Angry Psycho Princesses Premieres at UW April 26

The University of Wyoming Department of Theatre and Dance will close the spring semester with the premiere production of “Angry Psycho Princesses” -- the hilarious and haywire new musical that Disney doesn’t want you to see.

The show will run April 26-30 at 7:30 p.m. with a matinee show Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. on the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts main stage. Tickets cost $16 for the public, $13 for senior citizens and $8 for UW students. For tickets and information, call (307) 766-6666, go online at www.uwyo.edu/finearts, or visit the Performing Arts box office or the Wyoming Union information desk.

With music and lyrics by Sean Stone and book by William Missouri Downs, “Angry Psycho Princesses” is directed by Stone, Downs, and Lou Anne Wright, all faculty in the Department of Theatre and Dance.

The musical takes place in Pretty Princess Park, a second-rate, indoor amusement park for little girls who dream of being princesses. Kate is a disaffected businesswoman, and William is her unhappy and unemployed car salesman husband. They begrudgingly follow their ecstatic young daughter, Cindy, from attraction to attraction.

When the family overstays at closing time and is accidentally locked in the park overnight, the fairy tale world goes terribly out of kilter. In the “Hall of Princesses,” the animatronic princesses (from Cinderella to Snow White) short circuit and come to life, much to Kate and William’s amazement and Cindy’s excitement.

But, being a princess 9 to 5 apparently is not all fantasy, especially when the park has only one Charming Prince. Bitter, jaded and imprisoned, and cursed to play out the same roles forever and tormented by the Evil Queen Badassery, the princesses set out to show Cindy and her family how dreadful it is to be a princess in a man’s world.

A princess rebellion soon ensues, which the Evil Queen Badassery quells until the Good Fairy Deus Ex Machina faces off against her in an epic battle. Cindy and her parents soon learn where the enchanted world ends and real life begins, and that real life is not so mundane after all.

According to the production: “As amusing as poking fun at Disney fantasies may be, ‘Angry Psycho Princesses’ pointedly questions the artificial expectations fairy tales put on young girls and is not for children or adults who don’t want to have a good laugh at the expense of the Little Mermaid.”

In his career, Stone has helped create award-winning musicals such as “Good Morning Athens” and “Be Like Joe.” Other musicals include “Rainy Day People” and “Song of the Sea.” Stone also is an actor, musical director and pianist. His music has been featured at the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center and the Weston Playhouse.

Downs has written more than 20 plays, including “Innocent Thoughts,” the winner of the National Playwright's Award, and has won two Rolling Premieres from the National New Play Network (“The Exit Interview” and “Women Playing Hamlet”). He has won numerous playwriting awards, and twice was a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill New Play competition; and has published four books on the art of theatre, including “Naked Playwriting,” a popular guide to writing plays; and “Screenplay: Writing the Picture,” which is used at many top film schools.

As head of the playwriting program at UW, Downs has won more than a dozen teaching and research awards. In Hollywood, Downs served as a staff and freelance writer on several NBC television shows (including “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”), and he sold a movie to Ron Howard’s Imagine Films.

For more information about “Angry Psycho Princesses,” email Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at kirisk@uwyo.edu.