Bliss – Pleasance Courtyard ★★★

Fairy tales have always been less interested in happiness than obedience. Be kind, be beautiful, marry the prince and everything will work out fine. Bliss, with book, music and lyrics by Emma Lively and Tyler Beattie, takes that familiar formula and gives it a glitter-coated shake. Following four princess sisters who escape their tower and discover a world where fairy godfathers dictate the rules, it sets out to ask what “happily ever after” might mean when women are allowed to write the ending themselves. The result is a charming, occasionally scrappy new musical that wears its feminist inspirations proudly. There is more than a little of Six in its DNA, both in its pop-infused score and in its determination to reclaim fairy-tale heroines from the men who traditionally define them. The script doesn’t always achieve the same level of wit or bite, but there is enough confidence in the concept to suggest a show with considerable potential. What immediately stands out is the scale of the…