Review: Delightful ‘Into the Woods’ at South Coast Repertory
Composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1986 classic “Into the Woods” endures not only because it retells fairytales for adults, but because of Sondheim’s ingenious, harmonic music and clever, evocative lyrics.
South Coast Repertory’s current production — excellently directed by Peter Rothstein with an invested and talented cast — does the musical justice, sending its songs soaring while underscoring its humanity and humor.
The story’s first act interweaves several fairytale strands like ribbons around a maypole.
Little Red Ridinghood (Hailey Truong) visits a baker (Dylan Saunders) to get bread for her grandmother (and sweet treats for herself). But the baker and his wife (Danielle Hope) want a child and are told by a witch (Valerie Perri) — who keeps her own adopted daughter Rapunzel (Becca Claire Hart) in a tower — that they need to bring her certain items to reverse their curse of barrenness, including a blood-red cape (belonging to a certain little girl), a milky white cow (like Jack’s, of beanstalk fame) and a gold slipper (like Cinderella’s).
So their quest begins, with the baker and his wife venturing into the woods to find those items, randomly (or not) encountering the other characters traveling through for different reasons. Reinforced by Sondheim’s dissonant harmonics, the musical renders the woods a scary place where anything can happen — and often does.
Amid the dense timbers, Little Red Ridinghood meets a wolf (“Hello, Little Girl”); the young and somewhat dim Jack (Christian Tyler Dorey) sells his cow for beans; Cinderella (Mia Pinero) finds her way to a ball and, incidentally, dances with a prince (Deni), while the prince’s brother (Cooper Lee Bennett) stumbles upon Rapunzel’s tower.
Adam Koch’s carousel-like set design, with projections by Greg Emetaz and lighting by Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz, creates an atmospheric, green-tinged forest of trees through which the characters crisscross. But there’s a playfulness to the production as well — Jack’s cow is a large wooden toy on wheels, the princes leap whenever they get the chance and Rapunzel always sings the same la-la-la song.
The first act is especially cohesive and well-orchestrated, thanks to Rothstein’s well-paced direction and a charismatic narrator (Chamblee Ferguson), to arrive at the familiar happy endings of the stories. But just when you think nothing more can happen, the second act takes a darker turn, asking whether we are actually happy when we get what we wish.
As in real life, the answer to that is complicated for each character. Is Cinderella satisfied as a princess, and is her prince cut out to be a husband (“Agony”)? What happens when the Baker family have a crying baby and need a bigger house? And what has Little Red Ridinghood lost in gaining her new, badass wolfskin cape?
Moreover, a giant’s wife is now rampaging through the kingdom because Jack killed her husband while stealing their golden harp. Evoked by a booming voice and shadow, the giantess crushes houses while searching for Jack, even killing some of the characters — each ceremonially leaving behind an item of clothing as they depart.
This global crisis elicits divisive blame on all sides (“Your Fault”), as in real life now, fracturing what’s left of our fairytale world.
Though provocative, the second act feels more structurally episodic than the first, possibly because the familiar stories have now progressed into uncharted territory. But where the first act unfolds like a choreographed dance, the second is more linear, with discrete scenes and an unclear destination.
Still, the ensemble does marvelously with the songs, allowing the characters’ new shared story to resolve in a satisfying way as the survivors find hope and self-understanding in a new family (“No One Is Alone”).
All the actors have stellar voices, with Hope as the baker’s wife, Truong as a pert Little Red Ridinghood, Pinero as an earthy and real Cinderella and Deni as the debonair Prince and rapacious Wolf standing out for presence and vocals.
Crisp off-stage music direction by Wiley DeWeese, with clear and balanced sound design by Noel Nichols for Uptown Works, is icing on the cake of this delicious production, its transporting music and smart, often humorous lyrics brought to rich life by South Coast Rep’s talented cast and crew — a fairytale indeed.
“Into the Woods” continues through Oct. 18 at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa, with shows Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. For tickets and information, call the box office at 714-708-5555 or visit SCR.org. Run time is 2 hours and 35 minutes, including intermission.
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