Paul Jenden has long been having fun with fairy tales – bringing to his choreographed tellings a twist in the curly tail, a curdle in the moral, or an outrageously camp helter-skelter through the dropped scrotum of three billy goats who want / need / will stop at nothing to seduce an aged out of work Old Mother Goose, or is that Gander? You get my drift.

The show is hilarious, breathtakingly costumed, made with mighty loads of mickey, and will have you rolling in your ribs. Jon Trimmer is having a ball, Louis Solino is his intriguing enigmatic self, and Paul is up and out and away.

There’s one duo, for Paul and Louis – Bluebeard – that is poignant and rare. It’s my reason to see the show a second time. 

As well as the Three Old Men, there’s a big bonus – both Kate O’Rourke and Jennifer Key are simply exquisite, and beautifully in control of their numerous roles. You won’t find two better dancers working in Wellington this week.

But when all is said and danced, it is the sheer torrent of unstoppable talent that pours out of Paul Jenden that this show is about. The season runs till 9 April. 
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There’s PJ, primo Hobbit fan
And PJ: Fairy Stories man
Yes that old fave is back revamped:
And Britney Spears now leads the camp.

Paul Jenden teams up with four more  
Exquisite dancers: skills galore  
In frocks by Jenden – classy kitch – in  
Tales retold with wit so bitchin’.

Kate O’Rourke finds beastly love
Fits her Beauty like a glove
Not for her the handsome guy:
Louis Solino – stay ugly!

Kate finds Paul pegged as a toy
Soldier Girl meets Soldier Boy
So spick and span; so polish ’n’ spit
But what good’s that when bits don’t fit?

Sir Jon Trimmer in Wolfish weeds
Stalks Louis, Paul and Jenny Beech:
Three fat pink piggies – is this wise?
Of course he courts his own demise.

Red Riding Hood (Kate)’s ambivalent
At her Wolf (Paul)’s seductive bent
Reflective, sensuous yet sad
Compelled to cuddle with a cad.  

We all grow up and run away
Some do it straight, some do it gay
Kate’s Rapunzel, Louis’ Witch
Jenny’s Warrior: take your picks.

Cinders goes troppo to close Act One
Thirties voodoo kitch: such fun
In black and white they all tell the story
Till she breaks out in Technicolor glory.

Jon’s Troll’s no doll; a harridan
Guarding ‘wimmin’ from any man
The Billy Goats are all butt and balls
You’ll have to go to see who falls.

Tiny Kate’s a giantess
With Tom Thumb in her palm no less
But when he finds her honey trap
Which of them will get the clap?

Piracy is gently exotic
When Bluebeard’s boys are homo-erotic
Paul and Louis, tops quite bare:
The anatomy of a love affair.

Puss in Boots, you may have heard
Does anything to score a bird
Jenny the maiden tries to resist  
But how Kate’s Puss does purrsist.

Lady Gaga does Madonna
From the Bible – halo’s on her
Jesus Christ, her boy’s a Smurf!
What won’t they do to get a lurf?

It’s not a gag-a-minute show
Of fairy stories we all know
Yes camp and naughtiness, expect ’em
Plus all the rest of love’s rich spectrum.  
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Fairy Stories is outrageously camp, glitteringly garish, dazzlingly costumed, and in the finale probably sacrilegious, when decorum, taste and refinement are vanquished in a riot of dance, flashing lights and a loud Lady Gaga song. It’s a vaudevillian dance show that is ninety minutes of fun.

Ross Jolly’s recorded voice announces at the start of each dance a new slant on a traditional fairy tale in a quatrain of dreadful doggerel. Most of the warped tales are comic – Three Little Pigs, Tom Thumb, The Tin Soldier amongst others – but there is relief when some take on a more serious bent as in the sombre duet with Bluebeard’s lovers, a fierce contest of wills between the witch and a warrior for Rapunzel, and a tense seduction of Red Riding Hood by a persuasive Wolf.

The costumes are superb – a Wearable Arts show on their own – and there’s not one that’s a dud. Not only are they wonderful to look at but they have clearly been designed to assist the dancer even when, as in The Tin Soldier, neither dancer can move his or her legs. The red and gold dress that Kate O’Rourke as a Giantess wears as she plays with and finds secret pleasure from Tom Thumb is simple but fairy tale beautiful. 

The whole show is slickly professional and Paul Jenden’s choreography is tailored to the age and talents of the performers as well as the size of the stage. It is beautifully lit (Lisa Maule/Jennifer Lal), and the excellent cast, Paul Jenden, Louis Solino, Kate O’Rourke, Jenny Beech and John Trimmer, perform with just the right air of comic devilry. But it is not for the young: a lot of sassy sexual innuendo and three well-endowed, virile Billy Goats, and a comic wolf chasing after the three little pigs’ thingummy-jigs see to that.  
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