TOKYO: The Shiki Theatre Company’s acclaimed musical staging of the Walt Disney classic The Little Mermaid, which opened in early April in Tokyo, transforms the performance hall into a world of underwater fantasy.
For the well-loved song “Under the Sea,” a crowd of colourful fish gather on the stage. Bob Crowley, the winner of numerous Tony Awards for Best Musical, is in charge of the costume design and scenery.
The first musical rendition based on the Disney animation was performed on Broadway in 2008. A European version in 2012 put a different spin on the original, taking the mysterious world beneath the sea to new heights of spectacle and theatricality.
An adaptation of that European version, Shiki’s performance of The Little Mermaid celebrates the theatre’s 60th anniversary this summer through a collaboration with Disney.
The story is about a mermaid named Ariel who falls in love with Prince Eric, a human being. The show’s highlights include Ariel’s dance, which uses special stage rigging equipment to simulate flying, as well as the brightly coloured costumes and scenery.
“The human world is wonderful,” Ariel keeps saying. I was extremely surprised to hear such a phrase.
In the European version, the world on the land is depicted as something out of a fairy tale. Whereas the world beneath the sea is portrayed as realistic and multidimensional, life on land is characterised by flatness, thanks to fairy-tale backdrops that emphasise two-dimensionality.
The scenery includes a giant book that is placed on the stage. Whenever a page is turned, the scene changes.
Prospective candidates for the prince’s bride have the exaggerated features of grotesques, giving the somewhat eerie impression of being all the same.
The Little Mermaid is based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. In the original, the mermaid threw herself into the sea in despair and disappeared as bubbles rose to the surface of the water. In the musical versions, however, after becoming a human she attained happiness through the power of love.
After seeing Shiki’s musical, I wondered if it was possible to grasp the idea that The Little Mermaid itself is only the dream of the mermaid who vanished in the bubbles. Becoming a human and being united with the prince meant leaving behind the world of the sea. Neither the original nor the musicals offer a happy ending. The point may be the allure of the world of fantasy.
After changing shape from the original fairy tale by Andersen to a Disney animation, then becoming a Broadway musical that spawned a European version, the story has finally arrived in Japan.
Yet from the stage filled with pearlescent luster, the sound of Ariel’s voice singing still echoes with the same sadness.
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