Told as a story to soothe a frightened child, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's musical relocates The Little Mermaid to a jolly little place called Haiti, peopled by happy, all-singing, all-dancing peasants. This show makes Oliver! look like a gritty socialist-realist document.
Here, on this island of fetching lighting effects, orphan Ti Moune, saved by the gods during a terrible hurricane, falls for Daniel Beauxhomme, a poor little rich kid and descendant of the original French colonists. Daniel skids in his flash car on the wrong side of the tracks and is badly injured. Ti Moune enters into a Faustian pact with the Demon of Death; her love for Daniel keeps him alive, but can't stop a previously arranged marriage once the Haitian equivalent of the John Lewis list has been sent out.
The British premiere of this one-act musical won an Olivier award in the mid-90s. It must have been awarded for brevity, because in an evening conspicuously lacking depth, the fact it is all over in less than two hours is the only thing going for it. Its score and sentiments are so sweet, it seems to be permanently teetering on the brink of diabetes. Working on a tight budget, director Susie McKenna, who pulls off the yearly triumph that is the Hackney Empire panto, has less luck here, because the material is far inferior to her own pantomime scripts. The cast go for broke, but it is this feather-light show that's broken and like Ti Moune's heart, can't be mended.
