DISENCHANTED!—Marcie Gorman & MNM Theatre @Armstrong Theatre, Torrance
- TheShowReport
- May 4
- 7 min read
Be prepared to laugh more than you have laughed in a long time!
MAY 3, 2025—TORRANCE, CA
Presenting...Snow White and her posse of princesses, in a whole new light for one day only! The iconic heroines are none too pleased with how they have been portrayed to the masses and are ready to set the record straight. The glass slippers came off smoothly and the tiaras got tossed permanently as these royal renegades took the spotlight in LA yesterday.
Directed and choreographed by Jonathan Van Dyke, it's the hilarious National Tour of the Off-Broadway hit DISENCHANTED!, presented by Marcie Gorman and MNM Theatre, who charmed their way into the James R. Armstrong Theatre as part of the Torrance Cultural Arts Foundation programing Saturday afternoon, May 3rd for a matinee performance with a second performance last night at 8PM. The tour kicked off last October in NY at The Queens Theatre and will wrap up on the west coast before heading out again next fall.
In 2014, the Off-Broadway production of 'DIS!' (as it was affectionately known then) played to sold out houses, rave reviews, and produced several NYC award nominations including Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical (Outer Critics Circle Awards), and Best New Off-Broadway Musical (Off Broadway Alliance Awards). Since then, DISENCHANTED! has been performing all over the world on 5 continents and has featured over 2500 princesses around the globe - and counting!
But these are not your typical damsels in distress. You can forget the princesses you think you know – these royal renegades are here to comically belt out the truth and finally set the record straight. Featuring Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Belle, Mulan, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, and The One Who Kissed the Frog — they all come to life as they sing about their "once-upon-a-time" past.
I suppose, if you were a mean girl, you might call DISENCHANTED! a feel-good pity party. Other, more compassionate souls will see this 95-minute riotous musical, created by former history teacher Dennis T. Giacino, as a great afternoon of escapism. The objective, in reality, is to out the false expectations and unreal standards for perfection, beauty and happiness that fuel the dreaded “princess syndrome.” A perfect example of such unreal fantasy-mongering is in the 1937 ballad “Someday My Prince Will Come.” You might say DISENCHANTED! then, is more a kind of "toxic masculinity and tiaras" therapy for socially conscious girls.
As a narrative structure, DISENCHANTED! incorporates wild fairy tale twists and physical hijinks in a series of vignettes in which Snow White summons various princesses from her mirror. The songs do not follow a storyline. The message, or moral of the show is that the princesses aren't as perfect as the movies make them out to be, but they're still perfect just the way they are.
In the lead as that red-delicious royal is S.J Nelson, brassy and pitch-perfect in more ways than one. Her voice can do everything a peeved princess's might need to, whether it's an impossible falsetto or the big belts of Broadway. Her role in this show is equal parts emcee and comedienne, and Ms. Nelson handles it all in stride with sardonic sensibility (along with a few mood swings), in a performance matching the irresistible potion poured over that infamous apple.
By her side as Sleeping Beauty is Emily Qualmann, whose every affect and gesture is expertly calibrated to grab a laugh. Talk about working a crowd! You get the sense that Ms. Qualmann is effortlessly funny with a keen instinct for crafting any character she wishes. It didn't matter if she was "sleeping," dancing, or breaking the barely-there fourth wall, she had the audience eating out of her hands the whole time — a natural comedy star with a lovely voice to boot.
MaryAnn DiPietro accomplishes an ingenious tonal demand and comic foil to Snow White in her role as Cinderella — coming across as perky, quirky and impish. She is enthusiastic about being a princess, but is about to discover there's more to it than just gowns and slippers. Ms. DiPietro plays her Cinderella as the spitting image of resplendent but who's a little slow on the uptake. Snow calls it "The Princess Complex." For Ms. DiPietro, however, it's more of a Goldilocks situation — she gets it just right.
Three actresses pull double duty: Kat Gold appears as legendary folk hero, Hua Mulan (full of sexual self-realization while possessing a good-natured sense of humor) and Rapunzel. Ms. Gold's Rapunzel is über-German and something of a Fantasyland führer. American capitalism won’t turn this campy, Mel Brooksian songstress into a damsel in distress. Nein! Brunehildesque, strong, and fun-loving, she’s bent on getting her fair share from those who make bank off fairy tale princesses.
Katie Davis as The Little Mermaid and Belle: what's so impressive here is that she displays a distinctive shade of "off your trolley" in each character. Her Belle is literally certifiable, chatting with inanimate objects while cleaning up after her beast of a husband...and it’s slowly driving her looney. And Ms. Davis' Ariel has traded her thingamabobs for thingamabooze and has a serious case of leg-wisher's remorse. Once innocent and obedient, she’s now rowdy and rebellious. Having regretfully given up her seemingly idyllic life under the sea, she copes with her new reality through inappropriate yet hysterically funny comedy.
Stephanny “Noah” Noria as plucky, valiant Pocahontas, homogenized by an entertainment industry who has distorted her true Native American story just to sell tickets, and on a journey to restore her authentic, historical self; and Princess Badroulbadour, who has had enough being secondary in her own tale. Misogyny begone! It's a whole new world out there and "Princess Bad" demands we use her literary moniker over Disney’s made-up Jasmine name. The script makes at least a passing acknowledgment of the inherent representation issue, reminding us that Jasmine originally hails from the South-Asian-turned-Middle-Eastern Aladdin sagas.
Left out of the kingdom for decades, Katrice Jackson rounds out the seven-member female romp as The Princess Who Kissed the Frog — a Black princess who is challenging the traditional fairy tale trope of "happily ever after," ready to finally claim her throne. She is portrayed as confident, clever, and witty, with a penchant for pop culture references, representing a break from the traditional Disney princess archetype, and highlighting the importance of inclusivity and diversity.
Mr. Giacino’s fifteen numbers (two of which are reprises) are delivered by “representative survivors of the syndrome,” who are now wised up to “Prince Charming’s” dubious appeal and the double standards of children’s classics. With Ms. Nelson’s perky-peppy Snow White hosting the revisionist festivities, her posse (Ms. DiPietro’s sardonic Cinderella, and Ms. Qualmann’s narcoleptic Sleeping Beauty) sings the opening number, “One More Happy Ever After” and completely obliterates the cloying and empty promises of the Disney, Grimm and Andersen fairy tales along with the usual thinly disguised misogyny.
As we've determined, these numbers are not going to have your typical “Into The Woods” or “Avenue Q”-type lyrics. DISENCHANTED! has a bigger agenda. These are going to be much more in-your-face, confrontational and even gratuitously graphic songs, all the while undermining the source material.
So instead of the usual fluff, these fearless ladies are completely uncensored and irreverent, free to sing what's on their minds. When we first see Ms. Davis’ Belle, she's already in a strait-jacket (“Insane!”) singing about her kitchen boredom and how Beast’s castle is oddly claustrophobic. Another number you really can't miss is Katie Davis delivering a priceless fish-out-of-water-hard-drinking Little Mermaid in “Two Legs.”
Rampaging as Chinese fighter Hua Mulan, Ms. Gold proclaims her lesbian liberation anthem in “Without the Guy.” Then, in crude but pointed choruses, the company dances up a small storm, extolling the questionable delights of “Big Tits” (I told you). And ending Act 1, Ms. Jackson, the no-name Princess Who Kissed a Frog, brings a triumphant casting makeover soul-flavored solo to “Finally.”
A Pocahontas with attitude (“Honestly”), Stephanny “Noah” Noria also complains of being reduced to a “Secondary Princess” as Princess Badroulbadour, Aladdin’s fling during the second curtain, while Kat Gold’s Rapunzel is refusing to have her suffering exploited (“Not Vone Red Cent,” a silly, and very fun, audience participation song) preceding the anti-anorexia Act 2 rouser “All I Want to Do Is Eat.”
The cast of DISENCHANTED! includes S.J Nelson (“Rent;” “The Wild Party”) as Snow White; Emily Qualmann (3rd Nat’l Tour: “Disenchanted;” Nat’l Tour: Escape to Margaritaville”) as Sleeping Beauty; Katrice Jackson (Nat’l Tour: “Jesus Christ Superstar;” Nat’l Tour: “Disenchanted”) as The Princess Who Kissed The Frog; Kat Gold (“Dis!;” “42nd Street”) as Hua Mulan and Rapunzel; Katie Davis (“Bridges of Madison County;” “Sunday in the Park”) as The Little Mermaid and Belle; Stephanny “Noah” Noria (“In the Heights;” “Anastasia”) as Pocahontas and Princess Badroulbadour; and west coast actress MaryAnn DiPietro (Nat’l Tour: “Buddy, The Buddy Holly Story;” Nat’l Tour: “An Irish Christmas” – as seen on PBS) as Cinderella.
MARCIE GORMAN & MNM THEATRE PRESENTS—THE NORTH AMERICAN TOUR OF DISENCHANTED, THE HIT MUSICAL COMEDY; Book and Music by Dennis T. Giacino, Developed by Fiely Matias; musical direction by Xander McColley, scenic, lighting and sound design by Jordon Armstrong, sound Engineering by Kylee Taylor , costume design by Daisy McCarthy Tucker, wig design by Justin Lore/Tease & Floof LLC; Prop Design by Marybeth Schuettler; music supervision by Bobby Peaco, technical direction is by John Barry Green and casting by the Wojcik Casting Team. The Production Stage Manager is Frank Mastras with Katie Gordon as Assistant Stage Manager.
Director and choreographer Jonathan Van Dyke will continue to helm the tour. Mr. Van Dyke has a long history with DISENCHANTED!, having previously served as the production casting director for the 2014 tryouts presented at The David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
DISENCHANTED!, performing at The Robert R. Armstrong Theatre, Torrance Cultural Arts Foundation at 3300 Civic Center Drive, Torrance, CA as part of its west coast touring itinerary Saturday, May 3rd. For information on upcoming performances, please see www.officialdisenchantedmusical.com/productions
Chris Daniels
Arts & Entertainment Reviewer
The Show Report
Photo Credits: Marc Christopher
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