Review: Theater West End's DISENCHANTED Is a 'Not Safe for Fantasyland' Royal Rebellion

Here in Castle Country, a title like DISENCHANTED sells itself. DIS is everywhere we look, so we all need an irreverent chaser for our Dole Whip Floats from time to time... even diehard Disney fans like me.

DISENCHANTED is a royal caravan turned cabaret, where every torch song is a princess's reproach to her representation in animated movies, theme parks, and even Broadway.

Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty take center stage, each garbed in Disneyesque attire, though you won't otherwise recognize their personalities. The show bends them into a tropey trio of Hecate Sisters - Aurora the mother, Cinderella the maiden, and Snow the crone. They're not alone, though. Before the show's over, they've been joined by everybody from Belle and Ariel to Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, and beyond.

The show has its roots right here in Central Florida, having premiered at the 2011 Orlando Fringe Festival as Bitches of the Kingdom. Three years later, it moved to the Big Apple under its new name for an off-Broadway run. This weekend, a regional production opened at Sanford's Theater West End, where Michelle Knight sits in the director's chair - the very same Knight who originated the role of Snow White in Orlando all those years ago and later took it to New York.

Right away, you can see that she and Theater West End share a mutual love for the source material. Patrons enter the lobby to find staff members donning mouse ears and serving Mickey Premium Bars and buckets of popcorn. (A large sign makes it clear that the $92 turkey legs are sadly sold out.) Oversized "Disenchanted Kingdom" name tags are on every lapel. Inside, the stage is set up like Fantasyland's Storybook Circus, complete with a Casey Jr.-like car front and center. Guests take their seats to the sound of Disney classics on calliope. When the lights go out, the Fairest of Them All appears to announce that this show is no "happily ever after."

In the lead as that red-delicious royal is Laurel Hatfield, pitch-perfect in more ways than one. Her voice can do everything a peeved princess's might need to, whether it's the impossible falsetto of Adriana Caselotti (the OG Snow) or the big belts of Broadway. Her role in this show is equal parts emcee and comedienne, and Hatfield handles it all in stride, a sardonic sensibility dripping delectably from her performance like the irresistible potion poured over that infamous apple.

By her side as Sleeping Beauty is Camryn Chiriboga, whose every affect and gesture is expertly calibrated to grab a laugh. Even so, you get the sense that she's effortlessly funny with a keen instinct for crafting a character and working a crowd. It doesn't matter if she's "sleeping," dancing, or breaking the barely-there fourth wall, she has the audience in her hands the whole time - a natural comedy star with a lovely voice to boot.

Gabriella Juliet accomplishes a very specific tonal demand in her role as Cinderella - consciously sparkly but unknowingly tacky and dim. Her Cinderella is a messy princess who seems to think she's the spitting image of resplendent. (Snow calls it "The Princess Complex," and they all suffer to some degree.) For Juliet, it's more of a Goldilocks situation - she gets it just right.

Two actresses pull double duty... or triple, rather. Leigh Green appears in turn as Belle, Little Mermaid, and Rapunzel. What's so impressive is that she's a distinctive shade of insane as each. Her Belle is literally crazed, straight jacket and all. Her Rapunzel is über-German and something of a Fantasyland führer. But she's at her best (and on stage longest) as an Ariel who's traded her thingamabobs for thingamabooze and has a serious case of leg-wisher's remorse.

Anneliese Moon, meanwhile, handles three princesses of color: Pocahontas, Mulan, and Jasmine (the latter demands we use her literary moniker: Princess Badroulbadour). The script makes at least a passing acknowledgment of the inherent representation issue, reminding us that Jasmine originally hails from Western China. Moon is game for all of the wild fairy tale twists and physical hijinks thrown her way, from Mulan's sexual self-realization to Pocahontas's low-cut costume despair. Comedically, she holds her own with facial expressions and poses that make the most of every line.

The last to turn up is Nyeshia Smith as The Princess Who Kissed the Frog, not "Tiana," lest Disney's lawyers arrive on the scene. Parkgoers may recognize Smith from Epcot's Joyful, a program credit that promises a big voice, and Smith handily delivers. It's a shame her part is smaller than the others, but maybe that's the point - her solo asks why Walt Disney Pictures took so long to put a Black princess in the spotlight.

Spot-on casting is nothing out of the ordinary at Theater West End, nor are tasteful set direction or an overall atmosphere of well-themed festivity. But for all the production's successes, Dennis T. Giacino's musical, as written, never fully realizes its potential.

The show aspires to be an insightful riff on decades of Disneydom, including all the problematic gender issues built into those classics and their fairy tale origins. But to really work, satire and parody must reveal some new truth, or at least cast new light on a familiar reality. Too often, DISENCHANTED settles for tired observations that have already been better made in countless memes, YouTube videos, or TV sketch comedy. The idea that Walt's princesses depended on men for rescue, or that Ariel gave up everything she loved because of a crush, is hardly new analysis. While those are important topics worth exploring - and ripe for comedy - this show's take is only faintly feminist and seldom laugh-out-loud funny or fresh. Indeed, its conclusion that, absent an obvious love interest, Mulan must be a lesbian even verges on regressive.

DISENCHANTED falls into an old trap: mistaking ribaldry for cleverness. It's not unlike a game of Cards Against Humanity, where shock value is asked to offer hours of entertainment all on its own. A G-rated princess using R-rated language does not automatically constitute comedy.

Incidentally, several years ago, a friend in Singapore found an unauthorized "Cards Against Disney" set at a street market and bought it for me as a gift. The game is raunchy but clever, evidencing a deep knowledge of the Disney catalogue and a unique point of view on the movies' foibles. If only DISENCHANTED could come up even to that knock-off standard. Alas, Giacino seems intent on catching the broadest possible audience of 13s-and-up.

My complaint isn't that the show is offensive; it's that it is imperceptive, unoriginal, and too often, uninformed. (I'm still wondering why Rapunzel of all people has big beef with Walt Disney personally when he died 44 years before Tangled.)

Several times, the book does come close to something keen or quick-witted, like when Rapunzel demands royalties for her merchandise ("Not Vone Red Cent"), the princesses realize their busts have all been drawn by sexually frustrated men ("Big Tits"), or when Pocahontas sings a ballad of historical revisionism ("Honestly"). But aside from that rare wit, it's a show of obvious commentary wrapped up in standard-issue compositions.

But here's an important observation from my experience in Sanford: the audience felt very differently.

I can't remember the last time I heard laughter this uproarious. The guffaws were furious and unending. Patrons leapt to their feet in a standing ovation at the end. One was audibly exclaiming his glee. And I'm glad. I want very much for others to enjoy live theatre, even when it isn't my cup of tea. I join in the applause for the cast, crew, producers, and live band members who've made a very fine presentation of material that falls flat for me. I'm glad, too, for the opportunity to note the crowd's contrasting reaction, as it just might mirror your own.

Find out for yourself... if you can. Tickets are going fast for this one, no surprise given the show's local history and strong cult following. You can buy yours directly from Theater West End, where each ticket gets you a socially distanced table for two. (Patrons must wear masks except for when actively eating or drinking. Cast and band members are unmasked but fully vaccinated and are frequently COVID-tested throughout the run.)

Note: DISENCHANTED is presented as two acts with a 15-minute intermission, running just under two hours all combined. That's a change from New York's 100-minute intermission-less run. Two small children were in the Sanford audience when I attended, giving rise to several improvised "sorry, kids" from the cast. Nevertheless, the theater recommends the show for ages 15+, and there's good reason for that.

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What did you think of DISENCHANTED at Theater West End? Let me know on Twitter @AaronWallace.

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