Disenchanted

This show has been a long time in the making, it was first talked about as far back as 2018, but due to various reasons, including of course Covid this never took wings. So, all we are at last sat in the Village Hall on a Saturday evening awaiting to be enchanted.

This show was a ‘B Company’ production under the care and direction of both Megan Abbott and Amy Power, they had chosen eight strong singers as well as themselves to take on the roles of ten fairy tale princesses. What a bunch of princesses they were, nothing like the people we had grown up thinking they were, punks, drunks, LGBTQ+, lethargic etc. In we opening number we were introduced to our ‘comperes’ for the evening, the ditzy blonde Cinderella admirably performed by Megan and the loud and bossy Snow White beautifully personified by Amy. These two kept up strong performances throughout the show bringing us good humour, some of it well timed slapstick, as they introduced the princesses and joined them in their numbers. The opening number also introduced us to the talented Dorcia Bowden Noble as Sleeping Beauty, she had some of the funniest lines in the show which were well timed and perfectly performed – ‘oh stop it Pinnochio’ being amongst the funniest (to my mind). Their performance of ‘One More Happily Ever After’ set the bar for the musical numbers throughout the show.

Did we realise that Belle was not quite so sweet, this was a strong performance by Grace Burton in her first role at Watlington, her strong vocals outshining Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty with their rendition of ‘Insane’. If that was not enough, we then discovered that Mulan was Gay, this was a strong gutsy performance by Alex Rasberry who brought courage and comedy to her role with that amazing voice. These princesses had strong voices and most thrived on the comedy of their characters as did a drunken Little Mermaid. who knew that the reason Ariel couldn’t walk wasn’t because she had a fish tail but that she was permanently drunk, this was a staggeringly funnily performed number by Lydia Dennis. Following hard oh the heels of her performance of ‘Two Heels’ and a company number of ‘Bit Tits’ we then had the sweet tones of Maddie Cole telling us the tale of Pocahontas in ‘Honestly’, it was a shame that we didn’t see and hear more of her.

The first act ended with the great voice of Emily Blake singing about ‘The Princess Who Kissed the Frog’ supported by the cast, Emily is always a great presence on stage and this was no exception. Competing with her was the voice of the Germanic Rapunzel, Becky Pooley with ‘Not Vone Red Cent’, a Wagnerian vision in Black and White, here we had a time of audience participation, I felt sorry for the one table versus the rest of the hall. Our final princess was Mikayla Coote as Princess Badroulbadour better known as Jasmine from Aladdin performing ‘Secondary Princess’ floating around the stage in her flying carpet costume, another good performance,

There was another entertaining and well sung ‘Happy Tune’ with Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. Cinderella and Snow White also had their own final numbers with the cast. Aside from the principals there was a small chorus of three known as the Royal Court and a rather magnificent band on stage comprising of Barbara Backham on Bass, Debbie Bennett on Drums and Carrie Ingram-Gettins on Piano.

This was an entertaining production, good vocals and choreography overseen by Amy, the Princesses on the whole had great costumes which well portrayed the characters, colourful and well fitted. There was good fun made with the choice of each character’s props, and the whole stage was used with movement in the solo numbers. The technical team gave good sound support and lighting design.

I would think that Amy and Megan were well pleased with the result, I must admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect, I enjoyed the show, well done.

 

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