Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch review – a chaotic camp delight

Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London
The Divine-inspired villain of The Little Mermaid and her rag-tag band of gay sea creatures reclaim their narrative in a boundlessly energetic, beautifully belted musical parody

When Disney first presented The Little Mermaid to audiences in 1989, they didn’t admit that Ursula, the evil sea witch with her white quiff and looping blue eyeshadow, had been shamelessly inspired by daring drag queen Divine. Rather than paying homage to the star, Disney had based the villain on Divine as a kind of cruel joke; it added to the company’s long list of queer-coded bad guys in an era when being LGBTQ+ was heavily vilified on and off screen.

In Unfortunate, a camp new musical parody that’s ridden the wave of Edinburgh fringe success, a rag-tag band of gay sea creatures and ancient demigods stage a kind of reclamation, both for Ursula’s reputation and for the queer characters who could have been. Directed by Robyn Grant, who played the lead in the show’s original production, Ursula and her sparkling crew of harnessed performers now have a chance to rewrite Disney’s tale. With book and lyrics by Grant and Daniel Foxx, Unfortunate tells of how Ursula was framed, banished, and how her plan to steal Ariel’s voice was actually teaching the hapless mermaid an important lesson in independence.