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Disenchanted: Disney Princesses Gone Wild

Princesses are supposed to be demure, polite, pliable. Not so the 'bitches from the kingdom' in Dennis Giacino's hit stage play. His princesses are pissed! They want their cut, and they want their say. Jeff Heimbuch treads softly for this story.

- by Jeff Heimbuch, June 17, 2011

Last week, my best friend and I went to see a fantastic musical.

No, we didn't travel all the way into New York City to see it, nor did we have to go to a workshop in Seattle. In fact, we didn't have to go very far at all. We went to our former college, William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, to a theater we've both been to numerous times.

Great, you're thinking. But what does all this have to do with Disney?

Well... everything!

Meet the Bitches

The show we saw was Disenchanted, a wonderful musical written by Dennis Giacino. The show's Facebook page describes it as "a brand new, fun-loving, hilarious musical revue in which the original fairy tale princesses bemoan the exploitation they've suffered in the Disney theme parks and films!"

In other words, the Disney princesses these girls ain't... and they've got something to say about the way Uncle Walt portrays them!

Disenchanted, also known as Bitches Of The Kingdom, is a unique look at the princesses we all know and love, except that these princesses don't act at all like the ones from Disney's classic films. They're hear not to swoon, not to fall in love with charming princes, but rather to say how they really real about the current state of their public images.

"The idea for the show came from when I was walking down Main Street, USA one day, and I saw Cinderella with a trickle of sweat coming down off her brow," Dennis told me when we spoke about the show. "When I caught her back stage, I said 'Hey Cinderella, looks like happily ever after ain't all it's cracked up to be!', referring to her sweat. And she said to me 'I'm a princess, I never sweat!'

"This sparked the idea of just how many princesses out there aren't living their happily ever after. I went back to original storybook princesses, in the original fairytales, to show how they felt about the way they were portrayed in these Disney movies."

Disney Dennis

Dennis himself is no stranger to Disney. A former Cast Member, he worked at Disney World for two years back in the early 1990s, starting as a Vacation Planner at Ticket and Transportation Center. Within 3 months, he was promoted to a Training Coordinator.

"I had a theatre background, so they put me in charge of training people for the spiels on the attractions at the Magic Kingdom. I made sure everyone who wasn't an actor looked like an actor," Dennis said. While in a managerial role, he still worked on many of those attractions, including being a Skipper on The Jungle Cruise!

Dennis left The Walt Disney Company in 1994, and the idea has been brewing in his head ever since. The play is not meant as a malicious statement about Disney; it's all in good fun.

"Before I ever wrote a note of any song, the first thing I thought was I don't want this to be a slam on Disney, because I love Disney! I like to describe it as sitting around with a bunch of friends, kind of jabbing at each other, because you know them so well. And they do the same back to you, and everyone laughs about it," Dennis said. After touring with another show he created for five years, he threw himself into this one. All told, it took about three years to prepare Disenchanted for the stage.

Even though 'her' movie is still fairly recent, Rapunzel still managed to make it into the show. Dennis explained that after seeing the movie, the new character and number were added about three months later.

"It was really a great film, and I thought she was sort of a strong princess, too. I had no complaints about her at all, as far as women go, but then thought 'Great, I need a Rapuznel song!'

"I didn't have a single thing that I thought the Rapuznel from the original story would have a complaint about. But then I was standing in the World of Disney store (in Downtown Disney), and saw there was Rapunzel this, and Rapunzel that... she was everywhere! What kind of profit does SHE make for this?"

Hence, Rapunzel's number about not seeing 'not vone red cent' from any of her merchandising, possibly my favorite part of the show.

Awards and Sold-Out Performances

The show itself had its first full production in Orlando not too long ago, during the Orlando Fringe Festival. Out of the 80 productions shown during the festival, Bitches of the Kingdom (as it was called there) was the highest selling show. The entire 320 seat Orlando Shakespeare Center was completely sold out. The show was extended twice because it was so popular.

It also won the New Jersey Playwrights in 2010, with a read-through performed in December. This led to the show being staged recently at William Paterson. The version I saw is the first production to have a full set and costuming. The theatre was decked out to look like a lounge called 'The Enchanted Tiki Room.' Disney aficionados would have felt right at home here, with familiar Disney artwork adorning the walls, and music piped in before the show. A few tables were set up in front of the stage, adding to the whole 'lounge club' feeling of the production.

I may have been a little biased toward the play because I had friends performing some of the roles, AND it was Disney related. Bias or no, I enjoyed the show. I literally went into it knowing next to nothing about the play except that it was about the Disney princesses, and it was supposed to be funny. That was it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that play is much more than just a rib on the princesses.. The songs, for example, are all incredible, and each suits the princess who sings it amazingly well.

The actresses in the show (in this version, at least) brought the characters to life. Sure, some of them still had traits from their Disney incarnations, but most shed their family friendly image within moments of appearing on stage.

No Disney 'Dis' in Disenchanted

That's another thing worth mentioning - this show is very much 'blue' humor, so I wouldn't recommend taking the kids. It's geared more toward the older set, because some of the humor is very raunchy and crude. But don't let that dismay you: it's done tastefully and, of course, hilariously. I'm quite sure that any true Disney fan will realize that the play is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and that Dennis doesn't intend it as a Disney bash. It's an homage, in a sense, and a very good one. Disney fans who get the humor will love it.

And I'm not the only one who thinks so. The show has been getting rave reviews at every performance, from its original workshop, through its run at William Paterson. While it was in Orlando, even some Disney animators and higher ups from the company came to see it.

"I always get two questions...'How did a man write this?' and 'Do you have a good lawyer?'" Dennis joked. Thankfully, the folks from Disney loved it. "They already poked fun at themselves with Enchanted... this just takes it a step further!

"The show references Disney, but it's so much more than that. Anyone who has taken these princesses and put them on a stage or screen, they take responsibility of creating this 'princess complex' of a woman who needs to sit around and wait for her prince to come and save her. Or being weak, or being thin and not eat... that's where the story (of Disenchanted) came from, every song stems from that. I really don't see (the show) being about feminism but definitely female empowerment," Dennis continued.

As for the future, Dennis has been approached by five other theatre companies who want to produce the show (sight unseen) nationwide. That's pretty impressive work! A theater company in Syracuse, New York, will open their season with Disenhanted in September, and Dennis is scheduled to direct it in another Fringe Festival in Edmonton, Canada in August. A few more companies want to stage the show in Florida, and some Off Broadway and Broadway contacts have already shown interest. All of that is still in the very early stages right now, so nothing is set in stone, but my fingers are crossed!

If you get an opportunity to see the show, I highly recommend you do so. This is the second non-Broadway show I've seen this year that has blown me out of the water, and the writing was better than most Broadway shows. I cannot stop raving about how wonderful it was.

The show continues its run at William Paterson's Hunziker Black Box Theatre June 17-19 and 24-26. For more information, visit the website, or head over to Facebook - official home for Disenchanted - to check when it might be playing in your town.

Follow me on Twitter for updates!

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