I went to see The Little Mermaid in the cinema when it came out all the way back in 1989. The bad guys really were quite scary back then, and the thought of being turned into one of the little worm seaweed type creatures by Ursula really did concern me as a 6yr old.
As with most media these days, though, Disney only showed us what they wanted to of Ursula, they painted her in a terrible light. They kept the truth from us!
Unfortunate is the untold story of Ursula (Shawna Hamic) the Wicked Seawitch of the Wet. An origins story if you will, a retelling and sometimes completely reshaping of what went down with Aeriel (River Medway) looking for Love.
It’s a musical, but it’s also so much more than that. It’s a drag show, with drag show adult humour to match. It’s also a little bit pantomimey. The underacting of Medway’s Aeriel is brilliantly acted, and Triton (Thomas Lowe) had a brilliant himbo element that reminded me a bit of Chris Hemsworth. Julian Capolei is possibly an unsung star of the show, though, playing multiple characters throughout, including a very sexy human Ursula with a very fetching moustache.
The show was filled with smut, sometimes subtle, most of the time in your face and unashamed…and it was great. It’s honestly a laugh out loud 2 hours of pure filth. There’s puppets, there’s cucumbercide, there’s slut dropping, there’s a whole song about d*cks. No, not the web footed birds. It’s camp, it’s rude, it’s crude. I can’t recommend it enough.
Review by Johnny Banks
Comments Closed