
I just saw Funked Up Fairytales at the Depot Theatre, and if you think that you’d enjoy a modern mix-up of some classic fairytales, then I recommend you go see it too! The show will be playing at the Depot until August 25. Just for this show there is special $10 ticket for kids 12 and under!
Like in many fairytales the number three is special and throughout the show we follow three young fairies who must pass their final exam by ensuring that a particular fairytale has a happy ending, but if they fail then they will be demoted to an eternity of being a “background fairy.”
From a prince cursed to be a pig to a royalty reality show, this musical is a twisting, humorous adventure filled with some catchy songs sung by some great voices.
The cast played multiple characters throughout the show. Even the women who played the three main fairies became characters in the fairytales they are trying to give happy endings, which I thought was a great touch that gave an element of unity to all the stories that unfolded.

Another unifying force was an ingenious prop sitting center stage. A large book with pages that turned advanced the stories and worked in the background to set the scenes.
Travel Through Funked Up Fairytale Worlds
We first experience the story of “K-pig,” where Faireetheeya (Famecia Ward) is the first to pass her test. Though her fierce manner and the fact that she curses the queen’s baby to be born a pig seemed to point to failure, in the end it is the curse that forces the fairytale characters overcome adversity and gain love that ensures the story has a happy ending.
Drew Aber is hilarious as K-pig (the cursed prince) in his want for a wife, and his stubborn way of going about getting one. Aber does equally well in the second story that unfolds as the lovelorn rhinestone-jacket-wearing King who disguises himself as a poacher to get close to a miller’s daughter.

Titania (Cali Moore) is a bit ditzy and frequently involves herself in other people’s problems due to her do-gooder tendencies, which gets into a lot of trouble in the second fairytale world of “Mistah Skin.” The wacky and wily Rumpelstiltskin (Jason McCollum) doesn’t want her to give up his name to the new Queen, which would allow her to get out of her deal with him, so he curses Titania to dance until she dies.
The third fairy Magikwanda (Iris Elton) is not very good at telling stories, but when her friend’s life is on the line she must spin a story that gets the audience clapping their hands and will convince her tough teacher Mab (Jenna Lea Scott) to save Titania and pass them both! See the show to find out if she can pull it off.
Related articles
- Depot Theatre: Funked Up Fairytales (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- Taber’s Folklore Inspired Art and Shadow Boxes at Depot Theatre Gallery (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- A Review of Depot Theatre’s Boeing Boeing (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
- A Review of Depot Theatre’s Route 66 (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)

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