Thanks to Disney, Broadway and children’s cartoons, fairy tales have lightened up considerably from early 1800s, when the Brothers Grimm penned stories laden with violence, child abuse, mental illness and death.
Riot Productions’ “Fairy Tale Monologues,” a newly expanded musical by Sarah Alida LeClair that opened on Friday at San Diego’s Moxie Theatre, offers a fresh and feminist perspective on classic characters without the usual happily ever afters.
The 90-minute musical, with a script and original songs by LeClair, fleshes out the paper-thin female characters from classic stories with fully fledged personalities and real-world problems. In this show, there’s much more to the story about women fairy tale characters who’ve been traditionally written as helpless young women, evil witches or absent mothers who have died before the stories even begin.
The tart and perky Gigi Filopovich narrates the show as “Little Red,” a snarky teen who can see behind wolf’s disguises and points out misogyny wherever she sees it.
Sarah LeClair gives a warm and earthy performance as the Witch, a tragically misunderstood woman who mixes medical potions (including one that can end unwanted pregnancies) in her garden. She falls in love with an avenging Prince (a sweet-natured Timothy Benson), who might just be a wolf in disguise.
When the Witch refuses to marry the Prince to protect his safety, he enters an unconsummated marriage with a Cinderella-like Princess (fiercely played by Delia Mejia), who is secretly in love with her bewitched stepsister.
Delia Meija plays the Princess in Riot Productions’ “The Fairy Tale Monologues.” (Melissa Punch)
Then there’s the childless baker (a warmhearted BJ Robinson) and his wife (a melancholy Jamie Feinstein), who are presumably drawn from the characters in the musical “Wicked.” But in “Fairy Tale Monologues,” the baker’s wife does not long for a child because she’s battling severe depression, and her kind but ineffective husband can’t see past his own needs to support her.
Despite the show’s title, there are no monologues in this musical, but the women characters do sing about their troubles. The witch is selfless and misunderstood, the Baker’s Wife is plagued by suicidal thoughts and the Princess is driven mad by her lost love. There are no happy endings here, but at least these women fight for the right to be heard and understood.
The show’s songs, a mix of original works by LeClair and some Irish folk songs, all sound somewhat alike and are quite short, but they do help advance the plot.
The script is packed with insights about how women have been categorized and marginalized throughout history and it’s sprinkled with contemporary humor and more than a few curse words. There’s some lovely choreography by Daniele Muckle, live piano music by Christopher T. Miller, a bit of swordfighting coached by Nicolas A. Castillo and some nice costumes.
Structurally, I thing the musical’s script still need some work. I didn’t understand the Princess’s transformation in the last third of the musical and the story’s resolution felt rushed and a bit melodramatic.
But “Fairly Tale Monlogues is a highly original concept where fairy tale characters originally written by men have been reexamined through a new lens by a woman playwright. It’s a new tale worth exploring.
‘The Fairy Tale Monologues’
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday
Where: Riot Productions at Moxie Theatre, 6669 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego
Tickets: $21.50
Online: r riotproductions.art