Into The Woods

It takes a brave soul to venture down into the woods, and an even braver amateur group to tackle the late Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece - Into The Woods.  Having only seen a professional version of Into The Woods about ten years ago – I had absolutely no idea what was coming my way as I took my seat at the Rosehill Theatre ahead of watching Whitehaven ADAOS’ production.  I had seen a lot of publicity for the show on social media and was excited to see their take on this incredibly difficult piece, intertwining many character’s from the Brothers Grimm fairytales.

It was clear from the programme notes right through to the execution, this show very much was director James Last’s baby.  From the moment the curtains opened to reveal the atmospheric set design until they closed again, this show exuded creativity and vision in every scene – giving a real fresh feel to the show.  From the paper birds right through to the different interpretation of Cinderella’s mother (certainly adding the Grimm to the Grim Reaper!)  -to achieve what he did on the small stage at Rosehill deserves every plaudit possible!   

With a running time of over three hours, I did feel that Act One should have been much snappier and I can only put this detriment down to having both members of the directing team playing a role in the show.  Having had to do it myself in the past – for me it becomes impossible once that show goes up to really switch off from all other duties and just drink the show in. If there was a constant pair of eyes watching from out front I think this could have been tightened– though that said, he did play an absolutely marvellous Narrator, so I was very glad he chose to be in it too!

Assisting James as his Choreographer, Tracy McOuat also trod the boards as The Witch.   She handled the vocally challenging role very well.

The musical is tied together by an overarching plot of a Baker and his Wife, who are on the quest to start a family.  These are two of the most wonderful roles in musical theatre, and were played brilliantly by Sam Smethurst and Becky Murray.   Becky’s headstrong, intelligent and slightly immoral Baker’s wife was the perfect blend against Sam’s timid and subdued Baker.   I really enjoyed Becky’s Moments In The Wood and we were kept waiting until the end for Sam’s big number No More.  On my journey home, I usually have one ‘Car Thought’ - something from the show that sticks in my mind for the duration of the drive – Sam got the honour tonight and his poignant delivery of this beautiful song.

I really liked Rachel Pons portrayal of Cinderella, she demonstrated great versatility and gave a charming rendition of On The Steps of The Palace.  Aron Armstrong and Jack Riley stepped up to the mark as Cinderella’s and Rapunzel’s Prince, respectively.  Their Agony, was well sung and got the necessary laughs out of the witty lyrics.  Jack also doubled up as the Wolf – both characters very different from each other.

Whitney Bell shone every time she came on stage as Red Riding Hood.  With just the right amount of spoilt brat and vulnerable child mixed together, she did a great job and was quite clearly having a ball!  

Musical Director Mike Ames worked wonders with the company on what is arguably the most challenging musical they have done in their history.  He led a small band of five players from the keyboard and it was clear from the off that the performers must have really loved working on this difficult score and on the whole was very well sung.  

Considering the role is written for a high tenor, I thought Sophie Morgan handled the gender swapped role of Jack brilliantly.  Giants In The Sky is a big sing, and whilst I couldn’t fault Sophie’s delivery of it (she hit that final F sharp with ease!),  I just wished the song had been transposed to sit more comfortably for an unbroken voice. This would have enabled the singer a little more freedom to concentrate on the storytelling, rather the focusing on the technicalities of delivering a complex song.

The show ended with a beautiful reprise of Children Will Listen – it was a really lovely cadence to the evening and got the song stuck in my head for the rest of the night.

Technically I thought the show was brilliant and very well thought out, but I felt not having the company mic’d was a slight misfire.  Whilst I thought the cast did well to power over the band, at times it was very difficult to hear what was going on.  A lot of exposition is bundled into the fifteen minutes of prologue and I felt the important details of plot were being missed whilst we attuned to the natural acoustics of the room - which is a shame as the cast were clearly working their socks off.   

I must give a special shout out to Emma Jarvis who designed and built the puppets featured in the show.  Milky White was absolutely brilliant both in construction and operation!  Emma enabled the cow’s emotions to be channelled through herself, and most importantly did this without pulling focus from the scene, like any skilled puppeteer.

There were some really lovely moments throughout this show, and I’m so glad that WADAOS took the risk to try something new for the area.  I commend you for the work you did publicising the show and hope that you got the houses during the week you rightly deserved.  Thank you for the hospitality, it was lovely to meet you all on my first visit to WADAOS.

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