Review: Pieni merenneito
HKT’s The Little Mermaid is fireworks for the senses
Theatre as a genre is in a tight spot. In an age where home receivers cover the end wall of the living room and the surrounding screens capture the viewer’s grip, theatres must also try to rise to the challenge in order to meet the needs of an increasingly experience-seeking audience. And with it, the stands on the big stages.
Helsinki City Theatre’s autumn family musical not only meets the challenge, but also exceeds the expectations of both child and adult viewers. Now, there is a wow effect – but fortunately not only out of a desire to startle, but in a way that respects the work and emphasizes the music.
HKT’s huge investment is based on a Disney animation based on H. C. Andersen’s fairy tale from three decades ago. The stage version of the film arrived on Broadway about ten years ago, and now on Finland’s most followed musical stage in Helsinki.
Director Samuel Harjanne , known from the hit musical Kinky Boots, has conjured up a magical underwater world on the HKT stage with mermaids as well as rays, jellyfish and other wonderful creatures found beneath the surface. The Little Mermaid is undoubtedly the most technically laborious production that has been made in these latitudes. The financial investment has also been known to have been the largest in the history of Finnish theatre.
Even though that investment can be seen and heard from the first bars of the performance, HKT’s musical is still based on a story. In it, the mermaid Ariel, who wants to enter the world of humans, rises up to defy her father, the king of the seas, and everyone who tries to dictate to her what she should be like and with whom she is allowed to associate. The story is educational and has a happy ending, but the two-and-a-half-hour journey is full of twists and turns, and fireworks are served to all the senses at every turn.
Especially the large dance and crowd scenes offer plenty of eye candy, as Milja Mensonen’s disguises and hairstyles and Pirjo Liiri-Majava’s costumes rest the splendor of the southern coral seas in all their colours and shapes in front of the audience.
One of the challenges for choreographer Gunilla Olsson-Karlsson has been to solve how to detach the movement and action under the sea from the stage level, lighten it and lift it up towards the “surface of the sea”.
From time to time, the breakaway takes place with spectacular “dives”, the technical design and safety of which are the responsibility of the Anglo-American Fly by Foy, which has been called the number one in the industry. Still, one cannot envy the career choice of Sonja Pajunoja , who plays the mermaid Ariel, as she spins high above the stage in her almost invisible flying harness with her head down – and sings a solo number at the same time.
A few flights – or dives – worked breathtakingly well, especially Prince Erik ( Martti Manninen, who is making his handsome debut in HKT) falling from the ship into the depths of the sea and into the arms of a saving mermaid.
The musical’s cheerful splendor of colour is counterbalanced by the outrageously funny sea witch Ursula (Sanna Saarijärvi) with her tentacles, who reach out disgustingly all the way to the auditorium. Paavo Kääriäinen and Antti Timonen, who play Ursula’s horrible undersea lackeys Kiero and Antti Timonen , as well as Tero Koponen , who plays Sebastian the crab, do a skilful job of gifting movement and sound to the puppets designed by the British Stitches and Glue, which have been adapted to extend their bodies.
The ships, castles and undersea worlds that pop up on the stage are masterpieces that set designer Peter Ahlqvist seems to have wanted to test the limits of the production technology possibilities offered by HKT.
Toni Haaranen’s video projections are linked to the continuation of both the set design and William Iles’ magical lighting almost seamlessly. Moving graphics on the projection canvases at the front and back of the stage create depth in the underwater world, while also distracting the eye enough to complete all the sleight of hand.
In order for all this to happen, many pieces have had to fall into place. In addition to the vision and skill of the director and the working group, a large stage, a convincing stage machinery, state-of-the-art performance technology and quite a number of skilled artistic and production staff have been needed to handle all of the above.
Even though the performing arts are not a competitive sport, the City Theatre’s The Little Mermaid easily beats most, if not all, versions previously performed in international musical cities, at least in terms of direction and visual and technical implementation.
The stage version of The Little Mermaid is built on the Oscar-winning music composed by Alan Menken for the Disney animation, to which more than a dozen new, great songs and a lot of underscores bubbling under the dialogue have been added to set the mood and build bridges between the scenes.
The excellent, fresh Finnish translations of both new songs and songs already familiar from Disney animations have been made by Hanna Kaila , and the Finnish translation of the dialogue is by Reita Lounatvuori.
The song numbers of The Little Mermaid are a pleasure to listen to. The voices of the musical’s main couple, Pajunoja and Manninen, who are previously relatively unknown to the general public, sound effortlessly alone and together, and blend in with a controlled manner, especially in the melodies of the beautiful ballads.
Mikko Vihma , who plays Ariel’s father Triton, sings majestically, as one would expect from a king, and has also trimmed himself to such a high level in honor of the role that he does not need artificial muscles to cover his body.
The role of Splash the Fish gliding on a skateboard is played by four boys, of whom Alek Pèrez Lahtinen swam into the hearts of the audience with his singing and presence at the premiere.
The evening’s many comic moments are the responsibility of Tume Uusitalo, the Leningrad Cowboys’ gift to the theatre world – or was it the other way around? The dinner chaos led by Uusitalo’s singing chef character tears into a sheer silent comedy, including precise slapstick sound effects.
Another character who is sure to bring laughs even with his spectacular entrances is Skuutti (Tuukka Leppänen), whose ragtime croaking led by a flock of seagulls is joyful to watch and listen to.
Of the group performances, the “girl band” of Ariel’s fussy sisters ( Sanna Majuri, Emilia Nyman and Raili Raitala, among others) should also be mentioned, which stretches from baroque to rock in its numbers. The sisters’ “Lääpällä” serves up genuine swing mixed with soul and twist by American female vocal groups from the turn of the 60s.
Conductor Risto Kupiainen’s orchestra consists of as many as 14 musicians: three keyboardists, a three-piece string system, two brass players and three woodwinds, as well as a rhythm trio of a bass player, drummer and percussionist.
In the listener’s ears, the orchestra’s playing is often grown to grandiose symphonic proportions, and when studying the technical background of the production, it became clear that the thick and rich soundscape is largely realized by the double ambient miking developed by sound designer Kai Poutanen , as well as the spatial processing and distribution of the instrument channels into the surround field.
The vocal sound is enjoyably clear in both solos and choirs, and even though no positioning system is known to be used in the amplification of the performers this time either, the adjustments seem to be very good, as the vocals always sound coming from where they should, i.e. from the performer’s mouth. In the speech scenes, the impression of amplifying the voice sometimes even disappears – which, of course, is always a plus in the theatre.
To counterbalance this, the massive sound field of more than a hundred speakers on the large stage sometimes surrounds the entire auditorium and, if necessary, even rolls over the heads of the audience with convincing force.