Broadway tour of ‘The Little Mermaid’ comes to Tampa

When the stage version of “The Little Mermaid” first came about, a lot of people were disappointed with the results. It lasted on Broadway for about a year and a half, which is respectable, but not the kind of spectacular success Disney was looking for.

It had all the Alan Menken-Howard Ashman songs that everyone loved from the film, but something — maybe the technical demands of the underwater stetting — just didn’t quite translate, at least in some minds.

It’s been retooled since then, with some additional songs by Menken and Glenn Slater (Ashman had already passed away) and a new book by Doug Wright, who won a Pulitzer Prize for “I Am My Own Wife” and also wrote “Quills” and the book for the musical version of “Grey Gardens.”

Glenn Casale directed the modified version in 2012. That version has been much more well-received, and it’s that version that is coming to the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa starting Tuesday.

Wright’s book enhances the familial story of Ariel and Triton, and gives some back story that beefs up characters and conflicts. The revised version still has every song from the movie, plus several others.

Details: July 11-18, Morsani Hall at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. $29-$93 plus service charge. 813-229-7827, strazcenter.org.

This story was originally published July 5, 2017 at 4:32 PM with the headline "Broadway tour of ‘The Little Mermaid’ comes to Tampa."