Into The Woods

Thornbury Musical Theatre Group

INTO THE WOODS.         The Armstrong Hall, Thornbury.       October 25th 2018

Director: Heather Collins

Choreographer: Alice Walton                                             MD: Stephanie Harrison

This musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, takes several of the characters from ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’, ‘Rapunzel’ and ‘Cinderella’, plus a Baker and his wife who are linked to the story of Rapunzel.  It explores the consequences of what happens when the characters pursue their wishes and dreams, and certainly ‘Be careful what you wish for’ is the on-going theme. 

The Band was surrounded by a walkway, which was used well throughout.  The opening had a large book in the centre of the stage, through which the characters appeared.  There was greenery and a log permanently set on the apron stage left.  When the book disappeared the stage had three acting areas representing three houses, with Jack’s house stage right, the Baker’s house in the centre and Cinderella’s house stage left.  As the story progressed there were well handled set changes taking us to new locations.  There were some clever well-designed technical moments; such as the tree with the spirit of Cinderella’s mother, the vertical bed for Red Riding Hood’s Granny when they cut through the quilt to release Red Riding Hood and her Granny from the Wolf’s stomach, the falling shelves and other effects when the Giant was on the rampage, and the spectacular levitating witch.

The show was well costumed and combined with makeup and wigs helped with almost immediate character recognition for the audience.  As part of the Wolf’s makeup he wore a mask, which covered part of his face so that it did not interfere with dialogue and singing.  The witch made a very clever change from old crone to her former youthful self on-stage, well done.

Once again choreographer Alice Walton had provided the cast with interesting choreography, all well rehearsed and executed.

As always the music of Sondheim is challenging with many harmonies, and characters singing against each other.  Much of the finer detail of the story is told through the songs and I am afraid I lost some of it through not being able to hear the words clearly.  Musical Director Stephanie Harrison had taught the music well and the musicians and singers were always together.  There was good balance between voices and the well-controlled instruments so the singers were not overpowered.  There were some nice solos, duets and ensemble pieces, with characters creating lovely emotions to compliment the moving music.

The actors all performed confidently, giving believable performance, obviously enjoying their roles, with pairings working well together and they all coped well with the changing dynamics as the story became darker in the second half.

Director Heather Collins had made sure her cast maintained the pace and that there were scene changes going on while action was taking place elsewhere, so there were very few pauses. There were good friezes when action was happening in different areas of the stage, and good interaction between the characters.  The whole company had worked hard to bring a lovely production to the stage, which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

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