Into the Woods is Stephen Sondheim’s most complicated musical, so it’s amazing to see the small Theater Horizon pull it off successfully with an innovative approach.
Sondheim is a man who loves puzzles, and in this creation, he put together four fables by the Brothers Grimm plus a new one by collaborator James Lapine. He collapses the lives of fairy-tale characters and intertwines them on a mutual meeting ground—and where else but the woods where so many such stories take place. Lapine and Sondheim devised interaction among all the characters and, in Act II, turn everything upside down and show the unintended consequences of what was done by Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and Rapunzel plus Lapine’s baker and his wife to achieve their wishes.
Sondheim’s score for Into the Woods is an intricate amalgam of cheery ditties and profound expressions of fear and loneliness. “Children Will Listen,”“No One is Alone,” “It Takes Two,” and “Giants in the Sky” are among the individual songs from the show that deservedly became popular.
Matthew Decker, co-founder of Theater Horizon and a successful director elsewhere, sees Into the Woods as a gathering around a campfire. The wood is a dark place where people tell stories about trials and emerge wiser. The wood also is a symbol of the womb, the past, the unconscious.
The recent movie did a good job focusing its lens on individual characters, intercutting among them and showing the audience where to pay attention at each moment. The Broadway productions directed by Lapine in 1987 and 2002 provided a castle, a tower, a garden and a beanstalk. Decker, on the other hand, ingeniously uses an intimate stage to help us see what’s important. It’s more imaginative than any previous version.
Decker utilizes the skills of his cast members not only as actors but also as instrumentalists and creative devisers, making all of them the storytellers. They are in contemporary casual clothes and mix with audience members before starting their tales. Some of them play musical instruments and blend with the actual band that’s at the back of the stage.
This production is unlike those by John Doyle who is famous or infamous for having all of the score played by cast members. The instruments are specifically chosen. For example, Rachel Camp plays the harp because Jack stole a golden harp from the giant in the sky; Alex Bechtel carries an accordion because the sound of it is perfect for the exhalation of his dying cow. Props are improvised from mundane objects, as when potted plants are placed on the pulled-out drawers of a file cabinet to simulate a beanstalk. As you expect around a campfire, or with your child at bedtime, imagination is the most important ingredient.
All the while, the music is never relegated. The stories may be cute, and the telling may be informal, but all of Sondheim’s notes are serious, and every voice here is perfect for its part. It’s unfair to single out any, but allow me to chronicle some special moments in chronological order:
♪ Kala Moses Baxter endowing Jack’s Mother with an exceptionally rich personality while displaying a solid mezzo voice.
♪ Charlie DelMarcelle quietly setting the plot in motion by suggesting that Jack exchange his useless cow "for a sack of beans."
♪ Michael Doherty endearingly announcing his discovery that there are giants in the sky.
♪ Ben Michael and Alex Bechtel mugging as they try to top each other in “Agony.”
♪ The joy of Rachel Camp and Steve Pacek discovering that they’ve changed when they’re alone in the woods.
♪ The combination of sound and lighting by Nick Kourtides and Mike Inwood portraying imminent destruction.
♪ Kristine Fraelich’s dramatic belting of the Witch’s “Last Midnight.”
♪ The closing ensemble where everyone learns to cope, and Camp reminds us that “sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood. But no one leaves for good. You are not alone.”
