We adored working on orchestrations and music production for this hilarious and irreverent show by Robyn Grant, Daniel Foxx and Tim Gilvin. The not-so-family-friendly musical parody tells the backstory of Ursula, one of Disney’s most illustrious villains, immortalised through the 1989 animated classic The Little Mermaid.
The show has been in development for several years, having been a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and Underbelly, and as it was eyeing up London’s Southwark Playhouse and a UK tour, we were asked to come aboard the good ship Unfortunate to snazz up the orchestrations with everything in our toolbox, from Magical Disney Orchestra to Beyonce and Ariana girl pop, and 80s Power Ballad to Disco and everything in between.
We had a fantastic week at The Lowry, Manchester working as Associate Sound Designers and ensuring everything was working for our hybrid live band and track set-up and sounding tip-top for the tour.
We also had the joy of recording this incredible cast and mixing and producing the Original Studio Cast Recording which is out on all major platforms.
The cast includes Orange Is the New Black star Shawna Hamic (as Ursula) in her UK theatre debut, alongside RuPaul’s Drag Race UK‘s River Medway (as Ariel), Thomas Lowe (as Triton), Allie Dart (as Sebastian), Jamie Mawson (as Eric), and Julian Capolei (as Grimsby), with Corrina Buchan, Jack Gray, Jamie McKillop and Milly Willows serving as ensemble members and understudies. Casting is by Sarah Leung.
Unfortunate has book and lyrics by Robyn Grant (who also directs) and Daniel Foxx, with music by Tim Gilvin who says of the show an album: “Howard Ashman and Alan Menken created one of the great Disney soundtracks of all time in 1989 (the same year I was born) and set the blueprint for all Disney films to come. The Little Mermaid is full of pastiche, with calypso, chansons and burlesque, and this score is written fully in that same spirit, embracing modern drag cabaret and the classic Disney orchestral sound. We’ve been refining and elevating the score since its debut in 2019, and the cherry on top has been the joy of working with Auburn Jam on these arrangements, which have taken on a whole new dimension with their careful, virtuosic and detailed work.”
The production also features set, costume and puppet design by Abby Clarke, choreography by Melody Sinclair, musical direction and supervision by Arlene McNaught, lighting design by Adam King, sound design by Lucy Baker, Oscar Thompson and Will Thompson, flying and effects by John Maddox for Suspended Illusions, make-up design by Maya Lewis, production management by Titch Gosling, intimacy and fight coordination by Claire Llewellyn for RC-Annie, puppet builds by Aled Williams, costume supervision by Sian Clare and assistant direction by Stephenson Ardern-Sodje.
