The Nocturne Theatre opens its Spring 2024 season with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into The Woods, and though not everything works in the oft-produced musical’s latest revival, its striking high fantasy look, a number of inspired directorial choices, and more than a few sensational performances earn cheers.

It’s been nearly forty years now since Into The Woods had its Old Globe World Premiere in 1986, decades during which Sondheim and Lapine’s magical musical has captivated audiences with its clever 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 decades after it first dazzled Broadway audiences.

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 (the childless Baker and his wife) and a Witch, and has them meet and interact while on a variety of missions which have sent them Into The Woods.

Cinderella attends her ball (though here it is a festival lasting several days), Jack goes off to sell Milky White, his beloved cow, 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, all the characters have become acquainted and their fairy tale happiness has been assured—until the narrator’s Act One curtain line alerts us that there is more, much more, to come.

Over the decades since its Broadway debut, Into The Woods has become as much of a directorial showcase as it is a gift to performers, and director Justin Meyer signals from the get-go (with a Narrator who quite literally sets things in motion) that his ITW will feature its own unique touches, among them a high-fantasy look reminiscent of Lord Of The Rings, The NeverEnding Story. and Game of Thrones.

In addition, Meyer makes impressive use throughout the evening of all four corners of the Nocturne’s multi-level arena stage, set pieces adeptly designed by Jay Michael Roberts.

Liana Rose may be years younger than the Broadway stars who’ve played the Witch before her, but unlike many of her more seasoned predecessors, she’s not afraid to go big and bold, a must for the role. Add to that the most powerful of pipes and the UC Irvine grad is a bona fide dazzler.

Madison Stirrett’s Baker’s Wife is as radiant as she is comedically gifted, a delightful Lilli Babb sings Cinderella with the most exquisite of sopranos, Abby Espiritu makes for the fiercest and most fabulous of Little Reds, and Brayden Hade doubles engagingly as both the musical tale’s Narrator and a Mysterious Man who may be more than he appears.

Nolan Monsibay is a delectably dim, carrot-topped Jack opposite Kate Clarke’s deliciously daft, ginger-tressed Mother.

Kelby Thwaits is a golden-voiced hoot as Cinderella’s Prince, his “Agony” duet with Darius Marquis Johnson stopping the show more than once, though unfortunately Johnson doesn’t quite hit all the right notes in his solos. (Thwaits doubles seductively as The Wolf.)

Making Samantha Tilly’s mute but expressive Milky White as much a living, breathing character as her human counterparts is a nifty directorial choice, but having Jack’s pet stick around in Act Two dilutes the power of four survivors uniting as a family if one of them already has a “sibling” by his side.

On an equally mixed note, Nathanael O’Neal does so little with one of the richest roles in the Sondheim oeuvre that the deeply felt emotion of the Baker’s final encounter with Hade’s Mysterious Man comes as too little too late.

Mikki Pagdonsolan (Granny, Rapunzel), Chess MacElvane (Steward), Rachel Franke (Stepmother), Renee Cohen (Lucinda), and Faith Berrigan (Florinda) provide entertaining support, joining their fellow cast members in Melissa Meyer’s jaunty choreography sprinkled in throughout the show.

Not all of Tanya Cyr’s fantastical creature and costume designs work for me (the Princes’ outfits are a bit too “out there” and I don’t quite get Little Red’s horn adornments) but most are out-of-this-world fabulous. (I especially love the extravagant stand-up collar of Cinderella’s all-white ball gown and Princess Cinderella’s glittery Game of Thrones-y headdress.)

Eric Marsh’s lighting design, while a bit too dim for my tastes, does feature multiple ingenious touches, among them the rapid-fire color shifts to match “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood…”

Music director Monsibay elicits terrific vocals and harmonies from a cast performing to prerecorded tracks, though Matt Merline’s sound engineering needs some adjusting to ensure that dialog doesn’t get drowned out by musical underscoring.

Micahlis Schinas is assistant choreographer. Micah Delhauer is stage manager.

December’s Madame Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Musical set the bar high for future Meyer2Meyer Entertainment productions, and though Into The Woods isn’t quite the all-around triumph that holiday treat was, it promises exciting things to come in Glendale.

The Nocturne Theatre, 324 N. Orange St., Glendale.
www.TheNocturneTheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
March 14, 2024

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Tags: James Lapine, Los Angeles Theater Review, Stephen Sondheim, The Nocturne Theatre