{"id":3006,"date":"2012-03-19T23:36:55","date_gmt":"2012-03-20T03:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=3006"},"modified":"2012-04-21T21:28:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-22T01:28:53","slug":"sometimes-the-path-strays-from-you-into-the-woods-at-center-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/?p=3006","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes the Path Strays from You: INTO THE WOODS at Center Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Theater Reviews Page<\/a> | Previous Theater Review<\/a> | Next Theater Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes the Path Strays from You: INTO THE WOODS at Center Stage<\/h2>\n

Posted on BroadwayWorld.com March 18, 2012<\/p>\n

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Lauren Kennedy & Britney Coleman<\/p><\/div>\n

Into the Woods<\/em> (in revival at Center Stage in a co-production with Connecticut\u2019s Westport Country Playhouse) is one of that handful of musicals that can truly be called profound.\u00a0 And small surprise, because its subject, the folklore passed on from parents to children under the deceptively superficial name of fairy tales, is equally profound.\u00a0 Fairy tales are timeless because the kitchen drudge who yearns to become a princess, the little girl vanquishing a wolf encountered on the way to grandmother\u2019s house, the simpleton who sells the family cow for a handful of magic beans, and their kindred, are archetypes of each of us, at various moments in the trajectories of our lives.\u00a0 As such, there is actually nothing superficial about them.\u00a0 By mashing up these stories, composer\/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book author James Lapine demonstrate the common dynamics in these tales that enable them to speak so powerfully to us.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I Wish<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n

As most theatergoers know, the stories start with a common sense of longing. \u00a0As we discover Cinderella (Jenny Latimer), the Baker and his Wife (Erik Liberman and Danielle Ferland), Red Riding Hood (Dana Steingold), and Jack (of Beanstalk fame) (Justin Scott Brown), the common phrase in their song is \u201cI wish.\u201d\u00a0 To pursue these wishes (to go to the festival, to have a child, to visit granny, to sell the cow), they are compelled to enter \u201cThe Woods,\u201d which are far more than any mere geographical Black Forest.\u00a0 These are simultaneously the place where anything can happen (like the dreamlike forest in A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>) and a metaphor for early encounters with risk and growth that come into each of our lives.\u00a0 Mostly, things go well for the heroes and heroines, as befits their status in the tales about them.\u00a0 They not only succeed, but they learn much about the world and themselves, leading to some degree of mixed emotions.\u00a0 As Red Riding Hood summarizes her encounter with the wolf: \u201cAnd he made me feel excited\/-Well, excited and scared.\u201d\u00a0 Ditto Cinderella fleeing from her prince: in this version of the story, there is no short-lived pumpkin coach whose expiration forces her to leave the palace, but she simply finds herself unable to process immediately the erotic promise of the encounter and needs to break it off for the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we proceed, we also learn that these tales are not only about young people finding their mates or coming to terms with their sexuality or starting their families.\u00a0 They are about age as well as youth, especially the familiar dance of closeness and separation between parent and child.\u00a0 This is most poignantly true of the Witch (Lauren Kennedy) and Rapunzel (Britney Coleman).\u00a0 What Rapunzel sees as the mother interfering with her independence and her relationship with her Prince (Robert Lenzi), the Witch sees as protecting her daughter from a terrifying and deadly world.\u00a0 They are each wrong \u2013 and right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Act I of course ends with all problems resolved, and all the heroes and heroines successful, as the ancient tales ordain.\u00a0 But Act II is where the real genius of the show goes to work.\u00a0 Like Act II of the Fantasticks<\/em>, but far more richly, it takes as its premise the obvious truth that every happy ending is the beginning of another tale, and that when you have nowhere to go but down, down is where you have to go.\u00a0 Lapine and Sondheim ask themselves and us what these same archetypal characters could tell us about ourselves if they were allowed to play out their strings further, beyond the happy endings.\u00a0 The answers to that question are what make this musical one of the great evenings of theater.<\/span><\/p>\n

Act II<\/span><\/h3>\n

The characters are all compelled by circumstances to go back<\/em> into the woods, and this time they encounter there such things as infidelity, divorce, the death of parents, the death of children, abandonment, catastrophe \u2013 and overarching this the absence of a narration (the narrator, played by Jeffry Denman, becomes a casualty) or any other authoritative guidance as to the choices that need to be made.\u00a0 As one of the characters observes: \u201cThe path has strayed from you.\u201d\u00a0 The unsettling conclusion: \u201cYou decide what’s right \/ You decide what’s good.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is all incredibly sad and confusing, not to mention frightening, and yet as the core of surviving characters gels, so does the indomitability of the human spirit they evince.\u00a0 This story too, it is suggested by the moving final number, CHILDREN WILL LISTEN, should be told our children.<\/span><\/p>\n

To me, this is Sondheim\u2019s greatest musical.\u00a0 As great as he is and abundant as are his gifts, he can and frequently does misfire.\u00a0 But here, supported by Lapine\u2019s flawless script, Sondheim (unlike the characters) never goes astray.\u00a0 The music is stirring and intelligent, with motifs constantly recycling in ways that directly illuminate the action.\u00a0 The lyrics are supple and studded with dazzling wordplay, whether it be one-liners (\u201cIf the end is right, it justifies the beans\u201d) or tongue-twisters: (\u201cIf it were not for the thicket-\u201c \u201cA thicket’s no trick.\u201d \u201cIs it thick?\u201d \u201cIt’s the thickest.\u201d)<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the acting demands are not extreme, because of the frequent wide and unusual pitch intervals, it does not appear to be an easy musical to sing, and its frequent ensemble numbers call for razor-sharp timing.\u00a0 Director Mark Lamos keeps everything running perfectly.\u00a0 Indeed, this is an impeccable production which can stand comparison to the original 1987 cast version (streamable on Netflix, if you care to compare).\u00a0 In fact, there is actually one member of that cast in this production: Danielle Ferland, now the Baker\u2019s Wife, was the original Red Riding Hood.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have been critical of Center Stage at times for being too staid and too safe.\u00a0 And while I won\u2019t s<\/span>ay this production takes any notable risks, it goes full-bore, and no one would accuse it of being staid.\u00a0 As Maryland\u2019s State Theater, Center Stage is supposed to be the benchmark for Baltimore.\u00a0 With the city\u2019s vibrant theater scene, Center Stage cannot lead from behind, even if its mission surely calls for serving up a good proportion of classics.\u00a0 This rendering of Into the Woods<\/em> is exactly the way a classic should be done in this venue: with grace and style: Center Stage at its best.<\/span><\/p>\n

Copyright (c) Jack L. B. Gohn, except for photograph<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Theater Reviews Page<\/a> | Previous Theater Review<\/a> | Next Theater Review<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The folklore passed on from parents to children under the deceptively superficial name of fairy tales is profound. Fairy tales are timeless because the kitchen drudge who yearns to become a princess, the little girl vanquishing a wolf encountered on the way to grandmother\u2019s house, the simpleton who sells the family cow for a handful of magic beans, and their kindred, are archetypes of each of us, at various moments in the trajectories of our lives. As such, there is actually nothing superficial about them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3098],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-closeup","category-theater-reviews-and-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3021,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions\/3021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebigpictureandthecloseup.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}