INTO THE WOODS


Master director Ken Sawyer and some tremendously talented USC student performers and designers join creative forces to give audiences a highly inventive new take on the 20th-century musical theater masterpiece Into The Woods.

Since its 1986 Old Globe World Premiere, the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine Tony winner has captivated audiences with its deft juxtaposition of a first act that ingeniously combines some of the best-loved of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and a post-intermission “To Be Continued” that explores with considerable depth what happens after “happily ever after,” resulting in a show which retains its freshness and originality three and a half decades after it first dazzled Broadway audiences in 1988.

Lapine’s book takes well-known characters from Cinderella, Jack and The Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, adds an original pair of his own (a childless Baker and his wife) and a Witch to boot, and has them meet and interact while on a variety of missions that have sent them Into The Woods.

Cinderella attends her ball, Jack goes off to sell his beloved cow Milky White, Red Riding Hood leaves to visit Grandma’s house, and the Baker and his wife take off in search of four magic ingredients which the Witch says will allow them to conceive a child.

By the end of the first act, these characters have all become acquainted and their fairy tale happiness assured, or at least so it seems until an Act One curtain line alerts us that there is more, much more, to come.

Sondheim’s songs go from his signature “where did that note come from” ditties to instantly hummable ballads to the jaunty title song, and his lyrics are both clever and profound.

All of this adds up to some powerful stuff, and entertaining too, whether staged and designed to replicate the Broadway original or by a visionary director like Sawyer, who takes Lapine’s libretto and without changing a word, re-envisions Into The Woods from scratch.

The first of Sawyer’s creative twists is to assign the role of Narrator, not to an avuncular man of a certain age, but to a young girl (the thoroughly engaging Alexandra Ornes) who Sawyer’s staging suggests has somehow found herself backstage at a rock concert with time on her hands and a storybook to read aloud.

This director’s concept informs not only performances but also design, Sydney Fabis’s set making clever use of backstage scaffolds, hanging backdrops, and assorted paraphernalia to suggest the show’s multiple locales, most specifically the titular woods.

This new look (enhanced by Sophia Grose’s fanciful costumes, Yajayra Franco’s vibrant lighting, and Willow Edge’s impactful sound design) informs performance choices as well, as a strikingly diverse group of actors (more than half of the musical’s lead characters are played by performers of color) put personal stamps on their now iconic roles.

Brianna Pember’s luminous, intrepid Baker’s Wife is a major standout as are Shaheen Kapambwe’s daffy delight of a Cinderella, Matthew McCoy’s drolly dimwitted Jack (reconceived as a Midwest farm boy), and Munachimso’s sinewy, seductive Cinderella’s Prince, whose duet of “Agony” opposite a fabulous Armand Akbari as Rapunzel’s Prince is a hilarious showstopper not once but twice. (Akbari doubles amusingly as Cinderella’s Father.)

Another of Sawyer’s dual-role reassignments has the charismatic Brandon Borkowsky playing both The Wolf (Borkowsky’s lupine moves are as scary as they are seductive) and the aptly named Mysterious Man, whose duet of “No More” with Dylan Smith’s gorgeously voiced Baker provides the evening’s emotional high point.

 I absolutely loved Allison Belinkoff’s irresistibly spunky Little Red Ridinghood, and having Talha Barberousse’s sultry voiced hag-turned-diva Witch backed by Thomazin Jury as the embodiment of the “Witch’s Magic” makes Act One’s Witch even more demonic (besides giving her four hands instead of two).

Nia Otchere-Sarfo (A Chorus Line’s Cassie) makes Jack’s daft but loving mother her own new snappy creation, and cameo players Mikaela Celeste (Rapunzel), Jaina Jallow (Cinderella’s Mother), Morgan Rysso (Cinderella’s Stepmother), Alana Harrison and Janina Colucci (Florinda and Lucinda), Katrina Waight (Granny), and Andy Wissink (The Steward) are all terrific too, as are Helen Culpepper (Magic Harp), Nariya Douglas (Witch’s Magic, Giant), Alex Ketcham (Snow White), and dance captain Emmy Lane (Witch’s Magic), and last but not least, Annie Zhang not only manipulates Milky Way’s suitcase “head” atop her packing crate body (one of the show’s inspired design twists) but gives the aging cow a “human” face.

Add to all of the above the bewitching snippets of dance that choreographer Kate Dunn adds along the way, Anthony Lucca’s masterful musical direction, and the production’s lush 14-piece pit orchestra and you’ve got a university production that can give its professional counterparts a run for their money.

Ian Connolly is assistant director/dramaturg. Tina Archer is stage manager and Megan Reed and Alexis Cruz are assistant stage managers. Dominic Vacca is technical director.

No matter whether you’ve seen multiple productions of Into The Woods (I’ve seen nineteen so far) or this is your first time taking this magical musical journey, USC School of Dramatic Arts’ innovative, imaginative reconception of a classic is a guaranteed delight.

University of Southern California, Bing Theatre, 3500 Watts Way, Los Angeles.
https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/into-the-woods/

–Steven Stanley
October 28, 2022
Photos: Craig Schwartz for the USC School of Dramatic Arts

 

 

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