In addition to being marvelously entertaining, fairy tales endure because they help children grow and develop emotional resilience, teach moral lessons, and ultimately lead to a greater understanding of what it is to be human.
As it turns out, they do the same for adults, and if ever there were a cultural moment when we could all use more of all of the above, it’s now.
This is only part of the brilliance of Saugatuck Center for the Arts’ new production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s classic, Tony-Award-winning musical Into the Woods, an inventive mashup of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood that takes the further journey to explore both the light and the dark of what happens after our wishes come true.
With incredible attention to detail, Director and Choreographer Kurt Stamm maximizes the humor, the musicality, the magnificent possibilities and largesse of this tale and its sense of journey from start to finish. With a remarkable cast who give truly fine performances and excellent technical elements, the audience can’t help but go into the woods with these delightfully embodied characters and return to life outside the theater transformed.
Clever, colorful, and full of aphorisms that ring true and spring to life as vividly as the enormous characters through lovely, memorable melodies with complex tempos and sophisticated harmonies, this tale emerges through movements both big and small, but always wonderfully deliberate, across and through the wide stage at SCA.
There’s a sense of destination from even before the very beginning, as Jack (Weston Pytel) and his beloved cow, Milky White, the Baker (Neil Stratman) and his wife (Payton Reilly) , and Cinderella (Katie Fay Francis) with her wicked stepmother (Nicole Hale) and stepsisters (Emily McCormick and Sofia Porcel), are introduced through their seemingly inconsequential and unscripted actions in their little contained storybook spaces (set by Ranae Salmeyer) that are whisked on and off stage to create space for an infinite expanse of woods and countless scenes in different locations as well as our own imaginations to complete the images in our minds, just like children being told a story.
It’s exactly the right balance of exquisite visuals, including evocative lights by Jennifer Kules, terrific props by Technical Director Kevin MacLeod and sumptuous costumes from Amanda Vander Byl, with open space for the audience to co-create, inserting themselves in this very human allegory and completing the gorgeous stage pictures in their minds.
The story is beautifully structured, with Act I introducing characters through their desires: Jack wants to provide for his mother (Abby C. Smith); Cinderella wants to go to the King’s Festival; Little Red Riding Hood (Emily Pellecchia) wants food to bring to her grandmother; and most importantly, to set the action in motion, the Baker and his wife desperately want a family but are cursed to be childless by an evil witch (Gina Milo) who sends them intothe forest on a quest for four magical items to break the spell.
By the end of Act I, through trial and tribulation, and plenty of clever, funny moments, most notably Emily Pellecchia’s quirky Little Red and Daniel Chase Miller’s BDSM/furry Wolf, plus straight-up gorgeous numbers, such as “It Takes Two”, everyone has gotten what they wished for in what appears to be a happily-ever-after scenario. But Act II shatters their illusions, bringing death, destruction, and betrayal upon them, forcing the survivors to realize that their actions have caused devastating consequences and they must take responsibility for each other.
Their individual and collective journeys resolve with even bigger, sweeping numbers that sound incredible with Carolyn Brady’s music direction and wonderful live orchestra and include touching aphorisms in lovely ballads that really land in this production: “No One Is Alone” and “Careful the things you say/Children will listen” among them.
Indeed, it’s a catharsis both on stage and in the hearts of the audience, which is the purpose of great storytelling and perhaps the highest achievement in art, one that marries the human and divine. And at this moment in time, to be entertained into remembering our humanity while experiencing a little bit of magic is exactly what we need.
Into the Woods
Saugatuck Center for the Arts
June 19-July 12
sc4a.org
