Ten years on from its first River Region presentation at the Cloverdale Playhouse, and again at Faulkner University a year later, Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's Into the Woods [1986] is again gracing the Faulkner stage, this time in the Pike Road Theatre Company Artistic Director James Keith Posey's masterfully sung iteration.
Sondheim's challenging musical score and lyrics [here accompanied by overly loud pre-recorded orchestrations], matched with Lapine's sophisticated dialogue, provides a suitably dark version of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, staying true to the original instead of some popular sanitized versions.
Many of the iconic stories are here -- Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk -- as well as the childless Baker and Wife; and, of course, there are Giant and a Witch.
But there's more: Sondheim and Lapine intertwine their stories, bringing everyone "into the woods" where mysterious forces abound. You see, the Baker and his Wife are childless because the Witch cast a spell that can only be resolved if they bring her "a cow as white as milk [Jack sells his milky white cow for magic beans], a cape as red as blood [Little Red's cape is blood red], hair as yellow as corn [Rapunzel's long locks are blonde], and a slipper as pure as gold [Cinderella's slipper that she loses at the King's Festival]". -- And we get caught up in their stories and misadventures while we're entertained by attempts to secure a happy-ever-after result.
Many lessons about tolerance, shared responsibility, honesty, consequences of our actions, and fantasy vs. reality are shared throughout the 2-hour and 45-minute production that the ensemble cast deliver with convincing performances and stunning singing voices, top among them are Brandtley McDonald and Kristen Vanderwal as the Baker and Wife ["It Takes Two"], David Rowland and Cameron Williams as two narcissistic Princes ["Agony" brings down the house], Riley Tate Wilson as Jack ["Giants in the Sky"], Grayson Hataway as Cinderella, with Mr. McDonald, Mr. Wilson, and Olivia Roden as Little Red Riding Hood ["No One is Alone"].
There are several surprises from Michael Buchanan in the dual roles of the Narrator/Mysterious Man, and from a "transformed" Witch in the person of Sarah Carlton.
And much can be made of the musical's warning to us all that "Children Will Listen" to what adults tell them either through their words or their actions.
