This May, Ariel, Prince Eric, Flounder, and Ursula will appear on the Imperial Theatre stage in Disney’s The Little Mermaid.
Directed and choreographed by Jackie Burns, expect everything you know and love about the Disney production, with some added magic.
“We have an amazing team and are incredibly excited about bringing the show to life on the stage,” Burns told The Journal. “We are about three or four weeks into rehearsals and already it’s going so swimmingly — pun intended.”
Theatre Sarnia is no stranger to putting on elaborate stage musicals, and Disney’s The Little Mermaid will be no different.
“Audience members can expect a really fun, spectacular time. We’ve got lots of big dance numbers and lots of big special effects,” Burns added. “There is also a lot of heart to the story, and I think we have a cast who can really navigate what you would expect from a Disney spectacle and still find a lot of truth and heart in what these characters are experiencing.”
The cast is made up of around 30 Lambton County past or present residents, with Devan Wales as Ursula, Paul Skuza as Prince Eric, and Kalie Woodcock as Ariel.
“She [Kalie] has just this beautiful effortless voice that has just this amazing quality to it that pulls you in and she always has the audience in the palm of her hand because she is so captivating on stage and her voice is like butter. It’s beautiful,” said Burns.
“We have a really good mix of familiar faces and new amazing people that have come out for this show. We had a record number of people audition for this and there was so much talent overall and the cast we ended up with is amazing,” the director added.
With tickets selling fast, an additional matinee has already been added to the schedule and the cast, crew, and director couldn’t be happier.
“We are so incredibly lucky to have the talent pool that we do and to have the facility that we do. We are so lucky to have the Imperial Theatre and to be able to mount the productions that we are able to do with the standard of production quality,” she said. “It’s a well-rounded, positive, talented, amazing force that we keep putting all our best into and hopefully getting as much as we can out of.”
Tickets are on sale now at the Imperial Theatre Box Office and online. Performances are 7:30pm on May 24-25, 29-31 and June 1.