Disenchanted! at Lichfield Garrick Theatre – review

If you believe you know your Disney princesses, think again, because the raucous musical Disenchanted! brings you a whole new narrative.

Gone are the wispy thin visions of perfection in floating frocks singing with birds, sweeping floors and waiting for their princes to come and carry them away to their “happily ever after”. In their place are a plucky Pocahontas, a sassy Cinderella, a spirited Snow White and a whole horde of other heroines lining up to have their say.

These gals are feisty, fiery and fearless – and they are here to tell you just how wrong Disney was, and still is, when animating their stories. Instead of doe-eyed, pure complexioned and tiny-waisted warbling weaklings, we have women fighting to be the shape, race, age and agents they want to be.

Created by Dennis T Giacino and Fiely Matias, Disenchanted! debuted Off-Broadway more than a decade ago and has since been staged in more than 200 cities across five continents. This new production comes to us from the Lichfield Garrick Theatre in association with The Production Garden and is helmed by the Garrick’s artistic director and chief executive Daniel Buckroyd, with a cast of six.

And it has a lot to say – the show succeeds in asking us to re-think pretty much everything about these women. We have Cinderella, desperate to eat a chocolate bar but fearing its effects on her hourglass figure, while the Little Mermaid wonders why she gave up the freedom of her life under the sea just for a guy.

And there are some pretty weighty questions. We see the Princess (Who Kissed a Frog) querying the motives for Disney finally having a Black princess, Mulan asking why all the Disney princesses are straight, and Pocahontas stating that historically she was a child, so hardly ready for romance.

Although much of the subject matter is serious, Disenchanted! is anything but. Satirical and cynical it may be, but it is all served up with witty, funny and sometimes downright cheeky songs with some very smart lyrics – these folks have a rhyming dictionary to die for! The dialogue is also sharp and the observations are often presented with a raised eyebrow or a complicit smile, so we are all in on the jokes.

Disenchanted! has its roots in fringe and, despite its international success, this production has retained the somewhat chaotic and anarchic elements of an Off-Broadway show so that you can never quite guess what is coming next.

The cast are all excellent. Lois Glenister is a punchy Snow White, who acts as lead narrator. Rosie Napper presents us with a somewhat neurotic Cinderella, and Jewelle Hutchinson belts out her tunes as the frog-kissing Princess. Ashley New brings nuance to both Mulan and Pocahontas with a couple of powerful songs – “Without the Guy” and “Honestly”. Roshaan Saulnier gives us a snoring Sleeping Beauty and a very fed-up Badroulbadour/Jasmine. Eliza Bowden packs her Belle, Ariel and Valkyrie-esque Rapunzel with character. They are all accompanied by a live band, which supplies the show plenty of energy.

Sara Perks’ set is a giant stage, while her costumes are all slightly subversive takes on the Disney outfits we know so well. Each princess is easily recognisable as her animated incarnation and yet there are some surprises in store under those ballgowns.

Comparisons with the hugely successful Six, in which Henry VIII’s wives take to the stage to tell their versions of events, are inevitable, and the show is likely to be a hit with similar audiences, although it carries a higher age recommendation at 14 and above.

In many ways, it is theatre-making at its best. Thought-provoking while being hugely entertaining, Dis!, as it is known by its fans, is the kind of show you could see again and again.