How on earth can anyone expect me, of all people, to resist a show with a number called “All I Wanna Do Is Eat”? Stray Dog Theatre’s holiday offering, Disenchanted!, brings us plenty of familiar famous fantasy women. It’s totally off-kilter, to the point where more than one audience member found herself wondering what it would have been like if those fairy tales had been written by the Sisters Grimm.
And that’s the fun of it. It’s not just those bad Grimm boys that take a few whacks here, the Great Mouse of Anaheim gets a fair share of the annoyance, too. “These are not your grandmother’s princesses,” notes the program. Boy, are they right.
Snow White is Kelly Slawson, one of several actors making their Stray Dog debuts. Her background is opera, but it’s clear that she’s got the chops to handle musical comedy. Cinderella’s Sarah Gene Dowling, having a whale of a good time, and the third of the trio that are our primary guides to this zaniness is Sleeping Beauty, Dawn Schmidt. They introduce us to seven other characters we’ve heard of before, even if we don’t know their names, like The Princess Who Kissed the Frog (Selena Steed) and Princess Badroulbadour (Eleanor Humphrey), whose named got changed to Jasmine by the Great Mouse.
The smaller roles gave some fine moments, too. I would like to have heard more from Steed, for instance. Erika Cockerham’s Rapunzel was quite a piece of work, and Pocahontas, courtesy of Gitana Mims, a delight. The Little Mermaid, from Stephanie Merritt, seemed straight from Texas, a great twist – made me think of Molly Ivins, no small compliment.
Even the band, I finally realized, was entirely women. Good stuff and a tip of the black felt hat with ears to SDT and director Justin Been.
Maybe not quite the greatest script, but very funny, quite R-rated, a good contrast to the holly and eggnog-sweet traditional productions this time of year.
Disenchanted!
Through December 21
Stray Dog Theatre
2336 Tennessee Ave.
314-865-1995