ABC is doing a The Little Mermaid Live!
The format pioneered by NBC back in 2013 is heading to ABC with one of Disney’s biggest classics. Starring in the lead is Moana star Auli’i Cravalho with Queen Latifah playing Ursula and Shaggy starring as Sebastian.
But director and executive producer, Hamish Hamilton, explains that his vision of a live musical event is a bit different from a fully staged production like the other live musicals stages by other networks.
“The last thing I would want is somebody to do a carbon copy of what we’ve done before.”
According to multiple outlets, Hamilton is opting to create an “interesting hybrid” between the animated original and live performances of the feature’s musical numbers.
“There will be visual signatures all the way through that will reinforce the original feature,” Hamilton explained. The actors will not re-voice the movie; they will only perform the songs. “The original feature will exist exactly as it always has, and then when we come to a song, we will transition from the original to the new.”
The forthcoming production will not include new songs but will include several numbers from the Broadway musical.
Original composer Alan Menken said of his role in the production, now that there will be now composing of new music: “I’ll be very involved the first time around with something, and then after that, there’s a structure that other people can take on and it evolves through different forms. Going to the stage, we evolved into a two-act form for Broadway. Going to television, we evolve [for that].”
The Little Mermaid Live! airs November 5, on ABC.
