At first glance, James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning “Into the Woods” is a musical mash-up of classic fairy tales: Cinderella meets Little Red Riding Hood meets Rapunzel meets Jack and the Beanstalk.
It is that, though more than the sum of its parts, it’s also a metaphorical journey, from childhood to adulthood, innocence to responsibility, dreams and wishes to shattered illusions.
But in the stripped-down reboot of this classic musical, produced with just 10 actors in the round at Farmers Alley Theatre, it’s pure delight.
With inspired direction from Leonard E. Sullivan, the stage is a magnificent whirlwind of quirky characters and their foibles, entering and exiting from four directions in a grand choreographed dance wherein a baker and his wife so badly long for a child they jump through hoops dictated by a witch to break a spell of generational barrenness. They trade magic beans for Jack’s milky-white cow, steal a lock of Rapunzel’s golden hair, win Little Red Riding Hood’s red cape, and make off with Cinderella’s golden sneaker.
The seeking, acquiring, losing, and regaining these items is drama and amusement enough amid all the sub plots that unfurl, but when they ultimately get what they want, the real conflict and resolution emerge—and not in a simple, happily-ever-after kind of way. (Though facing the primary human fear of being alone and coming to understand, most beautifully, that “You Are Not Alone” is a pretty huge payoff.)
It’s a flaw of the script that there are so many delightful characters, so much movement between and among them, that it’s almost impossible to fully latch on to any of them enough to really care deeply about what happens to them. But that’s where this show as allegory steps in: we root for them, because we’re rooting for us, for all of humanity who wishes and dreams and gets what they want only to seemingly lose it all.
And in this production, the excellent performances, the constant movement, the surprise and sensory delight at every turn makes it a sheer joy to behold.
The technical translation of this behemoth of a show for the intimate black box space of Farmers Alley Theatre is a marvel. Co-Scenic Designers Jason Frink and Savannah Draper capture our imaginations with moving ladders, platforms, and carts that follow the paths into and out of the woods that the actors do, and it’s all framed intentionally, with wall silhouettes of woods on four sides. They multi-task and collaborate as effectively as the performers do, with Frink responsible for lights and Draper doing double-duty with props, all of which are crucial to the storytelling here.
Sondheim’s trademark sophisticated harmonies and complex tempos sound glorious with the universally gorgeous voices and the terrific 8-piece orchestra with music direction from Brendan Vincent.
Those fantastic singers are all phenomenal actors, whether playing one part exquisitely, such as Emery Henderson as the Baker’s Wife, Dayna Dantzler as the Witch, and Shawn W. Smith as the Baker. The other seven performers do double- or triple-duty, often hilariously so. Braeden Davis is a stitch as Milky White, the cow, Rapunzel’s Prince, and Florinda, one of Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters.
Each character is distinct, and watching him switch between them (and gallop on and off the stage on a stick horse) is half the fun. The other half comes with Eli Neslund’s equally side-splitting performance as Cinderella’s Prince, Lucinda, Cinderella’s other wicked stepsister, and the lascivious Wolf. Their duet “Agony” is a major highlight, magnificently staged and sung.
Jay Berkow as the Narrator and Mysterious Man is the glue that perfectly holds the story together; Sydney Rae Harrison is wonderful as Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel, two very different roles she nails; and Jack Austin sings like a dream as dopey Jack and also captures something slightly sinister in his Steward.
Denene Mulay embodies the light and the dark of the mother archetype in her roles as Cinderella’s Stepmother and Jack’s Mother, and she shares the stage with real-life daughter Carly Rose Mulay, who is unrecognizable as Granny, though more primarily a lovely, complex Cinderella, a role her mother played once upon a time when she was her age. A sweet, full-circle moment that makes this unique production a little extra special.
“Careful the tale you tell/that is the spell” sings the Witch in the “Finale: Children Will Listen”, and, indeed, to see Farmers Alley Theatre’s remarkable Into the Woods is to have fallen under its magic.
Into the Woods
Farmers Alley Theatre
May 28-June 14
farmersalleytheatre.com
