Displaying items by tag: Leah Morrow

I thoroughly enjoyed Drury Lane's enchanting stage production of Disney’s The Little Mermaid from start to finish. While few are overly familiar with Hans Christian Andersen’s original, darker tale of ill-fated romance, the Disney animated film and this stage adaptation, with a book by Doug Wright and music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman and Glenn Slater, beautifully transform the fairytale into a heartwarming story of love and triumph for the heroine, Princess Ariel.

The mermaid Ariel, portrayed with sunny enthusiasm and skillful vocal stylings by Sarah Kay, is a Princess and the beloved daughter of King Triton, convincingly played by Anand Nagraj. Ariel is captivated by the world above the waves, yearning to experience the sunshine and the joy of walking through green fields. Her fascination with the human world deepens when she falls in love from afar with a human prince.

During a fierce storm, Ariel saves the Prince from drowning, and in that moment, she finds herself falling for him. The Prince, portrayed with sensitivity and earnestness by Patrick Johnson, is captivated by the voice of his rescuer, though he never sees her face as Ariel swiftly returns to the sea, hiding her mermaid identity.

The chemistry between Kay and Johnson enriches their characters, making their blossoming romance both believable and heartfelt. Kay's Ariel exudes innocence and curiosity, while Johnson's Prince captures sincerity and a deep longing to find the mysterious singer who saved his life.

King Triton, wary of humans and deeming them dangerous, has commanded his daughters to stay away from them. This forces Ariel to make a desperate deal with Ursula—her powerful, estranged, octopus-like aunt, who was once banished by King Triton, her brother.

Anand Nagraj as King Titan and Michael Earvin Martin as Sebastian. 

Ursula, portrayed by Sawyer Smith, casts a spell on Ariel, compelling her to give up her extraordinarily beautiful voice in exchange for a chance at love. Ariel must win the heart of the Prince, who must love her so deeply that he is compelled to kiss her. Only True Love's kiss can break Ursula's twisted spell. If Ariel fails to find true love and receive the Prince's kiss, she will be banished to the underworld, and Ursula will claim her soul. Sawyer Smith, as Ursula, is a showstopper! Smith's costumes, makeup and movements are menacing, powerful, yet glamorous all at the same time. Smith’s talent is fully on display during a commanding rendition of “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”

The cast delivers uniformly strong performances throughout. Matt Edmonds also stands out with his impeccable comic timing as Chef Louis, eliciting plenty of hearty laughs with his hilarious solo number “Les Poissons.” 

I valued the emphasis placed on the power of a single woman’s voice and the profound impact of a young woman losing her voice, especially in today’s context. It was heartwarming to see so many young girls in the audience, their faces glowing with delight. They were captivated by the show's humor and romance, yet also deeply moved to tears by the poignant theme of Ariel sacrificing her voice to win the love of a man.

This production, under the skillful direction of Scott Weinstein, with choreography by Kasey Alfonso and a vibrant set designed by Tijana Bjelajac, excels in providing delightful musical theater entertainment for both children and adults. It is truly a pleasure to watch.

Patrick Johnson as Prince Eric and Sarah Kay as Ariel.

The puppetry in this production was extraordinary, among the finest I've seen on a Chicago stage. For instance, the two eels, Ursula’s sinister accomplices, glide gracefully through the audience and across the stage with glittering lights encased in sheer black chiffon, creating an absolutely magical effect. The puppet characters were all exceptionally well played and designed. Notable performances include Sebastian (Michael Earvin Martin), Scuttle (Landree Fleming), Flounder (Maya Lou Hlava), Jetsam (Ryan Michael Hamman) and Flotsam (Leah Morrow). The impressive puppet design was crafted by Chicago Puppet Studio, Caitlin McLeod, and Zachary Sun. 

The set design, featuring the imaginative light projections by Anthony Churchill and the atmospheric lighting by Ryan O’Gara, brilliantly conveyed the sensation of being under the ocean. Their work uniquely and creatively transported the audience to an enchanting underwater world, making the experience both magical and mesmerizing.

The Little Mermaid is a fantastic ensemble piece, and the entire cast brings the house down with their rousing, colorful, and energetic group number in “Under The Sea.” This performance beautifully captures the splendor of the mermaid's underwater home and castle, making it a mesmerizing highlight.

I highly recommend this colorful, ingenious, and lively production for audiences of all ages who wish to experience one of their favorite Disney fairytales come to life! 

Disney’s The Little Mermaid is being performed at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook through January 12th. For tickets and/or more show information, visit https://drurylanetheatre.com/the-little-mermaid/.

Charming, colorful and inventive, the Marriot Theater’s Madagascar – A Musical Adventure, for young audiences, is a fun-filled ride with themes that will surely resonate with both kids and adults.

Based on the popular 2005 film by DreamWorks Animation, Madagascar centers around four main characters from the Central Park Zoo: Alex the Lion (Russell Mernagh), Marty the Zebra (James Earl Jones II), Melman the Giraffe (Stephen Schellhardt), and Gloria the Hippo (Rashada Dawan).

At first glance this fun-loving group seems happy enough to perform for park visitors, especially the king of the jungle, Alex the Lion, who is in his element prancing around the stage, showing off his perfected “roar”. But when presented with the idea of freedom by a cadre of hilarious and enterprising penguins who say “it’s not natural to be in a zoo,” Marty the Zebra, to the surprise of his friends, makes a run for it.

Having lived their entire lives in captivity, Alex, Melman and Gloria are shocked that Marty would even consider leaving the comfortable life of the Central Park Zoo. But in the spirit of true friendship, they push their misgivings aside and embark on a rip-roaring adventure that eventually lands them in the exotic wilds of Madagascar.

The quirky and pompous lemur King Julien (wonderfully played by Jonathan Butler-Duplessis) is a joy to watch as he tries to incorporate Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria, in his masterplan to rid the island of the fossa who hunt and attack his fellow lemurs. However, this plan goes awry as Alex, who now has to fend for himself in the wild, can’t contain his animal instincts and attacks Marty.

Directed and choreographed by Matt Raftery, Madagascar – A Musical Adventure, hits all the right notes in “crack-a-lackin’” style as Mernagh and Jones also shine in their roles with both chemistry and good-natured fun, as they show that in the end true friendship can overcome even the “laws of nature”.

Perhaps of the best moment of the production is the high-energy rendition of “Move It, Move It!” which gets the crowd clapping and kids, as well as adults, up on their feet.

Colorful costume and props really enhance the performance, bringing this animated favorite vividly to life. “Madagascar is already an established idea,” said Jesus Perez, costume designer and assistant director, “but since this is a live production and not a movie, it has opened up a world of creativity for us. This is the perfect vehicle for me as a designer to bring this fantastical world to life.”

The talented cast, which also includes: Leah Morrow as “Skipper,” Liam Quealy as “Kowalski,” Laura Savage as “Mort and Private,” Elena Romanowski as “Rico,” Samantha Pauly as “Maurice,” and Jed Feder as “Mason,” won’t disappoint as they sing and dance to some of your favorite tunes from the movie.

Recommended

All performances are followed by a question and answer session with the cast.

Madagascar – A Musical Adventure, playing at the Marriott Theater located in the Lincolnshire Marriott Resort, runs through April 15 Tuesdays through Sundays at 10 a.m. with certain performances at 12:30 p.m. For more information and tickets, visit www.marriotttheatre.com.

Helldrivers of Daytona, currently running at the Royal George Theatre, is a fun idea. It is a musical that seems to mostly spoof Elvis’ Viva Las Vegas, a story of a talented race car driver who needs to scrape up enough cash to get his car into the big race. James Nedrud does his best in the lead as Lucky Stubbs, lampooning the Elvis-like role, but often ends up shouting his best songs. Nonetheless, he does succeed nicely as a caricature of the sexy, country boy trying to make good we know from the film, coming off as a fey, one level dummy adding a lot of humor to the role. Nedrud’s expressions alone often draws laughs along with his overdone Southern accent and quirky denseness.  

The parodied scenes from Viva Las Vegas are many, from the girlfriend, Pepper, singing a song about how jealous she is of Lucky’s race car, the active competition with a French racing rival and even Lucky’s stint working as a hotel waiter where he walks in on Pepper and his challenger. Again, the idea was there. Problem is, despite some good acting and singing performances throughout the cast, the production goes a bit overboard with its silliness and many jokes simply fall flat. 

The music, composed by The Knack’s Berton Averre, captures the 1965 period nicely, some songs stuffed with clever punchlines, however, outside of a couple catchy melodies, most numbers will probably have a hard time sticking, as they fall a bit on the repetitive side.        

Samantha Pauly stands out from the entire cast and is a superb comedienne in the role of Pepper Johnson, Lucky’s sex kittenish, Anne Margaret type love interest. Her introductory song, "Peppers' Crazy Feeling" is hysterical as Pepper has one orgasm after another just by driving her pink colored bumpy, throbbing stick shift - an adorable convertible aptly named "Pinky”, getting huge laughs with each big "O", some of the only genuine laughs in the show. As the bi-sexual, millionaire race car driver and Count, David Sajewich is also funny even when he later channels a twelve-year-old French murderess to kill Lucky in the race (I told you it goes overboard). 

There are three essential speedway groupies and a tomboyish tag-along (Rachel Melius, Leah Morrow, Claire Lilley, and Julia Rose Duray). All had great voices and are played with real energy, sex appeal and great comic timing.

The beach bums who become Lucky's race car pit crew (Trey Curtis, Aaron M. Davidson, and Chris Selefski) have some funny moments and are good singers. Danny Herman and Rocker Verastique's choreography is often very sexy and funny at the same time, especially the dance numbers of seduction between Lucky and Pepper and Pepper's competing courtship dance with the Count. 

I adored Brenda Winstead's costumes particularly for all the women characters. The girl's outfits were colorful, perfectly cut for the time period and eye-poppingly sexy without actually revealing anything.

"Teenage Dreams" sung by the three groupies is the most memorable and interesting song to me. Their three fantasies in the number include, a Daddy's girl whose fixation on her handsome father still gets in the way of her love life, one was into being a dominatrix and having her man be her obedient puppy dog, and the third, raised Catholic, insists on finding a man who looks and acts like Jesus, her hero and savior.  I thought this song’s lyrics were very cleverly written and delivered by the girls and really captured the repressed fantasies and dating blocks that many women of all ages possibly struggle with today. Happily, for this trio, each one eventually finds her perfect mate in the trio of pit crew boys who help Lucky win the race. 

At a running time of 2 hours 25 minutes there are definitely still some cuts to be made but I had a lot of fun watching the show, and think a younger crowd at a theater with a more progressive reputation would as well. It might also be a good idea to take in Viva Las Vegas beforehand to really get the show’s camp.

Despite the show having a few more misses than hits, Helldrivers of Daytona still has enough laughs and doses of nostalgia that most will probably enjoy it overall. Its originality also counts for something, especially in its big finale racing scene.  

In its World Premiere, the pre-Broadway tryout, Helldrivers of Daytona, is being performed at Royal George Theatre through October 30th. To find out more about the show go to www.theroylageorgetheatre.com. 

*UPDATE – Due to negative reviews, the show has been cancelled for the remainder of its run. A statement was made from the show’s producers, “We all believed in Helldrivers of Daytona and more importantly believe in creating new works for the American Musical stage. We are disappointed by the critical response, but we knew that it was a risky endeavor. Still, many of the people who saw it were thoroughly entertained and delighted by the work of our fantastic cast and musicians. We have decided to close the production and we will evaluate how we might make changes for future productions of the musical. We want to thank our talented team of designers, our director and co-choreographer, our music director, our cast and crew, and of course our creative team who have all worked so diligently to get Helldrivers to the starting (and alas, finishing) line.”

That is unfortunate. Hopefully, we will see a tweaked production in the future.