Into The Woods

St Mary’s Players never shy away from a challenge, and Sondheim’s Into The Woods is certainly that. The Tony award winning Score and Libretto is not an easy sing or story to tell. It centres around the Baker and his Wife longing for a child, and trying to break the Witches spell, Cinderella, wanting to go to the festival, Red Riding Hood visiting her Grandma and Jack being forced to sell his beloved cow.

The set on arrival consisted of 3 flats on trucks with the show title, which rotated to indicate the Bakers, Jacks and Cinderellas houses. The side flats showed us the woods close by. These flats moved to reveal the fabulous Wood, consisting of a raised area across the back, with some central steps and large tree trunks, and Rapunzel’s tower. This was visually stunning and a real feature of this production. There was some very inventive staging – particularly the material effect used for the bed and the wolf to recover Riding Hood and Granny from. Really nice work.

The Lighting was very atmospheric and fitted well with the production. A good use of haze enhanced the gobo effects with some lovely effects and colouring to create the required eerie effect of the woods. There was a good use of side-lighting here and some up-lighting from the orchestra ‘pit’.  Perhaps some more focused lighting would have helped with the intimacy of some of the solos, but the overall technical application was very strong and effective.

The sound was well balanced and cued. We did lose some of the dialogue within the ensemble who didn’t have mics and were allocated lines, which was a shame.  Sound effects were well-cued where used, particularly for the giant.

Costumes, hair and make-up were really impressive and in keeping, it was clear a lot of work had gone into these, well done to all the team.  There was some real invention and creation here – from the walking trees to the whole style and colour scheme for the Fairy Tale creatures. I’m not sure if we class Milky White as a costume, set or prop, but whatever we decide upon, it was a real triumph and worked brilliantly, including the feeding of items into the stomach. Properties used elsewhere were appropriate and effective.

Direction was generally slick with the cast doing the minimal scene changes. Entrance and exits for characters are complex and frequent and were all managed very well. The Witch’s disappearance effect worked really well too. Sondheim is notoriously difficult to sing and needs real focus and concentration from the audience and sometimes some of the solos needed a change of lighting or movement to ensure full engagement from the audience at all times.

The Musical Director did an excellent job. We all know there is no complete substitute for the impact of a live band, but we do appreciate the financial constraints in doing so. Keeping in time with backing tracks is never easy and an even greater challenge with a Sondheim musical, Overall, it was handled very well, with only a few brief moments where things wavered, but they were quickly and skilfully managed. The harmonies in “Noone is Alone” were beautiful.

Its not a big dance musical, but the choreography was appropriate in style and was executed confidently.

In reviewing the Principal characters:

The Narrator: You set the scene well, guiding the audience through the story. Your attention to the events of story at all times was very impressive.

The Baker: A really strong performance, you have such a lovely quality of tone, and ability to express the story so well. We were fully engaged with your character and his plight at all times.

The Baker’s Wife: Lovely vocals and characterisation, I loved how your character developed throughout and your scene with the Prince in Act 2 provided some great comic relief.

The Mysterious Man: You slipped in and out of the action deftly, as the character required.

Cinderella: lovely soprano vocals. Particularly enjoyed “On The Steps Of The Palace”

Florinda, Lucinda and Stepmother: Suitably horrible throughout. Enjoyed the shoe fitting section, funnily gruesome.

Cinderella’s Prince and Rapunzel’s Prince: both performed with finesse had a great rapport and played well off each other.

Jack: A lovely endearing performance, you really got the innocence of Jack without “playing” at it.

Jack’s Mother: you really demonstrated the weary nature of this character.

Milky White: really well executed, I was engrossed in the cow itself and didn’t look at you at all (other than to note your total focus), which is a sign of great puppetry. The focus of the Cow throughout was excellent.

Little Red Riding Hood: loved this portrayal with great energy and enthusiasm, it brought light relief and had me giggling throughout.

The Wolf: Suitably creepy and slimy

The Witch: Transitioned really well from old ugly witch to beautiful witch. We lost a bit of clarity in the words when doing the ugly witch in your efforts to embody the character. Vocally so strong throughout.

Rapunzel: Really pretty vocals in the Tower, contrasting with the unpleasant circumstances she finds herself in afterwards.

Cinderella’s Mother and Father, The Steward , The 3 Pig’s Wolf, Little Red’s Granny: all brought their own unique energy and personality to their characters. Well done.

The ensemble performed with conviction throughout, all thoroughly embodying the added fairytale characters. Just be careful, as there were moments where I was distracted from the main action by what was happening behind, there is a really fine balance between being fully in character and pulling focus. There was some beautiful singing throughout, I had goosebumps during “Noone is alone” it was so beautiful.

Congratulations everyone, on another lovely performance. Visually the show had a real impact, matched by some great performances on stage.

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