Apparently Ugly: A Stepsister Story Review: A Fairytale With a Bigger Story Still to Tell
★★★★
Apparently Ugly: A Stepsister Story is a warm, funny and hugely likeable family musical that gives Cinderella’s stepsisters the story they deserve. There is more than a touch of Sondheim’s Into the Woods in its rapid musical patter and playful fairy tale subversion, mixed with the broad comedy of pantomime and the humour of Shrek. It understands its audience well, with enough visual silliness for younger viewers and plenty in the writing for adults, and already feels like a show with considerable potential beyond the Fringe.
After their gloriously villainous panto dame of a mother decides that they are apparently ugly and still unmarried, sisters Agnes and Olga are thrown out of the family home. Their Fairy Stepfather sends them on a quest to gather the ingredients for a potion that will make them beautiful. The destination may be predictable, but the journey has enough charm and humour to make that largely irrelevant.
The show rests on its two stepsisters, and Amber Hegarty and Hannah McRoche are wonderful. Their chemistry is effortless, their comic timing sharp and they give Agnes and Olga genuine warmth beyond the exaggerated fairy tale archetypes. More importantly, they make the sisters’ relationship the emotional heart of the show, giving its message about self worth and sisterhood enough sincerity to land without ever becoming saccharine.
They are equally impressive musically, tackling heavily arranged numbers and an extraordinary amount of rapid fire patter with confidence and considerable vocal power. The score is unexpectedly accomplished and ambitious, occasionally packing in more material than it needs, but its musical sophistication is one of the production’s strongest assets.
Nicky Douglas, who also writes and directs the production, is another highlight as the Evil Stepmother, bringing a wonderfully villainous panto dame energy that sits somewhere between classic fairy tale wickedness and Donna Murphy’s deliciously theatrical Mother Gothel in Tangled. Douglas turns many appearances into miniature stand up routines, flirting shamelessly with audience members and expertly holding a look or stretching a reaction for maximum effect. The result is vain, manipulative, wonderfully wicked and extremely difficult not to love.
Elliott Wooster brings an affable presence as the Fairy Stepfather, providing a gentler counterpoint to the larger personalities around him and helping keep the sisters’ fairy tale journey moving.
Douglas’s direction leans confidently into pantomime, particularly in the clever use of a single rotating set piece that becomes a market stall, the woods and a magic mirror. Each turn feels like another page of a fairy tale being opened, giving the production a simple but effective visual language that suits its storybook world beautifully.
There are still places where the production could grow. A few transitions could become cleaner and some jokes could land more precisely, but these feel like refinements rather than fundamental problems. More than anything, Apparently Ugly feels as though it is still in the opening chapters of its own story.
In a Fringe year full of princesses and reinvented fairy tales, Apparently Ugly already has enough personality to stand apart. Funny, musically ambitious and full of heart, Apparently Ugly feels ready for a life beyond the Fringe. With two excellent leads, an accomplished score and clever staging, the foundations are firmly in place for something bigger and more ambitious. It may still be in its infancy, but the spell is already taking hold, and this thoroughly entertaining first chapter feels as though it has plenty more story left to tell.
Ermintrude at Underbelly Bristo Square
Until 31st (except 17,18,19, 24, 25, 26)
11:40-12:40
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