Fairy tales are currently a hot pop-culture commodity. Between new TV shows like "Once Upon a Time" and "Grimm," and not one but two adult-oriented Snow White films coming out next year, there's apparently some kind of subconscious interest in mining these classic stories for new, modern meanings. Perhaps we're all too jaded to think that anyone could really ever live "happily ever after." Or we want to go back, at least mentally, to a simpler time. Or maybe we just like looking at princesses (paging Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge). Regardless, it's a serendipitous time for Downstairs Cabaret to launch its entertaining new show, "Disenchanted: Bitches of the Kingdom," which features more adult versions of those iconic animated heroines.

The concept behind "Disenchanted" is that the various princesses from the storybooks (and, later, films) are tired of living their boring, seemingly perfect lives and decide to hit the road to put on a revue. Through song and dance they tell their individual stories, including post-modern takes on their unique situations. For instance, the Little Mermaid points out that she gave up literally her entire life for a guy she thought was cute. It's a pretty stupid move when you put it that way.

Many of the jokes cover the expected - the casual sexism of the classic stories, lazy entitled husbands - and take numerous pot shots at the ridiculous Disneyfication of the characters. (My favorite example is Belle, the heroine from "Beauty and the Beast," who eventually went nuts after years of incessant chattering by magical talking household items.) It should be noted that this show is not for family audiences. While hardly raunchy, there is quite a bit of sex talk, several jokes about removing someone's manhood, and an entire jaunty number devoted to huge breasts.

The best moments of the show are the surprising interpretations of seemingly familiar characters. "Disenchanted's" take on Rapunzel (played with Teutonic bombast by Kate Kilpatrick) left me blindsided and delighted, and the show's best-running gag went to smoky-voiced Leeann Orasin as the "secondary princesses," her Sahara-dry delivery giving some much-needed zing to the female sidekicks in the rare male-oriented animated Disney films. (That said, a nitpick: two of the three characters she interprets are not princesses, nor are their male counterparts royalty.)

The show's all-female cast is filled with talented singers and actors. Toni Carrington's Snow White - the original animated princess, as she repeatedly reminds the audience - acts as a saucy queen bee, bossing around the other princesses and clearly enjoying the limelight and all its perks. Carrington has great stage presence, but some of her best moments are the tiny wordless exchanges she shares with several of the other girls. Two particular instances, one with Rapunzel and her sausage, one with Mulan, were funnier than some of the play's actual jokes.

Benton Sheely's Cinderella is Snow's second banana, supremely perky and maybe a little dim, and desperately in need of a sandwich. The last of the "main" princesses, Cassie Hohn as Sleeping Beauty, is bold and brassy, and unfortunately underutilized. I believe every other princess in the show got their own song, while Hohn - who clearly has the vocal chops along with her comedic skills - unfortunately sings only as part of group numbers.

Among the other characters, Rochester native Kara Minute gets one of the better songs in the show as Mulan, explaining why she's the only one of the group to not get the guy at the end of her story. I was initially left cold by Jessica Swersey's performance as Little Mermaid until it became clear that her defining character trait is that she's socially awkward - makes sense, given her backstory - and then it all clicked. Jenna Lee Barber way overplays in her solo song as Belle, but works well in a supporting role for the rest of the show. And while I totally understand the narrative reason for leaving Nakiya Peterkin's Frog Princess for last, that's a shame. She's such a delight once her song kicks into high gear that I would have liked to have seen more of her in the show.

Most of my criticisms are minor. The songs on the whole go on a touch too long - the opening number practically has a whole extra chorus. Some of the larger group numbers are slightly unbalanced. Some of the singers are naturally stronger than others, and a few of the voices do not gel in a crowd. There are literally no sets, and some of the costumes looked as though they were hastily constructed. But on the whole, the show is silly, girly fun, and at the risk of bringing up a certain prince, charming in its own way.

"Disenchanted: Bitches of the Kingdom"

Ongoing

Downstairs Cabaret Theatre Center, 540 E. Main St.

$29-$36 | 325-4370, downstairscabaret.com