We've had a lot of fun evenings at the Hollywood Bowl over the years, but this was one of the best evenings: a concert/film combination of The Little Mermaid.
Here's some of the reviews, that describe it better than I could:
Alan Menken opened the show by accompanying
himself on piano on a fairly breathless medley of 21 songs he’s
co-written for Disney. Along with the expected snippets from Aladdin,
Enchanted, Newsies, Tangled, et al., the eight-time Oscar winner also
threw in a verse from the recently canceled ABC musical series Galavant,
complete with the seemingly un-Disney-esque line “cojones out to here.”
But Menken’s most impressive accomplishment wasn’t this medley, but the
fact that his wall-to-wall instrumental score for the 1989 movie holds
up so well as a live performance piece, even though it was his very film
underscore.
The rest of the night was equally magical at
the Hollywood Bowl when Sara Bareilles, Rebel Wilson, John Stamos and
other stars took the stage for a production of Disney's The Little
Mermaid.
Bareilles played Ariel, while Wilson
channeled her inner sea witch to play villain Ursula and Stamos donned a
fake mustache to portray Chef Louis. They were joined by the likes
of Glee alum Darren Criss, who played Prince Eric, as they performed
songs from the hit 1989 film and its adapted Broadway show. Tituss
Burgess reprised his role as Sebastian the crab from the musical.
T
here were nice touches to add to the show, from fireworks to fantastic lighting. Costumes are excellent, suggesting the characters without being too overt.
