Disney Theatrical is making a mistake is in believing that putting some distance between this show’s creative team and all those gossips on Broadway is actually going to increase “The Little Mermaid” ‘s chances of success. Which seriously under-estimates the Web’s ability to transmit buzz (both good & bad) these days.
Let’s face it, folks. It’s honestly not going to matter that NYC is on the other side of the country if some young musical theatre fan comes home from the first preview of “The Little Mermaid” and signs on to All That Chat. Where he or she then posts a detailed report on what they liked and/or disliked about Disney Theatrical’s newest show.
Sadly, the days of being able to go up to Boston or Philadelphia and then work on your show in peace, away from all those prying eyes … Those days are gone for good. The Net’s changed all that. No one waits for opening night anymore to post reviews. Hell, nowadays people are actually using their Blackberries to send text messages about mishaps that occur mid-performance.
Case in point: Remember back in October how the Banks house malfunctioned during an evening preview performance of “Mary Poppins“? The reason that this story made the 11 o’clock news was that — as soon as the scenery broke down — audience members immediately pulled out their cel phones & other handheld devices to tell friends & family about the incident.
You get what I’m saying here yet? It doesn’t matter if Mickey holds his try-outs in Denver or in Denmark. Thanks to modern technology, news now travels at warp speed. So Disney Theatrical may think that Ariel will be able to escape Tarzan’s fate just because they’re holding “The Little Mermaid” ‘s try-out in Colorado. But as a longtime friend who lives in the Mile High City told me just yesterday:
“It’s not like New York City is the only place on the planet where you find bitchy web-savvy musical theatre fans. We’ve got them here in Colorado too. And if ‘The Little Mermaid’ has any problems during its out-of-town try-out, these people won’t hesitate to get on the Net & tell the rest of the world about what’s gone wrong with Disney’s latest show.”
Whereas I … I can actually keep a secret. Which is why I’m not going to talk about all the cool stuff that Disney Theatrical already has planned for the very last performance of the Broadway version of “Beauty & the Beast.”
Copyright 2007 Disney Enterprises
Not yet, anyway.
Your thoughts?