Into the Woods... Can't Fit the Shoes!

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Unlike Cinderella, who finds happiness in a shoe that is just the right size, an audience member to the recent revival of Into the Woods may find themselves uncomfortable watching a production that doesn't quite seem to fit. This well-known musical, first on Broadway back in 1987, seemed, well... too long this time out! Did it need the heel to be chopped off or the ankle? Stephen Sondheim's music and lyrics, enticing as always, drove us through the complicated story-blend of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and one of their own creation The Baker and his Wife, with charm, laughter and sentiment. Paul Geminiani's musical direction was accurate and effective. The book, by James Lapine, is a good platform for comedy, drama and all the "in-between" to shine on stage, still it felt a bit longer than it should. Ironically, Mr. Lapine's direction wasn't nearly as generous as it could have been, seeing as how it lacked imagination and surprise.

The cast was mostly well picked but not well motivated! Even though each and every actor in this show is a wonderfully talented and skilled performer, it seemed that the characters missed out on edginess and intensity. The stakes for some reason never went high enough. One can say that fairytale characters, if anything, have higher stakes than real life people -I mean who gets threatened by giants and keeps his cool? Well in this case, most of the fairytale seemed indifferent to most of their bizarre crises... and oh we have heard it so many times in drama schools: "The higher the stakes, the better the comedy, the better the drama!"

It can not be contested that the stunningly gorgeous Vanessa Williams filled our ears with great singing, still her portrayal of the Witch never stretched beyond being two dimensional. It is almost unfair to Ms. Williams that the original production starring the incomparable Bernadette Peters is available for viewing. Ms. Peters in this part had so many layers it is difficult not to yearn for her performance when watching this one. The Narrator -also appearing as the Mysterious Man- (Dennis Kelly), the Baker's Wife (Kerry O'Malley) her husband the Baker (Stephen DeRosa), Cinderella (Laura Benanti), Jack (Adam Wylie), Little Red Riding hood (Molly Ephraim) and Rapunzel (Melissa Dye) were "correct" on their parts but didn't really seem to stretch themselves past that. As cute as the Princes might have been in their tight pants and Wolf costumes (Christopher Sieber and Gregg Edelman) their duet Agony, famously a highlight of the show, caused more agony to the audience than entertainment. I was surprised to see how the brilliant actress Marylouise Burke was so unfortunately miscast in the part of Jack's mother; vocally she came across small and her usually wonderful comic side disappeared as her son's magical beans did. The part of Milky-White, Jack's cow, got many laughs and the costume was a riot. However when the cow is getting the biggest laughs, you must take a moment to reflect upon what it is you are watching.

It is true that Into the Woods is this year's TONY WINNER of BEST REVIVAL OF A MUSICAL and maybe justly so. It is a fun show for a family to see. It teaches a moral (we will all get what we deserve in the end, oh yes we will...), it has a classic Broadway feel to it, the never still set (Douglas W. Schmidt), the wonderfully magical lights (Brian MacDevitt) the well crafted, inventive costumes (Susan Hilferty) and the simple but "space-filling" choreography (John Carrafa) put together a great canvas on which this show does very well. The high qualifications of this particular production team has caused us to look on this show with an expectant eye... we can only hope Cinderella won't be sending any birds our way!