Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London – Sunday 1st March 2026
Reviewed by Celia Armand Smith
3***
Sea Witch, a new musical by Kristopher Russell and Michael David Glover, takes the baddie from The Little Mermaid and gives her an origin story. Most recognisable as the purple octopus legged Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid, here there are witches vs humans, land vs the sea. This story is inspired by Sarah Henning’s novel which in turn was inspired by Hans Christian Anderson’s original story. The witch, just a vague plot point in the original Little Mermaid, is now given some dimensionality and a sprinkling of west end musical magic.
The plot isn’t straightforward and most of the time it is quite hard to follow, however it comes together slightly more in the second half and it almost doesn’t matter because Segen Fewole’s songs are poppy and fun and there is some great choreography by Dean Lee. It’s a bit like if a cross between The Greatest Showman and Eurovision was performed on the Disney cruise. The audience of mega musical fans was buzzing and bopping in their seats, squealing in delight when their favourite stars came on to the stage. The female cast in particular were superb. Natalie Paris and Amy Di Bartolomeo were a highlight, bringing colour and emotion to their parts as the witches Evie and Annemette. The megawatt Mazz Murray as the scheming Queen Charlotte belted out a fantastic ballad much to the delight of the audience, and a wonderful Michelle Visage as Tante Hansa deserved more stage time and more songs. Natalie Kassanga rounded out the female cast as the devilish Malvina, a proper mean girl.
Before the performance started, a very witchy looking Visage came on to the stage and explained that there might be some hiccups in production as they had not had long to bring it all together in the space. There was no expectation that this would be a perfect performance, but it sure was fun. The Theatre Royal Drury Lane is a huge space that is
currently home to Hercules which is very much an above water production, so the Sea Witch utilises some intense lighting changes and a bit of raised staging to convey changes in place and time.
It was ambitious to put on a production of this scale for one day in an enormous space and the premise is enticing. However this new musical needs a little bit more time in the depths of the ocean figuring out some of the problems with the plot and score before it surfaces again, but it has promise and some of the songs are real bangers.