Theater Review—

Richter Does Well With ‘Into The Woods’ As Season Opener

By Julie Stern

DANBURY — I wonder if Danbury’s Musicals at Richter choice to open their 2005 season with the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine fairy tale-gone-askew Into the Woods, was inspired in part by the majestic trees that loom behind the outdoor stage. They blended seamlessly with Christopher Gladysz’ set, providing a darkly supernatural world where wolves and giants and talking birds and magical beans and witches seem right at home.

Lapine’s story takes a half dozen famous fairy tales and grafts onto them the conceit of a baker and his wife who are doomed to childlessness by a witch’s spell. The witch then offers to lift the curse if the couple will bring her four things: a white cow, a red cape, a golden slipper and hair like yellow cornsilk.

Handily, this offer comes on the weekend that Red Riding Hood happens to be going to visit her grandmother, Jack is sent by his mother to sell their only cow, Cinderella is mooning over the prospect of going to the ball and meeting the prince, and Rapunzel –  whom the witch has imprisoned in a doorless tower – catches the eye of the prince’s younger brother, who plans to seek her out and rescue her by climbing up her long yellow hair.

All of these scenarios involve a circuitous trek through these same woods, during which they interact with the baker and his wife, and, ultimately, everyone is granted their deepest wish, and the stories end happily ever.

But that’s just act one!

As Cinderella’s ghostly mother warns, “be careful what you wish for!” To quote a college roommate of mine, “Life is theater, not sculpture!”

Act Two explores the inevitable consequences the Brothers Grimm never mentioned (nor envisioned?). The prince, who loved Cinderella when he married her, becomes equally smitten with Snow White, while his brother ditches Rapunzel for a fling with Sleeping Beauty.

(As the prince explains in a self-justifying whine to Cinderella, “I was raised to be charming, not sincere!”)

When Jack dispatches the giant, he leaves a righteously enraged Mrs Giant, who sets about taking revenge on the entire kingdom. Red Riding Hood’s experience with the wolf being slit open so that she and granny can be saved, instills a bloodthirsty interest in violence that is downright un-damsel-like, and the baker’s wife is morally corrupted by “end justifies the means” philosophy that led her to collect the four magic properties by dishonest methods. She gets her child, but not the happiness she dreamed of.

Director E. Kyle Minor has forged these elements into a solid presentation, getting excellent performances from his entire cast, as well as from his technical staff. In particular, sound engineer Nick Santaniello and Musical Director Stephanie Gaumers keep the production on a clearly professional level. Kevin Sandler’s trumpet work is flawless.

Jane Ryan is especially riveting in the role of the witch, while Christina Balsama shines in the triple role of Cinderella’s godmother, Red Riding Hood’s Granny, and the voice of Mrs Giant.

Experienced actors Frank Arnone and Priscilla Squiers bring human personality to the baker and his wife, while the real-life couple Amy and John Congdon are classically matched as Cinderella and her prince. Mr Congdon also, most appropriately, plays Red Riding Hood’s hairy wolf when he wasn’t busy charming other ladies.

Matt Austin gives a strong dual performance as the show’s narrator as well as a mysterious little man who appears in the woods to advise the characters on what they should and shouldn’t do.

This was an extremely ambitious choice for the Richter company, and on the whole they handled it with flair and competence.

There are a few caveats, however. Despite the fact that the play deals with characters and plots that are familiar, if not from bedtime stories, at least from Disney movies, this is not a show for young children.

Both the disturbing consequences that comprise Act Two, and the significant (nearly three hour) length of the play make it a bad idea to bring the whole family.

Another thing is just my personal prejudice, the feeling that while Sondheim writes clever, poetical, moving lyrics (just think of the words he wrote for Leonard Bernstein’s songs in West Side Story) his own musical tone seems based too much on dissonance. You don’t go away from a Sondheim show humming the tunes, and it’s too sophisticated for you to ever hear him on a supermarket Muzak tape.

He explores character, and the bittersweet paradoxical complexity of life and dreams and relationships. You get that in his words, but sometimes I find myself wishing that Richard Rodgers had written some of the music.

(Performances continue at 100 Aunt Hack Road in Danbury on weekends until July 2. Call 748-6873 or visit www.MusicalsAtRichter.org for information.)