Lights Up Lands ​“Little Mermaid”

Ariel keeps disobeying her father, Triton, king of the ocean, who tells her not to try to explore the world above the waves. But she can’t resist. She sees the passing ships, collects the artifacts they drop in the water, clambers onto rocks to gaze at the land beyond. And in time, she sees a prince — and the prince hears her singing — and suddenly both feel a tug, binding them together, that no injunctions from parents can dislodge.

So begins The Little Mermaid, the latest production from Lights Up Drama Club out of Wilbur Cross High School, running March 7 through 9. This marks the drama club’s seventh full production, and its second cohort of students since the club began. In the show’s scope and ambitions, it shows how persistent work in building a drama program can pay off.

The Little Mermaid is based on the story from Hans Christian Andersen about a mermaid who is willing to trade her soul — and her enchanting singing voice — for a chance to walk on land and gain the love of a human prince. The Hans Christian Andersen fairytale is actually a pretty dark story; the mermaid’s transformation to being human, for instance, is accompanied by phantom-limb-like pain from the loss of her tail in exchange for human legs, and the ending isn’t happy, at all. 

As retold by Disney in 1989, the ending is considerably more cheerful, though it retained enough of the original’s melancholy to feel like more than a trifle. Its 1989 release was a wild success at the box office, garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews, won awards, ushered in an entirely new era of Disney animated musicals, and was remade as a Broadway musical in 2007 and a (heavily animated) live-action film in 2023. Much of the success of the movie came from its songbook, by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. ​“Under the Sea,” ​“Kiss the Girl,” and ​“Part of Your World” have become modern classics, tailed by ​“Poor Unfortunate Souls.”

But the movie — and the musical based on it — largely works thanks to its story. Ariel’s longing to be on land worries her father, Triton, who enlists a plucky crab, Sebastian, to be her guardian and try to keep her out of trouble. Sebastian largely fails. Ariel goes to Triton’s sister, the banished witch Ursula, to make her deal. Ursula gives Ariel legs but takes away her voice, and if Ariel cannot convince prince Eric to kiss her within three days of being on land, Ursula will take her soul as well. On land, Ariel and Eric begin an awkward, poignant courtship fraught by the ticking three-day countdown that Eric doesn’t know exists; meanwhile, Triton learns of what Ariel has done and tries to intervene. Will Ariel and Eric end up together? Will Ursula get her due punishment for her manipulations? What might Triton have to sacrifice? 

Lights Up is spearheaded by a dedicated group of educators — co-directors Heather Bazinet and Salvatore DeLucia and choreographer Jennifer Kaye, who have worked hand in hand on all seven productions so far, joined by musical director Jennifer Sciglibaglio, now working on her second Lights Up production. But the production shines, of course, through its students, a true ensemble cast packed with charm, wit, and strong singing.

The cast takes over the stage for the show’s biggest production numbers, filling it with movement, color, and voices. It’s particularly effective in ​“Under the Sea,” in which Sebastian (Daniel Cardenas) tries to convince Ariel (June Lanpher) to stay beneath the waves. The explosion of motion in that sequence has its chill, just as effective opposite in the low-light sequence for ​“Kiss the Girl,” in which the movements of the ensemble resemble the reeds and gentle breeze rocking the boat Ariel and prince Eric (Jahlil Coleman) take for a ride. 

Through both sequences and elsewhere in the play, Cardenas gets Sebastian right, as a plucky sidekick who also knows before he starts that he can’t prevent Ariel from doing what she wants to do. Similarly, Zara Baden-Eversman tugs heartstrings as the lovelorn Flounder, and Erin Palmer gets to strut her stuff as both comic and tap dancer playing the lovably daffy Scuttle, a seagull.

Aniya Deberry plays Ursula with a wise confidence that lets you know just how much she’s calling the shots. She also vamps best when she’s with her wingpeople Flotsam (Salem Jones) and Jetsam (Anne Martinez Aguilar) who play their characters as delightful mean girls if said mean girls maybe also happened to be vampires. Father and father figure Triton and Grimsby, Mykeal Jobity and Claude Sanders, play their characters almost as tragic and comic opposites. Jobity lets you see Triton’s grief at the loss of a conspicuously absent queen, while Sanders makes Grimsby wonderfully foppish, believably clueless as to what’s happening around him.

Meanwhile, Lanpher and Coleman together beautifully form the show’s romantic heart. Coleman gives Eric the wide-eyed youthfulness and determination he needs to hold out for the woman of his dreams, while Lanpher — who is on the stage for most of the musical — embodies Ariel. In her body language and voice, speaking and singing, you can feel Ariel’s deep sense of longing. We understand immediately that her desire to wed Eric is part of a larger desire for a different kind of life than the one that’s been set out for her, and thus understand why she’s willing to take so many risks to get it. In a way, it hearkens back as much to the sadder Hans Christian Andersen take on the story as it does to the cheerier Disney version, and makes the kinder ending feel that much more earned. 

The Little Mermaid runs at Wilbur Cross High School from March 7 through March 9. Visit Lights Up Drama Club’s website for tickets and more information.