This production had dual casts. In the interest of fairness to all, our reviewer, Brian Godfrey, reviewed both casts.

In 2014 I reviewed what I thought at the time was the definitive “The Little Mermaid Jr” by Pelican Productions. No other production of the fishy tale came near it, until now – a production, ironically, produced by Pelican Productions. This time with a whole new Production Team (other than Jen Frith and Kylie Green as the Creative Producers) – Bec Schembri, Director/Choreographer; Lucy Stirling, Assistant Choreographer; and Casey Mifsud, Musical Director.

The whole production was spectacular, stunning and very, very colourful. “Under The Sea” in particular was worth the price of a ticket alone with coats of many colours, what seemed like 400 children dancing and singing as one, and as many different creatures as there are, well, under the sea! Let’s not forget the terrific video backdrops. The boat going up and down at the beginning was so realistic that this reviewer started to feel a little sick lol.

Although this was only Schembri’s second time directing, but with many years as a dancer and choreographer, she strutted her stuff and made good use of the Arts Theatre stage both in blocking and choreography, using the talents that she had garnered to their full potential. She was more than ably assisted by Stirling. Because Jr versions of musicals use pre-recorded tapes, the Musical Director becomes the Vocal Director and stepping gloriously up to the job, Mifsud produced strong vocals and scintillating harmonies from all.

Jen Frith’s costume designs were very creative and imaginative, with many being remade from Pelican’s original production. Another idea that they reused from 2014 was how the sea creatures moved – they glided along with wheels on the back of their sneakers. An idea ‘borrowed’ from the original Broadway production – hey, if it works, don’t reinvent the wheel!

With 108 children involved it made sense to spread them over two casts with only three doubling. I was lucky enough to review both casts.

Cast 1

The Ensembles for both casts were tremendous but far too many to mention individually. A particular favourite in both casts were the seagulls.

Flounder (Emma Fisher), King Triton (Thomas Mendes) and Prince Eric (Joel Howis) played the same characters in both casts. Little Emma was just so cute and adorable as the Guppy, Flounder. Both her vocals and dialogue were nice and strong matching particularly well with the older Princesses from both casts in “She’s in Love”. Thomas had the unenviable task of playing way, way beyond his years and did it extremely well. Just watch that making the voice sound older doesn’t lead to constant shouting young man. Joel was the perfect Disney Prince as Eric: handsome, owning the stage, strong in acting, movement and voice. I think this young man may go far in musical theatre if he keeps it up.

The electric eels, Flotsam and Jetsam were, as played by Mila Shin and Emily Gibbons respectively, wonderfully fluid in their movements almost as if they were static and just bobbing in the ocean currents. Their voices were nicely evil with a sort of crackly raspy quality. Their mistress, Ursula the Sea Witch, was played with a nice evil restraint by Keira Wubbolts, who certainly took our attention with “Poor Unfortunate Souls”.

Evie Dew was great as Scuttle the seagull but tended to speak quickly and squeakily making her dialogue hard to understand at times, especially during her song “Human Stuff” which is fairly fast anyway. Sebastian the crab was played brilliantly by Alejandro Jimenez with an incredibly realistic Jamaican accent. This is another person to keep one’s eye out for. He used every part of his body, in particular his eyes and mouth, to deliver a very hilarious performance. Maree Fong delivered a beautiful Ariel with lovely vocals and a nice concise delivery of the character.

Cast 2

Stef Garrod (Flotsam) and Gemma Moran-Machen (Jetsam) concentrated on the electric part of their eels descriptions giving a fantastic jerking movement all the way through the production looking as if they could do someone a serious injury if they got too close. They supported Maddison Fox as Ursula extremely well. As Ursula, Maddison is wonderfully evil and almost blasts the roof off the Arts Theatre with her powerful rendition of “Poor Unfortunate Souls”.

Scuttle in this cast was played by Samantha Perryman; a slightly slower but very understandable portrayal. her diction was clear and concise whilst still maintaining the seagull squawkiness required. Hunter Walsh gave an entertaining portrayal as Sebastian. But as Arial, Alyssa Faranda blew us away. There was a professionalism in her that one doesn’t usually find in someone so young. Her strength in delivering “Part Of Your World” was absolutely phenomenal and her chemistry with Joel was incredibly believable.

Pelican have delivered yet again, not once but twice. Both casts worth travelling under the sea for.