Playing through September, the Red Poppy Ladies’ Mulan the Musical serves up a unique blend of storytelling, dance, kunqu-style movement and, of course, a whole lot of drumming. The show from the Beijing-based female percussion group tells the traditional story of a young girl (played by Du Qianqian) who disguises herself as a man to join the army in place of her ailing father. Having been Disneyfied in 1998, the narrative is broad and familiar enough to get by with no dialogue and only minimal exposition from projections on the rear wall. We receive Mulan’s life in episodic bits: her Coming of Age Ceremony (Tanggu drums and a fan dance); her life in school (some tabletop percussion and a kind of rap from the class clown — looks a lot like the lunchroom scene in Fame); her eventual conscription in the Emperor’s army (largely pantomime).

Director/Choreographers Zhou Li, Lin Shuijing, Ma Lin, Li Zheng and Ying Li’s inventive staging really shines in the trenches. Paradiddles transform into the gallop of horses, glowing poi become torches along the ramparts, and soldiers (all dressed in uniform blue by costumers Wang Lihau and Li Yuanxin, but for our girl in red) flex and menace with a flick of nunchucks and batons — a turn at the skins being a worthy proxy for some swordplay. But the simple spectacle of performance along with the suggestive elements of Weng Zebin’s scenic work is overwhelmed by composers Zhang Junpeng, Dong Gang and Wang Han’s heavy mandolin music and, particularly, projection designer Dong Yimeng’s more literal feed of the mounted cavalry.

In the end, though, these girls can really play and that alone is worth the price of admission. Three Olympic ceremonies behind them, the ensemble are consummate performers and storytellers. In a balletic turn with no dialogue and little narrative help, the center holds and the story makes sense, even for younger audience members. For families with kids still in thrall of Disney Princesses this is a great entrée into something a little less familiar than that much-played Frozen DVD.