You know you’re watching a kids show when the one climactic kissing scene elicits an audible ‘eww!’ from the audience. Still, The Light Princess, a new musical from the Harvard A.R.T. Institute (written by Lila Rose Kaplan and Mike Pettry and directed by Allegra Libonati), captures a child’s imagination while tweaking the conventional fairytale just enough to keep things interesting. The creative 70-minute play (no intermission) does a good job of challenging conventional gender roles while preserving the elements of a fairytale children know and love.
The princess, played by Ashley J. Monet, brings a defiant, assertive voice to the stereotypically passive role. Placed under a spell before she was born, the princess lacks gravity and is unable to stay on the ground. Despite this difficulty, the princess declines help from the various male characters who try to label her a damsel in distress.
“I don’t want to be the damsel in distress — I want to be the hero,” pronounces our sassy heroine, giving all the young girls in the audience a reason to applaud.
The prince, played by Alex Molina, similarly challenges the conventional gravitas of the role by being a hapless, albeit lovable, failed musician. He’s introduced to the audience as he’s struggling to write a love song, or any song for that matter. His ridiculous lyrics made the children in the audience roll. Though not the prince charming of fairytales past, he is able to charm the princess. Their love is eventually what brings the princess back down to earth, literally and figuratively.
In one particularly entertaining scene, the prince sees the princess swimming in a lake, and, assuming that she is drowning, informs the audience valiantly that he will go save her, as he is “too well trained” to ignore her. The scene pokes fun at the expectations that a prince will save a princess, not necessary because he feels morally compelled to do so but because the act is essential to preserving the archetype of a hero. Another funny scene involves several of the princess’s potential suitors, all of whom fulfill an obvious fairytale character we’ve seen before. The first suitor is the “man of stone,” known for his incredible strength, but nothing more. The second suitor is the “man of silver,” filthy rich but with very little charm. And the third suitor is the “man of black diamond,” who is just strange. Though each has looks, strength and cash, none have what it takes to charm the princess. Instead, she goes for the failed musician, whose good intentions and kind heart make up for what he lacks in talent. If only it were that simple.
To complete the picture, the princess is the one who saves the prince from drowning in the end. The two then celebrate their love in a musical number that provides the happy-ever-after everyone was banking on.
