Review of Caroline Community Theatre’s Production of Into the Woods
The play runs through June 22 as a dinner theatre show. There are also brunch showings.
By Dennis Wemm
THEATRE CRITIC
Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book and concept by James Lapine
All the wolves, all the lies, all the chronic ironic reverses
Once upon a time…
There was a sad young lad (Jack of beanstalk fame) and his mother, a young maiden (Cinderella) with a stepfamily problem, and a childless Baker and his childless Wife. Thus begins Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods. Backed up with music that is sharp and impulsive the stories unwind as we’ve always heard them until they begin colliding with each other.
The tasks are familiar and the situations are desperate: Jack’s mother is alone with her son and terrified of starvation. She orders Jack to sell his cow, Jack’s only friend in the world. Cinderella is oppressed by her “vile and black of heart” steps and drunk father and desperate to have a life where she doesn’t have to be “kind” and can be in charge of her fate. Red Riding Hood is being sent to her Grandmother’s house through the dangerous woods with a basket of bread.
Give the stories a simple twist, which is perfectly plausible and true to the original. Jack is desperate to save Milky White’s life and this confuses his (admittedly challenged) young mind. Cinderella’s grief for her mother and survivor’s guilt pushes her to visit the tree, her mother’s burial place seeking for guidance.
Interesting fact: even though both Sondheim and Lapine were fascinated with fairy stories as they began the project, Sondheim only knew them from the original Grimm’s stories while Lapine was only familiar with the Disney animated versions, knowing nothing of Grimm. They introduced each other to their personal experiences and from this, the odd alchemy used in Into the Woods to flesh out the plots of the stories was born. Adding the entirely fictional Baker and Wife to add a darker seriousness and modern relevance (cf. the eighties debates about infertility) as well as providing observers who are outside of the more fantastic stories. This couple are the NORMAL ones.
There’s an original sin that propels all of the stories. The Baker’s father stole some veggies and beans from the garden of “the witch from next door.” She cursed him, he disappeared from the scene, the Baker’s mother died, and the Baker grew up not knowing he had a sister (named Rapunzel). Oh yeah, she rendered the Baker and his Wife childless (she was seriously ticked off about those beans, because her mother punished her) Complicated? Okay, that’s one of the stories. And that’s the first ten minutes of a long and complex evening. And you know something?
Watching it on the second performance I looked at my watch precisely once because I lost myself in the story, in the rhythm of the show, in the gorgeous music, and in the story lines. It all works, and it is really, really good at what it does. The show has just enough of the things you expect: sets, costumes, effects. Could it have more? Sure, but at some point the effects become the show, and this show doesn’t need it if you perform with energy, precision, and endless spirit. CCT does this.
They have a small hall in a former multi-purpose space in an elementary school. Good for them, because they also have some mighty, disciplined voices that take the complex music and sing it with such clarity and perfect timing and harmonies cued so well that it’s as if you were hearing one voice. Every word and every tone is the way it should be. And there are a lot of words (some have retitled this play “Into the Words”).
Computer scoring for musicals so frequently turns into a fight between amplified music which is challenged by amplified voices. Not in this case-the music is perfect in tone and subtly interacts with the live voice-there was not a microphone to be seen or heard on the stage. The small stage holds a full set and twenty-two performers, so the scenes spill out into the audience space seamlessly, then just as seamlessly pop the focus back to the stage.
In an alternative wording for one of the songs used for solo albums, a lyric reads: “All the witches, all the curses, all the wolves, all the lies, all the chronic ironic reverses; all the wondering what even worse is still in store.” The reverses are the core, spine, and theme of the show. The characters are just aware enough of this that we see and hear in their performances an unconscious “Why me?” Followed by a quietly sullen “Okay, what’s next? “
Act I is a fun show to watch and to listen to, perfectly enjoyable and beautifully self-contained as a clever take on a bunch of fairy tales. In Act II you realize that the only reason a character has gotten their wish is by taking away someone else’s wish, by ruining another person’s life or denying them their happiness. The deals and transactions they make leave everyone’s life in a bit of a shambles. Every win demands a sacrifice. The show, at the end, leaves you with a question: “Is this what we are teaching our children?”
And it’s funny and has more plot twists than an entire season of Big Brother.
The cast members are each well suited to their roles, and sometimes their performance adds a twist to the usual performance choices, finding nuance that is definitely there in the source material, the script and score, but that no other performer has discovered before.
Myles Miller (The Baker) and Kathleen Keller (the Baker’s Wife) don’t just perform married characters, they actually seem married. In an early scene, Red Riding Hood rips off some pastries, and then more pastries, and then more. Standard staging has the Wife grabbing back the cakes, but Keller’s character offers her more-and you see her yearning for a child of her own to spoil. Speaking of Red (Rebecca Clay, also the vocal director), her manic desire for everything she could have endangers everyone around her and Clay cleverly builds her character on this. And when the big bad Wolf turns out to have more of an appetite than she does, she spins out on a revenge spree that threatens everyone around her.
Cinderella (Maddie Siepe) has her family problems, a father (Michael Hart) who escapes his family into a flask of wine. Her Stepmother (Tanya Keys) is determined that her daughters Lucinda and Florinda (Lisa Carter and Alyson Parkinson) will have it all. Their costumes and hair are their most important assets. Cinderella has neither, but she cares. However, she has a flock of wise and vengeful birds (uncredited) and a dead mother (Jenelle Cannon-doubled as Snow White) who haunts a tree. You can’t make this stuff up, but the Grimm brothers did. Cindy is too hot and bothered by the Prince (Ley Willis) to think straight, but eventually decides to let him make her decisions for her. Mistake.
Willis and his brother Prince (Jerahmai Cannon) are two of Sondheim’s agonized Men Who Just Don’t Get Women. They are hilariously clueless as they plot their way into and out of marriage, seductions, thorn bushes, dwarf guards, and other complication. They also wreck lives relentlessly left and right.
The third house in the main set is home to Jack and his Mother (Colin Hemingway and Samantha Ray). Impoverished after the disappearance of the man of the house, Mother is at her wits end and Jack is-well-a boy who has a cow for a pet. Milky White (Michael Cannon and marionette cow) is the focus of the plot. She (and Jack is unaware that she is a she) is literally the point where all of the plot elements will come together. And, of course, Jack also kills a Giant to steal his goodies (and his wife), but the Giant's Wife (Daniella Macklin-Soto, also Red Riding Hood’s Granny) becomes a living wrecking ball come Act II. Jack’s relationship with Little Red promises problems for the future of the kingdom.
Three other characters, The Witch (Jayna Sanchez-Luca), The Mysterious [Old] Man (Dylan Tipton), and Rapunzel are the remains of the original generation in the story. The Witch was wronged and will not forget it, and she has one chance to get her joy back. Becoming the powerful Witch she lost her joy of living and lives through her (stolen) adopted daughter, Rapunzel (Jay Kelleher), whom she keeps hidden in a tower. She is relentless and ruthless in her drive to get it back no matter what.
Another character, Jacob Carlson as The Steward, is outside the action and spends a lot of time worrying about the after-effects of all the shenanigans. He thoroughly disapproves of disorder, sometimes showing it by very direct (and violent) action.
The Mysterious Man is behind the scenes, manipulating the Baker’s actions to insure that the right people and objects are together by the end of Act I, when all the easy problems can be solved. Gamers with recognize a Quest Giver character when they see one. He is doubled as the Narrator.
Two swings join the cast as supernumeraries and as welcome vocal contributors, Bree Lide and Mikaela Cannon.
Technical support (TD Tommy Zamberlain) is well managed and decorative. The show is arranged to require only two scene changes which are clearly well-rehearsed and planned. Costumes (Bree Lide) reflect the characters well and make each easy to spot-something that’s important for a show that requires so much doubling of actors and establishes so much of the backstory.
The director of a play is in charge of developing and communicating the artistic vision and guiding all of the human resources to achieve this. Angel Moreland’s direction of this show evidences so much care and attention to detail, also adapting the show to the talents of each performer and the talents of each to the show. It’s a tough balancing which Moreland makes look easy.
Much praise goes to the musical direction: the devil in this score is in the details, and this score has a lot of devils. Melody Sanchez-Luca and Rebecca Clay arrange and support it all beautifully. Having seen this show at least six times in the past, I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve heard every word of the lyrics for the first time. The show is the words and music and the ensemble deliver the goods on every number.
Caroline Community Theatre’s Into the Woods continues as a dinner theatre through June 22 as dinner (and brunch) performances.
You really should go.
Dennis Wemm is a retired professor of theatre and communication, having taught and led both departments at Glenville State College for 34 years. In his off time he was president and sometimes Executive Director of the West Virginia Theatre Conference, secretary and president of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and generally enjoyed a life in theatre.
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