AFTER Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods and Stephen Schwartz's Wicked: The Untold Story of The Witches Of Oz, here comes a rather less sophisticated, but still subversive musical spin on reimagining familiar characters and stories.

American history teacher Dennis T Giacino's raucous, brash off-Broadway show, Disenchanted!, is being given its British premiere by Robert Readman's York company Pick Me Up Theatre in a John Cooper Studio Theatre changed almost beyond recognition from its black-box roots.

You could argue that Walt Disney's sugar-coated empire of animated movies has done pretty much the same to Grimm's fairytales and other stories, and so the Giacino musical and Readman setting chime in unison in this boisterous presentation of an adult show that is most definitely not for children.

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Maren Fagerås Nævdal as the Little Mermaid. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Readman has reconfigured the studio theatre as a cabaret joint with a blue colour scheme, fairy lights, a thrust stage, tables and chairs and balcony seating on three sides.

A buff Pick Me Up barman in waistcoat and no shirt (Conor Mellor on press night) is being kept busy taking cocktail orders in the one male role. On stage, Disenchanted! is that rarity: an all-female show where "royal renegade" sisters in arms are calling the tune, unhappy with their stultifying Happy Ever After status.

Leading the princesses in rebellion are principal narrator Katie Melia's no-nonsense Snow White, Alexa Chaplin's in-a-hurry Cinderella and Vicki Lightfoot's restless Sleeping Beauty, whose interaction and pace will pick up as the run continues and the 100-minute show finds its feet.

Giacino's dialogue is full of feisty fighting talk, but not particularly witty, in between the Disney pastiche setpiece numbers, but those sassy songs overcome that hindrance.

Indeed they bring out the best in the company as each Disney favourite has her moment to break the chains, from Elanor Dunn's exasperated Belle to Maya Bartley's O'Dea Hua Mulan coming out as lesbian.

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Hayley Bamford as Pocahontas. Picture: Matthew Kitchen

Maya Tether's singing of Secondary Princess expresses all the scepticism in Princess Badroulbadour with her fabulous comic timing; Alexa Chaplin has her best moment leading the princess ensemble in All I Wanna Do Is Eat, the show's best number; and Norwegian student Maren Fagerås Nævdal is a blast as the vodka-guzzling Little Mermaid, the fish out of water with a drink problem, singing Two Legs in the blues spirit of Janis Joplin.

Hayley Bamford is full of character as both the wronged Pocahontas, in the big ballad Honestly, and the German warrior princess Rapunzel for the oompah singalong Not V'One Red Cent.

Barbara Chan's unseen band relish the myriad musical styles; Stefani Lyons and Jacqueline Scott's choreography has most fun with Big T**s and Elanor Dunn's props play their part in sending up Disney. Disenchanted! is hit and miss but when it hits, ouch, it hits.

Pick Me Up Theatre present Disenchanted!, John Cooper Studio Theatre, 41 Monkgate, York, until Saturday, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568 or at pickmeuptheatre.com