Two years ago FHC Theater put on a production of The Beauty and the Beast. The Disney classic brought enormous crowds and exceptional success, inspiring the rumors of an added show. They followed up this success with an amazing performance of Once Upon A Mattress. This year, the theater program is set to do another Disney classic. Originally, director Robbin DeMeester picked Cinderella, the classic story about a girl who wins over Prince Charming at the ball, but they decided to forgo that story for another Disney phenomenon that everyone loves.

“The musical was going to be Cinderella,” DeMeester said. “We changed it because the licensing rights to The Little Mermaid became available for the first time in four years and I wanted to produce it before any other high school did and the fact that it was The Little Mermaid made it a no brainer.”

The Little Mermaid follows a rebellious 16-year-old mermaid who can’t help but fall in love with a prince. The one problem is that he lives on land and she lives in the water. The Little Mermaid started on Broadway in 2008 and has swept all around the world ever since. Despite it’s popularity the musical has not been performed in a high school for the past 4 years because the licensing rights were not available.

According to senior Kaila Kotas, DeMeester had to constantly be on a certain website and click a button consistently until they emailed someone about receiving the rights. DeMeester clicked it enough times for them to email her and tell her she got them. Although she obviously hoped to gain the rights, Kotas said she had a backup plan.

“She rented out the set before she actually got the rights, so if somebody else got the rights they wouldn’t have had a set,” said Kaila Kotas, the student director. “So, she was kind of playing dirty.”

This backup plan was never needed because she won right away. The set was an authentic broadway set with costumes to match.

Kotas is excited to be able to help bring such a well known story to life in a production. She believes that the authenticity of the program with the set and costumes will allow for a really great experience for the audience, crew and the actors.

“It has great music behind it and it’s a great show to watch in general,” Kotas said. “It’s one of my favorite disney movies and we will have the perfect cast for it as well.”

The auditions for the Disney program will be held January 5 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m, while  the show dates are March 17-19. The shows will all start at 7:30, except for the matinee which will begin at 3:00.