Lichfield Garrick presents a fairytale with a difference this month. Disenchanted! is a musical which has charmed fans off-Broadway, visited five continents, but never found its way around the UK - until now! What’s On spoke to Daniel Buckroyd, chief executive & artistic director at the Garrick, to find out more about ‘the musical fairytale that bites back’…

Once upon a time… a princess got her own back! Forget damsels in distress, being rescued by handsome princes, or hoodwinked by witches, Lichfield Garrick is this month bringing you Disney’s favourite dames as you’ve never seen them before, courtesy of a sassy musical called Disenchanted! that’s rewriting her-story.

“It’s a musical comedy, within which we meet 10 disgruntled Disney princesses,” explains Daniel Buckroyd, chief executive & artistic director at the Garrick. “There are a lot of ‘disses’, hence ‘Dis’-enchanted. In the course of the show, those 10 Disney princesses tell us their gripes with the way their stories have been taken and manipulated by Hollywood - and by Walt Disney in particular - and then they try to set the record straight.”

The version of the musical showing in Lichfield this month has been produced by the Garrick in collaboration with live theatre and events company The Production Garden.

“The show’s songs are fantastic, as well as being really witty,” says Daniel. “I think for any fans of musical theatre, or people interested in the world of Hollywood filmmaking and Disney - the whole Disney universe - there are masses and masses of points of reference. There are standalone comic songs, there are big ensemble numbers, there are dance numbers, and there are much more thoughtful, poignant, reflective numbers as well.”

The new version of Disenchanted! is premiering at the Garrick this month, but Daniel explains that the show’s Midlands debut is only the beginning of its journey: “It’s going to Edinburgh to do a run in one of the Fringe festival’s largest venues, so that’s its next port of call. And then it’s scheduled to tour in Autumn ’27 and probably on into Spring ’28. We’re keen as a theatre not only to be making work - and making work that can feed our audiences and bring rich tones and qualities into our programme here in Lichfield - but also to be part of the way we connect with the wider theatre ecology in the UK. One of the things we struggle to lay our hands on is really good-quality, mid-scale, music theatre... What became clear was that this piece had the potential to do more than just play in Lichfield.”

While Disenchanted! might have begun its life across the pond, Daniel is confident that the story will resonate just as well with Midlands audiences - after all, it’s based on a set of very familiar fairytales.

“It’s very American, but only in the sense that it’s totally about Disney’s take on these princesses. The stories are plucked from all over the world, from different cultures. That cultural hegemony and appropriation is one of the things that’s being talked about within the show. And what that also means is that we have a diverse cast telling this story. We have a cast of six who populate the 10 princesses we meet.”

The sassy leading ladies include Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, with references to Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and many more also featuring. The show follows the recent cinematic trend of shaking up classic tales and presenting them in new ways.

“Well, we all love the familiar, don’t we? There’s a whole strain of human behaviour that pulls towards what we know. But we also like dissent and disruption - more ‘disses’! - and things which take on the ‘known’ and flip it to give us a double point of connection and interest.”

Daniel thinks the musical will even land well with audiences who aren’t regular theatre-goers. And with an offer of free pre-show prosecco for groups of eight or more (don’t hesitate - the deal is valid only on tickets booked before Monday 20 April), the production is promising to offer a great night out.

“If you like Barbie, the movie, you might like this in terms of its humour and its cultural references. [It’s for] anyone who loves live entertainment; live music as well - the band is on stage with the show. It’s got a very ‘live’ vibe.”

Another place where you’re likely to see a lovingly disrupted fairytale is, of course, in pantomime - which is a real mainstay of Lichfield’s theatrical calendar. And although next Christmas might currently seem like little more than a twinkle of tinsel on the distant horizon, the Garrick’s 2026/27 panto offering - Robin Hood - is already on sale. But Daniel is looking even further ahead: “We’re just starting to think about plans for Panto ’27 into ’28. By the time we get to March, we sometimes find ourselves going, ‘It feels like Christmas already,’ because there are so many panto conversations. We’re looking forward to Robin Hood this year. I think it’s the first time this theatre has done that panto title - we’ve got a great team coming together to prep that.”

Daniel is particularly proud that the theatre is holding its own as a producing house: “I’ve really enjoyed those opportunities to get into a rehearsal room and make a show. There are so many moments along the way that are challenging - but also delightful moments, where something just fantastically clicks. In the panto we’ve just done, Cinderella, during the end-of-Act One transformation, a horse and coach comes out and ends up flying out over the audience to some degree. It’s such a complicated technical sequence! So the actors and the technical team all worked together to achieve precisely the right kind of sequence. [I loved] seeing that come together and land with an audience.

“I really enjoy leading a creative, cultural organisation. It’s great fun and a great privilege. There was one particular moment, just over a year ago, where as an entire team we pulled together to undertake a huge refurbishment to the Front of House area of the theatre. And I think it was pivotal. The signal there wasn’t just ‘these seats are tired, we need to tidy it up’; it was also about wanting to signal a welcome, and a valuing of our audience.”

And there’s no better way to value an audience than by programming some really appealing shows. Daniel is confident that the Garrick’s line-up of 2026 productions will tick plenty of boxes for Midlands theatre-goers: “We’re producing a couple of times a year, but we’re wall-to-wall with other shows. And our studio is much busier than it’s ever been. We’ve got big, crowd-pleasing productions happening in the main house, but we’ve got a much more quirky, niche programme of drama, comedy, music and other events happening in our studio.”

Exciting times, then, at Lichfield Garrick. And with Daniel’s sights firmly fixed on the future, and with plenty to entertain in the meantime, it seems there’s precious little chance of local theatre-goers ever becoming, er, Disenchanted!

Disenchanted! shows at Lichfield Garrick Theatre from Friday 24 April to Saturday 2 May

By Jessica Clixby