Within a minute you realise that UNFORTUNATE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF URSULA THE SEA WITCH is definitely not ‘The Little Mermaid‘. In fact, it’s about as far removed from the family-friendly, sweet and wholesome Disney classic as you can get, although it does have an affectionate, and often irreverent nod to the much-loved tale.
The production is at the New Theatre in Cardiff this week, fresh from previous success in London and the Edinburgh fringe. If you’ve seen the show before, this is the all new, longer and revamped version, and you most certainly won’t be disappointed, as you can see from last night’s audience reaction. We also spoke to two of the stars, RIVER MEDWAY who is Ariel and JAMIE MAWSON who plays love interest Eric.
A little context before you watch our video – the show does have swearing, and at one point drops a shocking ‘C‘ word – we were all grown ups in the audience but you could definitely feel a gasp around the auditorium. At the same time however, it was appropriately hilarious.
Right from the off the show is loud, crude, and packed to the gills with more innuendo than a tin of sardines.
There are ten in the cast, led by SHAWNA HAMIC as Ursula and RIVER MEDWAY as Ariel, although the company does feel much larger with some pretty nifty costume changes and plenty of role jumping.
You may know the story of The Little Mermaid but Unfortunate tells you what really went on behind the scenes, and believe me, there’s something very fishy about life under the sea.
Ursula Squirt (you get the gist) is a bit of an outcast, bullied by her Mum and in true fairytale fashion, has to hide her dark magic from the world.
We go deep down to Atlantica, a weird and wonderful world, described by Ursula as ‘The happy intersection between the Barbie movie and the Hitler Youth‘. She has a brilliant way with words and some of the best lines in the show – most of them too rude for me to write, let alone repeat.
The show is everything us big kids really want to see – a wholesome story, flipped on its head with plenty of sex, swearing and a huge amount of camp. We reckon this would bring anyone out of their oyster shell. To its credit, they also touch on a few of our worlds pressing matters such as pollution and climate change.
It is of course a musical and while none of the songs associated with the aforementioned movie are included, we do get a fantastic score, peppered with a hugely catchy parody of ‘Kiss The Girl‘ and ‘Part of Your World‘. River is hilarious as Ariel, with thoughts about life in the real world and how it would be out of water. Ariel is a mermaid with much ambition, namely to enjoy a pumpkin spice latte, see a human male penis, and shop at Pretty Little Thing.
For me, Ariel gets one of the best songs in the show. It’s a ‘big‘ bold routine, aided by a statue standing proud and erect on stage for all to see.
The music by TIM GILVIN really stands out, with a clever and always hilarious book and lyrics from ROBYN GRANT and DANIEL FOXX.
‘Part of That World‘ is one of the many stand-out numbers along with ‘Female Role Models‘ given the full Ursula treatment. One of my other favourites ‘We Didn’t Make it to Disney‘ sung by the creatures who aren’t beautiful enough for an animated classic movie.
Just like a visit to Walt’s world in Florida, the show has its fair share of puppets by ABBY CLARKE. We get all the sea creatures we’d expect from a magical show like this, and a few I didn’t even know existed, and boy are some of those fish hilariously ugly. You may not expect puppets in an ‘adult themed’ show, but they work brilliantly here.
This also is a good time to mention ALLIE DART who plays Sebastian and others. To be honest I could have quite happily served him up with a portion of garlic butter from the original movie, in Unfortunate however, Allie has restored my faith in this quirky little carb – she is fantastically funny.
In their entirety the cast are all part of this fantastical world, THOMAS LOWE is as powerful a Triton as you’ll see anywhere, both in voice and body. JAMIE MAWSON plays Eric with just the right amount of floundering dumbness, and JULIAN CAPOLEI as Grimsby is agile, athletic and outrageously funny. You can check out the entire cast HERE.
UNFORTUNATE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF URSULA THE SEA WITCH is at the New Theatre in Cardiff for the rest of the week. Performances are at 7:30pm each evening with a 2:30pm matinee on Saturday. For more details, and tickets, go HERE.
The is an AGE GUIDANCE: 16+ as the show has more than a few swearies in it, partial nudity, scenes of a sexual nature and flashing lights. However, we are assured that no sea creatures are harmed during any of the performances.
There will also be a short Q&A session with members of the company following the Thursday evening show. This will take place in the auditorium and is free to all ticket holders of this performance.
