Into the Woods – Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; Book by James Lapine; Directed by Lear deBessonet. At Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St. Boston through April 2.
by Mike Hoban
For musical theater fans, there’s nothing quite like seeing the classics, especially when they’re done so wonderfully by an uber-talented cast. That is certainly the case with the national touring production of Into the Woods, now playing at the Emerson Colonial Theatre through April 2nd. Presented as a concert version of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine fan favorite, the audience roared its approval – not just after each completed song, but before the cast had even sung a note. But given the level of joy this production provided to the sold-out opening night crowd, it turned out to be more prescient than fanboy/girl worship.
For those unfamiliar with the plot of this high school and community theater staple, Into the Woods is the ultimate embodiment of the adage, “Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.” Using characters from children’s fables – namely Cinderella, Jack of “Jack and the Beanstalk” fame, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and the Baker and his Wife – we learn there are consequences for getting what you think you want. Each of the characters is wishing “more than anything” for something that they are sure will grant them happiness, and they get it, however briefly, before paying an unexpected price for their dreams.
The show opens with the line – as befitting a fairy tale – “Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom,” (delivered by narrator David Patrick Kelly, who despite his Broadway resume will always be Jerry Horne from Twin Peaks to me). We soon meet the Baker and his Wife, who can’t have a child due to the curse put on their house by the neighbor, who – of course – happens to be an ugly old Witch who may be under a curse herself. To remove the curse, the couple must bring the Witch “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold,” and must do so before midnight three days hence. Since those items are possessed by Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack (as well as Rapunzel), we get a mashup of those stories as well as appearances by a couple of over-the-top privileged white guy princes and a wolf.
Into the Woods, besides being a musical gem that features musical theater standards like “Children Will Listen”, and “You Are Not Alone”, is essentially a comic sendup of those children’s tales, despite its staggering body count (if you go back and read the original fairy tales, they’re pretty gruesome). The structure provided by the concert-style production really allows the performers to go for broke with the comic elements in the show, which they do. On more than one occasion, cast members stifled a laugh to avoid a Carol Burnett-styled breaking of the fourth wall, so it’s obvious they’re having as much fun as the audience. The stripped-down staging (the orchestra is on stage behind the performers, literally backing them up) and absence of a real set (save for some enormous birch trees suspended from the ceiling) or special effects doesn’t detract from the production in any way and actually allows us to focus more intently on the interactions between the players.
While I’m reluctant to single out performers in a cast so loaded with talent, some players are especially deserving of a shoutout. Gavin Creel is insanely funny as the uber-vain Cinderella’s Prince and the crafty Wolf, Katy Geraghty re-invents Red Riding Hood as a super-snarky teen, and as the conflicted Baker’s Wife, Stephanie J. Block is also a standout. Montego Glover brings sexual energy to the role of the Witch (even as the old woman) and explodes on her signature songs. In addition to the solid cast, the excellent puppetry by Kennedy Kanagawa is especially noteworthy as he makes Milky White the Cow as vibrant and real as anyone in the cast. (One local note: Sam Simahk, a Boston favorite who played a Prince in the Lyric Stage’s 2014 outstanding production before moving to New York, is serving as an understudy for the tour, and is scheduled to perform next week.)
If you’ve never seen Into the Woods this is your chance to see why it’s one of the most beloved shows in the musical theater canon. If you’ve seen it before, go again. It’s just as magical as you remembered. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.emersoncolonialtheatre.com
