iTunes Exclusive Episode Disneys The Little Mermaid

The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
The following is a sooner orgator production.
Greetings Empire member and warm members.
If you are hearing the sound of my voice right now, it means the following conditions have been met.
It means at least once in your life you have listened to the clubhouse podcast live every Sunday,
7 Eastern for Pacific.
Your one stop shop for all things sports entertainment.
It also means you subscribe on iTunes because it's time for another.
The 196th one of these things.
Welcome.
My name is Rob.
I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast.
And I like this swim.
I'm from a tropical climate.
There's a lot of swimming going on back in the day.
But I'm not alone for this particular episode.
Joining me across the desk is my co-host.
And a man who has been around the world enough, especially on the water that he may have seen a mermaid from time to two.
He is Jack.
Welcome, sir.
The only time I saw a mermaid is when we were on dry land.
And I was drunk out of my mind.
So no.
Can't drink on the boat.
I'm still not there in team.
That's what you saw.
Yeah, yeah.
Could have been anything.
Fair enough.
Also joining us is the official fact checker of this show.
And a man that takes mermaid to a whole different level.
You may know I miss Fondongo, but his mom and even Don Ford.
I'm going to call him Don Ford.
And he may have been the mermaid that chets on the net.
We don't know.
Welcome, sir.
Buffets in two months.
But that you said you were retired in the mermaid.
I might be a lost, lost, shaker of salt on this one.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
But are you just also retiring in the mermaid or is there a chance?
There's a chance.
There's always a chance.
There's always a chance.
There's always a chance.
Never say never, right?
In some cases, it might be a good thing.
I just say.
Please say never.
Whenever we do one of these deals, it's always to review something.
And that means this one's no exception.
But we're doing a stage production today for our friends at Dallas, several musicals.
And at the best performance hall.
Because Disney's the little mermaid is in town.
Before we start, well, I think it's going to be a compliment fast coming up.
We have to thank the man.
Francesco.
The legend.
Yes, he is.
Airbait, Dallas, some of musicals.
These are called.
76.
Yeah.
I want to take a minute before we get into this thing.
Because I want to really give some kudos to stat Dallas summer musicals.
As we record this, it is the night after the official opening night of the production.
However, four days earlier, Dallas summer musicals along with a couple of their business partners.
We're able to buy tickets for 3400 children and their families.
Maybe some lower income kids who may have never gotten to see a stage production.
Who might get a little spark lit for them.
Pack the house.
And none of them had to pay for their tickets.
And huge shout out to the people at Dallas summer musicals for doing that.
If you imagine for a little child, that's the first stage production scene.
Oh, you kidding me?
Oh, and grow.
Then we got something else coming up.
Yeah.
But we talked about that in our normal show because we will be broadcasting.
From the high school musical awards.
Francisco, you're so good at us.
Thank you so much.
Cannot thank you enough for everything he does.
It's the story of Ariel based on the Hans Christian Anderson story.
If you don't know what it's about, first of all, welcome back from the cave.
We appreciate you joining us.
I'm not sure how you got an iPod, but God bless you for that.
The mermaid wants to be a real girl.
Balls in love with the human.
Makes a deal with her evil aunt.
She got three days without her voice.
To get the guy to do obviously kiss the girl.
You see what I did then.
Bring it back around.
That's right.
That's how I roll, sir.
I mean, that's what you need to know.
Like Disney did the movie in 90 was 89 or 99.
And as I said in my written review at www.theclubhousepodcast.com, which is our website.
If you really want to know how much hinged on this film, there is a wonderful documentary out there called
Waking Sleeping Beauty.
Watch it.
Because then, because you realize this wasn't made into a musical until after the Lion King and
Beauty in the Beast.
But this film preceded them all.
This came before them.
All of your favorites are there.
Of course, the films on hour 24 something and the musical with the
Intermission runs about two and a half hours.
Trust me, we just watched it again last time.
So we got back there's a lot of extra stuff that isn't in the theatrical version.
Probably not a lot taken out.
I've never seen the movie all the way through.
I've seen it in pieces.
Which absolutely stuns me.
It's one of the very few Disney films I've not seen all the way through.
Do you own it?
I will neither confirm nor deny that.
But I mean, you know the story.
You know the characters.
Let's just get into this thing.
I would say dive right in, but that might be a little too cheesy.
Our 23 fact check.
Okay, so I was a minute off.
But hey, story of my life.
It's my job.
That's the story of my life.
My job.
I'm just going to start right off the bat.
You'll walk into the theater.
And there's there's already stuff going on.
Yeah.
And first of all, if you get the chance to see this, it's a down summer musical.
I'd down summer musicals.
I apologize.
You can take your picture with a mermaid.
I don't know how they found three mermaid.
You can take it with three.
But they're down there and I was sitting around the fountain, which has a mermaid in the fountain
in a statue form.
Great presentation even before we walked in the theater.
That's there's there's total and I'm no pun intended here.
Total immersion.
Agreed. You walk into a bubble car.
Yeah.
When you walk into the bubble curtain, you walk into the theater.
And there's wind chimes going on with the underwater thing on the stage.
So even before you get there, even before the curtain goes down, even before the lights.
Even before even before Sebastian tells you to turn off your cell phones.
You're already ready to rock.
The atmosphere is fully in place.
When the curtain goes up, after a very nice overture, by the way, love the open overture.
I'm a fan.
Curtain goes up and it's on.
Here's Ariel doing her deal.
King Triton's there doing his deal.
I mean, it has everything here.
I mean, I can't.
Honestly, I'm never going to be able to say enough about how much I enjoyed this thing.
Visually, absolutely stunning.
Great wire work.
Great work with the costuming.
Yes.
Oh, the eels.
Every hell of the eels hit with the LED lighting on them.
The transition from scene to scene.
Seamless and gorgeous.
I had no time that I ever feel distracted by anything that was going on around the characters on screen.
But if you go to my written review at www.dacticalbusplacas.com.
That is our website.
I put on there.
Ursula's layer.
That was pretty cool.
No.
I just can't say enough.
That blew me away.
The lighting with the black light, because showing in with the fluorescent paint.
And the subtle teeth.
Oh, and he felt like he was in there.
That costume's not.
Doesn't have any robotics in it.
Yeah.
So the eels were just kind of subtly moving the tentacles around us to give them life.
And it didn't.
It didn't come off cheesy.
It came off very organic.
I really, really.
It was convincing.
I mean, the look was just the lighting was perfect for this thing.
No matter where you're at, the stage, the lighting blew me away.
Ursula's layer.
I was just entrenched.
I just was blown away.
Directed by Glenn Kassal, brilliantly directed.
He kept his actors where they needed to be when they needed to be there.
The orchestra outside of two instrumentalists, all local people, probably one of the best
assemblages of musicians, if I can say that was a word, that we've seen in almost two years
of seeing productions with Dallas Summer Musicals.
And that's saying quite a bit.
I mean, this orchestra was dead on.
It was in drawn out.
Not at all.
There were a couple of technical glitches here and there, but nothing that took away from
anything.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, just to hear that in, you know, fair use of call fair park.
I mean, conducted by Colin R. Freeman did a great job.
All right.
We buried the lead long enough.
Let's get to the performances here.
I challenge you sir.
I challenge you to find me a member of this cast.
That was not amazing.
Silence speaks volumes people.
This entire cast from start to finish.
Amazing.
Vocally harmonies were tight.
Everybody was doing their deal.
I cannot, I could not be happier with this cast.
Chat.
I have but one issue.
All right.
I'm listening.
Well, on the positive side, you know, I think all of us are going to screen the
praises of Alice and Woods.
Oh, forget about it.
Oh, yeah.
My God and Heaven.
I wrote in my written reviews.
I don't know how they took it.
Anna made it to their website.
I don't know how they took it.
Anna made it character and made her real life.
But they did.
Well, considering that she was the actual reference model for Rapunzel in
Tangled.
Her pedigree is already pretty firmly in place.
And there were times where I'm like, I can't figure out if she's an amalgam of
Ariel and Jazeal from enchanted.
She had the personalities of both and played them extremely well.
And one of the purest voices, I think we've heard in a long time.
The moment she started singing, I just looked at my wife and I was like, my
God, she sounds just like Jodi Benson.
She didn't sound like she was trying to do a Jodi Benson impersonation.
No.
She just sounded like Jodi Benson.
She had every rice.
She just dropped the mic and walked out.
She really did.
But the one issue that I had was Eric Cunes, the guy that played Prince Eric.
To me, he seemed like he was, every time he was sing, he was so intense in his
delivery that he comes across as more like he seemed like a better guy that would be
her portraying Gaston in Beauty and the Beast or Eric in the fan of the
Opera, like the Phantom.
He seemed like almost like he was angry when he sang.
I didn't get that vibe.
And this is something I actually discussed, with my wife as well.
I'm like, did you get that from Emitrine for Emitrine?
Actually, I was, I didn't know if it was just me.
I could say it.
It's not agree with you.
It's a little.
Like he would clip the ends of his words off, like you know,
I just act like he was I guess, I wasn't paying that close of
attention because I didn't get that.
I didn't get that and you know, and I know that, you know, I can't really
tune my own horn because all I really did was high school musical theater, but I
did it for four years. Hey, that counts. And we would always get instructed when
you're playing a character, a sympathetic character to draw your words out
and not clip them off because it makes you sound angry. We call that man. Those
are pear shaped tones. Well, yeah, yeah. And it just, he sounded like he was just
in a rush to get through the song on those. And that's the, it, it's a, it's a slight
criticism at best. I mean, we've covered Allison Woods. My, my shining star, who's the
nonleading role has to go to Melvin Abba, Abston who played Sebastian, loved it.
A lot of this performance. When you're not putting somebody in a costume like you
would see at Disney World, where he's basically just a guy. It's like he's got the
normal head and he's wearing like a suit that's got lobster-esque feature or
crab-esque feature. He's a guy to crab suit with his face exposed. Loved it. Loved
everything about it. His facial expressions sell it in his singing and his
mannerism and comedy. And again, not channeling the, the, the, the, the actor that
played him in, in the animated film, but enough that you recognize them. You'll
know it right. Yeah, enough that you recognize the character, but he owns it at
the same time. And, uh, uh, Torcallini, uh, the guy that played Skuddle. Jamie
Torcallini. Uh, or is it Torcallini? Torcallini, it might be Torcallini. Um,
it's a spaghetti time. Given that the role was originated on the screen by the
late great buddy Hackett, this guy comes out and you could see the kids and the
audience looking at each other like, is that to my own? Yeah, because he sounds just
like Nathan Lane. Uh, and, and I, at one point, did you ask me? I was like, was he
played by the guy who haven't seen them? Yeah. I was like, was he played by Nathan
Lane? I'm like, no, he was played by Buddy Hackett, but Nathan Lane could get away
with it. This guy crushed it. He really did. He was so much fun to watch, uh,
especially as you open this second act and for positivity. A song that was not in
the film. And, and absolutely kills it. In the tap dancing. Yes, the tap dancing.
For the love, man. This guy was absolutely amazing. But you can't talk about any
of these and not talk about Tracy lore as a Ursula. Who? I don't even know how to say it.
A character like Ursula, many young children that see that movie for the first time.
I'm sure are physically frightened by Ursula. But the way Tracy Lord portrays Ursula,
she's got the, the, the, the cookie factor. But she plays it in a way that's not
going to make your kid scream in terror. No. It's like, we know she's the bad guy, but
at the same time, you're kind of like, kind of know how this is going to wind up for you.
Do you see a trend that's formed here over the past 18 months of us going to these
live performances? How when it's a, a female lead villain, she absolutely steals the
show from pretty much everybody, Matilda and agreed. Great examples of you could not take
your eyes off the villainous because she did it so well. And she kills it. Absolutely crushes it.
And the little, the little touch of her at the curtain call that about put you on your back laughing.
When she, remember this time when she walks out and everybody's taking their balance, she walks out
and all the lights go red. I was like, well, play. The, the, the six actresses, Kim
Arnett Christine Bennett, Marjorie Faloni, Melissa Glassgout, Devon Hadsel, Amanda Manano,
Manano, Tro Xiao playing the mercisters. They were great. Their harmonies were amazing
for me. Yeah. Everything blended so well. Founder for me. Played by Adam Garst, if I'm not mistaken.
I did, he was great, but the way they portrayed the character was a little weird for me because that's a
tough character to try to do without a full fish suit. Yeah. But I thought he did well. It was just a,
it was a little bit different for me. It took me to realize that it's like, it took me a minute to get used to it.
But once I got used to it, I was okay. Yeah. And I mean, he, he characterized it very well
as a live actor and translating it from an animated form. It's just, I don't know any other way
they could have done it other than how they did it. And he, he pulls it off. And did it well? He really does.
The, the wire worked look good. You and I talked about something on the drive home. That was a
little distracting for me, but not enough for me to call it a criticism. I understand that you're
trying to create the illusion of being underwater. But they may need to do backed off the body waves.
Just a tad. Yeah. I mentioned that in the written review. There's this constant
undulation that looks like they're warming up to do belly dance. I could see it when they're on the
harness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was saying. It was like, if they're in the harness,
I get that. But even if they just kind of slightly weaved back and forth to the side, but
constantly more subtle. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, it was, it was so pervasive and certain scenes when you've
got, you know, 10, 12 people doing it when tried and holding court. You're just like, okay, stop.
You're making me feel like the, the, the, the, the room is moving. I think only one improvement they could do is
with Ursula, with those, you know, the tentacles and stuff like that is how I can animate
thing work. You could just go up without having the, you know, and one other thing is when they
had those school fish is a guy running around with a big, it didn't even look like school fish.
Those are my minor minor. The jellyfish was right. How they did the jellyfish look amazing.
Yeah. But the hell guy would run around just, it just, that didn't make it. I didn't think that's
my minor. Yeah. I can see that. But it didn't really bugs. But, but if I have one criticism. All right,
this, not counting the intermissions about two and a half hours. It is a little like this is long.
The first, the first act is longer than the second act. I was surprised it was as long as it was
given that it's a good production. But that's what I judged it by not feeling all that long because
I really didn't notice them getting all that restless. And that, you have it actually valid point
there. And I put in my written review, which is at www.theclubhousepodcast.com. Which is our website.
I can judge a production that's geared at kids like this by watching the kids around me and trust
me. They were there in force. They were in, and they were engaged when you're hearing things like
part of your world or kiss the girl. And you're hearing these little kids singing along
like that warmed my heart. It did. Yeah. That does every story or faith in humanity,
you're a communist. And in the book of them, we're decked out in full area, regalia,
themselves. They were throwing down front that had the wigs with that. Yeah.
Our roar was probably the only row with all the adults in there. But I did, it was long.
That would be my, it was like there was the scene with the table and the ship and all that.
I loved it. That was one of my favorite parts. I loved it. I loved it, but that's just was that
needed. Yes. Yes. Yes. I do. I mean, it's two and a half hours hours. You know, they double
basically the movie almost, you know, in length. Well, like, but like Chad said, the fact that, you know,
there weren't a lot of kids that were getting up and going through the bathroom and they were
restless. They were focused the whole time. I'll give it to you as an effort for me though. It just felt
long. It's a good scene bomb. Scourrocks turned S.F. Louis. I think that was one of the turning points
of that production because they just offered honest to goodness slaps that comedy at a moment where
I think it kind of needed. And there was a little bit of a Mickey and that scene. You caught that?
And the very top of the tapestries. It's a pseudo hidden. It's not a full blown, but it's there.
It's there. So yeah, I mean, I mean, I was blown away by the look of this thing beyond belief.
This is probably one of the best sets lighting that I've ever seen ever. And so well, yeah,
yeah, don't get me wrong on the criticism of the length. It's just if I had one thing that would
be it. But beyond that, I cannot. I'm blown away. All right. So I'll get to the final analysis then.
Yes. The way we do the final analysis on this show. We're not going to give you thumbs up thumbs
down. We're not going to give you one to 10 rankings, stars, letter grades, anything like that.
The way we do the final analysis of the stage production is just a wee bit different.
We're still going to ask the question, would you see this production again? The answer is no
them were done here. If the answer is yes, but what we do stage productions is these gentlemen,
and I are going to tell you, if we say yes, where we want to sit to see this again. So don
let me start with you. Would you see Disney's the little mermaid again? That's a definite. Yes.
Where are you going to sit, son? I'm going to be a little bit different on this, which I put in my
written review at www.clubaspakas.com. Just go. And don't matter. Just get into the building.
No matter where you can get a ticket. Just go. Chat, can you see this again? Absolutely. Where you going?
I'm with Dawn. I don't care where I sit. Call it a clean sweep. I would love to go see this again.
I don't care as I've said before. I don't care if I'm sitting on the roof looking in.
I don't care if I'm backstage looking on stage. Go see this production. I cannot say a good enough
good things about this. It's a quality family show beyond belief. As an adult, you're not going to
feel bored, visually stunning, outstanding performances by everybody in the cast. I mean, and it's
not a very big cast. There's a lot of people doing a lot of different things here. Time winters
is Grinsby. Grinsby. I can't even talk today. Yeah. Lots of ingets. I'm Scott T. Lyon Decker and
Jeffrey Christopher Todd. Chef Louis was Jeff Scroren. Scroren. I hope I don't even close on that.
Not a slouch in this entire cast, and they all work together so well. Before we end this thing
up again, we have to thank Francesco so much. Francesco are friend and also musicals. Rightly
music hall fair park. And this goes through March 27th. And then in the 20th, it was 25th, 27th.
That's 27th. And then it's going to take a couple days off because they're going to move it to
Fort Worth for a very quick run. So if you're not, okay, good. Through the 27th, then it's going to
go. I believe it goes through April the second at Bass Performance Hall. These are my pastas. Yeah,
no, not letting it. Even if you're on the other side of the Metroplex and you're like,
man, I'm going to drive all the way to Dallas. It's going to be in Fort Worth for a few days.
And this is touring the country. So see it when it comes to a city near you. You will not regret it.
That much I promise you. Let's get to the plugs. Vision our website.
www dot the clubhouse podcast.com. Brother, everything you need to know. Some stuff you don't.
Please like our Facebook page. It's better for our mental health.
Look up the clubhouse podcast on Facebook with the word podcast on the end.
It's something completely different. Follow us on Twitter at clubhouse show.
You can follow me on Twitter if you'd like. I am at yes that Rob Irvin that has spelled ERV. I
am at chat in PG69. I am at Fondongo and you can email me at Don at the clubhouse podcast.com.
It real quick March 29th through April 3rd at Bass. Okay. So it's going through April 3rd. Excellent.
Email Don for information on how we can come to a live show for you.
We love doing live shows and hang out with the empire when it comes to Dallas summer musicals
once coming and we could not be more excited about the high school musical awards coming up here
in just a few weeks from when we record this. Email me if you'd like questions, comments,
concerns tell me to go pound sand. I am Rob at the clubhouse podcast.com. I am chat at the clubhouse
podcast.com. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are morally obligated to say that
and Jules Womack actually heard her giggling through this. I don't even have to ask you if she liked it.
Oh yeah. Our normal show live every Sunday night, 70's from 4 Pacific,
your one stop shop for all things sports and entertainment. So next until next time for Don,
for Chad, for the empire, I'm Rob clubhouse is closed. Pretty Palmer,
mermaid, are you kidding me? No brainer.
The preceding was a sooner orgator production.