Remaking History and Disney! On Stage in NYC.
There’s nothing that makes me want to launch a projectile into the TV or screen more than Disney princesses pre-Frozen. I’ll admit, when I was too young to know any better I was swept away by Ariel in The Little Mermaid.
Sometime during adolescence I realized the tradeoffs that one must make to be a submissive tool and promptly disavowed the whole kit-and-caboodle. Most women I know had the same experience.
Writer-director team Dennis T. Giacino and Fiely A. Matias channeled that pervasive feminist rage into their musical creation Disenchanted. They made the Disney princesses three dimensional and, girl, are they pissed!
The show is a vaudevillian romp through the Disney princess catalog and succeeds in showing you the humans behind the sex-object facade. Casting gave it a greater dimension as a few of the actors also act for Disney itself!
The actors were charismatic to a fault, as I wasn’t sure what actor to place my focus. Snow White (Michelle Knight) might crack a funny joke, but what Sleeping Beauty’s (Jen Bechter) doing in the background might hold my attention instead.
The swift pacing kept you bopping along with the story until the final curtain. Cinderella (Becky Gulsvig) holds the Disney-ditz flame, but wins the audience over when she hooks up with Mulan (the brilliant Lulu Picart) who just came out as a lesbian. Comedic timing for the entire cast was solid — catch this show before it closes.