LOS ANGELES — We don’t always run, run, run to review big-budget commercial theater or standard repertory unless the thematic material calls out for attention on working-class or socially relevant issues. But we do love small theater and the hardworking, low-paid professionals on and off-stage who make it happen and so rarely get noticed. So today our gaze turns to a major Stephen Sondheim show staged in a modest little neighborhood house, hoping that by raising the conversation to the level of ideas more than performance, readers in our global audience will yet find something of value to think about about even if they are a continent away from the venue.
The production of Into the Woods now on the boards at L.A.’s Greenway Court Theatre is the best stage musical this reviewer has seen since—I don’t know, once upon a time? The two-act play, with music and lyrics by legendary lyricist/librettist/composer Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine, is a free-wheeling adaptation that takes the liberty to combine many different traditional European fairy tales into one overarching story. The familiar fables that unfold onstage over the course of about three hours include Jack and the Beanstalk (with Christian McCleary as dimwitted Jack and Lisa Dyson as his overbearing, pushy mother); Little Red Riding Hood (Emma Rose Lutsky); Cinderella (Kailyn Leilani); Rapunzel (Roni Paige); and more.
However, the thread that holds all these yarns together may not be based on one of the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales. Trance Thompson portrays the Baker and Sarah Wolter his wife—a childless couple bedeviled by a wicked Witch (Emily Jenda) who has cast an infertility spell upon the distraught husband and wife. To live happily ever after, they yearn to have a child, and their predicament is interwoven throughout the intricately plotted play. For instance, in order to lift the Witch’s curse, the infertile couple needs to obtain a cow, and to do so they give Jack beans which they claim are “magical” in exchange for his heifer, Milky-White (Aaron Camitses). Little do the scheming Baker’s Wife and Baker realize that said beans really do have supernatural powers, enabling Jack to grow a gigantic beanstalk, which he then climbs to surreptitiously enter the celestial realm of giants. The story that Lapine and Sondheim have spun revolves around this fateful act and its dire consequences.
I’m no Bruno Bettelheim—the Austrian psychologist who wrote 1976’s The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales—but what also holds this sprawling saga together is its thematic unity. The title gives away part of the musical’s inner meaning. To understand it, consider a related term: “You’re not out of the woods yet.” Which presumably translates as one not being out of trouble yet. So, entering the woods can be understood as leaving one’s comfort zone behind and entering the unknown, where dangers may lurk—such as the funnily ferocious Wolf (Peyton Crim), who waylays and devours Little Red Riding Hood when she’s visiting Granny at her rustic cottage.
In order to bring Sondheim/Lapine’s three-hour-plus extravaganza engagingly alive, veteran director Mary Jo Duprey deploys a fluid visual sense and style. The musical’s mise-en-scène flows vividly across a partly bare thrust stage (Ian Geatz, who recently designed Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum’s Tartuffe, is the set designer). The Ovation Award-nominated helmer also has a strong sonic sense: Duprey is a voice teacher who has voice coached rocker Jon Bon Jovi and trained Hamilton’s Tony Award winner Daveed Diggs. These skills serve Duprey and her cast well as they perform 25-plus songs, accompanied by five live musicians (pianist Anthony Zediker is Wood’s music director).
With a cast of 20-ish performers, I can single a few out for praise. Despite an injury shortly before opening night, Trance Thompson, using crutches, did yeoman’s work, singing and acting admirably as the Baker, who is arguably the musical’s lead character. As the Baker’s Wife, Sarah Wolter brings down the house more than once, but especially in a scintillating scene where the staid married woman strays and takes a walk on the wild side in the forest primeval with the charming Prince, played by Peyton Crim. In an all too brief but compelling double role, as indicated above, Crim also portrays the big bad Wolf, imbuing a madcap malevolence (talk about Crim’s fairy tales!) as he stalks Little Red Riding Hood, who is depicted by Emma Rose Lutsky as a somewhat mean-spirited teenager. On the other hand, Kailyn Leilani’s Cinderella remains good-natured throughout, even though the scullery maid’s marriage to the Prince doesn’t exactly have a fairy tale ending.
This production has some cross-gender casting, with a gown-garbed Brandon Schumann as one of Cinderella’s nasty stepsisters (costumes designed by Michael Mullen). Indeed, as Milky-White, Aaron Camitses’ role is not only transgender but is actually trans-species too. Unable to communicate through dialogue—because like, you know, he’s playing a cow—similar to silent screen stars, it behooves Camitses to avail himself of facial expressions, gestures, etc., to get his bovine character’s points across. As the withered Witch who becomes beautiful, the effervescent Emily Jenda undergoes a remarkable before and after transformation, mightily abetted by hair/make-up designer (and miracle worker) Krys Fehervari.
The peerless team of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine also gave us another 1980s Broadway musical, Sunday in the Park with George, about the Parisian pointillist painter Georges Seurat. Sondheim (1930-2021) was a multiple Tony and Grammy Award-winning composer and lyricist, who also earned an Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize. Early on in his career, Sondheim penned the lyrics to West Side Story, and his Woods side story’s songs are often enticingly lyrical and lovely.
My favorite number is the grand finale, sung by the Witch and Company, “Children Will Listen.” According to a documentary I saw, Sondheim did not have a happy childhood and found a sort of substitute parent in Oscar Hammerstein II, who mentored young Stephen. Oscar wrote the poignant lyrics for “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught,” which decried instilling racism in the impressionable minds of children, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic South Pacific. One could say that with his beautiful “message” song, Stephen won another “Oscar.”
This superb revival of Into the Woods is a stellar show, that movingly ponders the meaning of life and all the chances we must take while we embark upon our journeys, in and out of the proverbial woods. It is the perfect fairy tale for grown-ups (but, ironically, probably not for small children—say, under 14—due to some bawdy content and its length). As the opening night standing ovation proved, a splendid time was had by all. Bravo!
Knot Free Productions in association with Greenway Arts Alliance presents Into the Woods through August 11 at 8:00 p.m. on Fri. and Sat., and 6:30 p.m. on Sun. at the Greenway Court Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles 90036. Free parking is available in the lot adjacent to the theatre. Tickets may be purchased online or by phone at (323) 673-0544.
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