"Back then, I was playing it safe as I didn't want to load all of my new ideas into it straight away," he says. "But for the 10th anniversary, James suggested I should go back to it and put all of my ideas into it. So I looked at the storyboard and changed it with little details, to bring it into today as something you would recognise."
He says he has done "nothing drastic", but he was determined to approach the classic story from a subtler, more grown-up perspective.
"I didn't put in so much of the fairy-tale content, so Princess Aurora doesn't prick her finger on a spindle ... I brought in that she was poisoned, as you can understand that concept a little bit better."
Most significantly, the wicked fairy godmother, Carabosse, is now a man.
"I decided that the characterisation of Carabosse could suit a male performer, which gives another kind of viewpoint on the story."
All members of the 18-strong cast are accomplished athletes who are at home on the ice - most have performed at Olympic or world championship level. Mercer says they are equally proficient at inhabiting their roles.
"Everyone goes through a training process when they come to me, which is important as they need to not only be good at skating but be able to bring their characters to life," he says.
Sleeping Beauty on Ice is staged on a dual-level set and is the Imperial Ice Stars' most technically complex effort.
"You have to do something different each time ... So you're always looking for ways to make it more difficult, so we've created this scene where one female is passed among four levels, as she is passed from partner to partner to partner."
Despite the audacious stunts, Mercer has ensured that the narrative is smoothly integrated with the physical action.
"Figure skating is predominantly a sport, so everybody is used to seeing jumps and spins as a standalone thing," he says. "But what I've tried to do is interweave those leaps into the actual story. Musically, they make sense but they also have to make sense in regard to what's happening in the story."
Working closely with composer Tim Duncan, Mercer has also played around with Tchaikovsky's original Sleeping Beauty ballet score. "Where possible, we've made some changes to suit ourselves, such as with the Carabosse piece of music, which is so short that's it's almost like a musical stab," he says.
Sleeping Beauty on Ice will be performed at Auckland's Civic Theatre June 24-28. Book at ticketmaster.co.nz. Its Wellington season is July 1-5 at the St James Theatre. Book at ticketek.co.nz
