Review: ABC's baffling 'Little Mermaid Live!' sunk straight to the bottom of the ocean

At some point, network TV needs to deliver truly live musicals when they slap the word "live" and an exclamation point at the end of the title. Or maybe they should just stop doing musicals altogether.

In January, we had Fox's "Rent Live" disaster, which wasn't actually live; thanks to an actor's injury, it was a recording of a dress rehearsal taped the previous night. Tuesday, ABC tried to pull off "The Little Mermaid Live!" a poorly-executed mashup of the 1989 animated film, celebrating its 30th anniversary, and live performances of songs from the movie and a Broadway version on a cartoonishly decorated stage. 

It was a solid, full-throated effort by the actors and chorus members, but a spectacular failure of a live TV event that couldn't get past its own awkwardness. This Tuesday night would have been better spent merely watching the original film. Or we can all just wait until Disney's big-screen live-action remake gets made. 

From its first moments, "Mermaid Live!" proved its own failure of concept. Jodi Benson, the original voice of Ariel, introduced the mishmash of a production, which abruptly transitions from animated birds to a live-action number in such quick succession it was tough to follow the format. Some characters were introduced in live action, some via the animated scenes. Some characters had an actor double, while others, including key figure King Triton, were seemingly stuck in the prison of 1989 animation, never to escape. 

 

Review: ABC's baffling 'Little Mermaid Live!' sunk straight to the bottom of the ocean