Since its world premiere at San Diego's Old Globe 20 years ago, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's fractured fairy tale musical "Into the Woods" has had its share of fans and foes.
For some, the musical is a witty, warm and touching storybook meditation on growing up, self-reliance and the consequences of greed. For others, it's a monotonous trip down fairy tale lane with few catchy songs and overclever lyrics. But whether you love it or hate it (I personally like the musical more every time I see it), you'll agree that the season-opening production at Lamb's Players Theatre is superb.
The show goes right in every way, from its excellent across-the-board cast, to Robert Smyth's funny and smartly detailed direction, to Pamela Turner's lively choreography and its imaginative costumes and sets that pop right out of the imagination and onto the stage. It's the best overall staging of "Into the Woods" I've seen in many years.
"Into the Woods" gathers together classic fairy tale characters (Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella and Rapunzel) and interlaces their stories with that of a poor Baker and his Wife, who have been cursed with childlessness by a vengeful witch. In the first act, all of these characters pursue and achieve their most cherished wishes.
But all goes wrong in the second act, when each character faces the consequences of getting everything they asked for. Cinderella finds herself unhappily married to a philandering prince; Rapunzel goes mad after being unleashed from her tower into the cruel world; the Baker's Wife finds parenting a drag; and Jack's thieving trips up the beanstalk unleash the fury of a rampaging giantess, who picks off the villagers (including the musical's hapless narrator) one by one until the surviving characters unite against her to find their own happy ending.
There is ample humor in Lapine's script and Sondheim's lyrics, and the Lamb's production never misses an opportunity for laughs. This keeps the three-hour show rolling along so merrily you hardly notice the time. And casting is a key element in getting the right emotional tone for the show's vapid, one-dimensional cardboard characters.
Petite Season Marshall was born to play the role of Little Red Riding Hood. She's buxom and bratty and her wide-eyed innocence just barely hides a wink of budding sexuality. Lanky, google-eyed Spencer Moses (hilariously shod in a Little Lord Fauntleroy wig) makes Jack a goofy but endearingly sweet dim-bulb. And as the two handsome princes, David S. Humphrey and Jason Heil, ooze both square-chinned charm and unapologetic insincerity in equal measure.
As the Witch, whose cruelty and possessiveness lead to the loss of her only child, Deborah Gilmour Smyth sings her heart out and brings so much realistic grief to her second-act solos that she left many opening-night patrons dabbing tears from their eyes.
As the kindhearted Cinderella, Jennifer Shelton is simply beautiful in all ways -- physically, vocally and dramatically. As the musical's only two "real" characters, the Baker and his Wife, Ryan Drummond and Becky Biegelsen, have to play it fairly straight and natural, but they make a wholesome, earnest and believable couple (and they have two of the best voices in the cast). And Kerry Meads brings a lot of laughs to the usually grating role of Jack's endlessly complaining mother.
Chrissy Reynolds-Vogele is vacuous as the nutty Rapunzel; Doren Elias does double duty as the wise (but doomed) narrator and the weird Mysterious Man; and smaller roles are played amusingly by Colleen Kollar, Ralph Johnson, Dagmar Krause Fields, Christopher Nelson, Erin Byron and Kelli Kelley.
Among the show's best-delivered numbers are the princes' duet "Agony," the fast-paced tour-de-force quintet "Your Fault," the Witch's show-stopping "Last Midnight" and the show-closing finale "Children Will Listen." Sondheim's songs, with their fast-paced lyrics and every-shifting tempos are notoriously hard to memorize, but the cast is articulate, well-rehearsed and deliver the songs with thoughtful emotion.
Mike Buckley's versatile forest cutout set, inspired by the storybooks of Maurice Sendak, and Jeanne Reith's brightly colored costumes bring a joyous, childlike creativity to the production (along with Nate Parde's smoke-enhanced lighting design and Greg Campbell's "boom, crunch" sound design). And the live orchestra, musically directed by G. Scott Lacy, smoothly glides through Sondheim's tricky score.
Even if you're not a huge fan of "Into the Woods," you will be when you leave Lamb's Players Theatre. It's a great way to start off their 2006 season.
