By Cindy Whitehair, Perry Whitehair, and Perry S Whitehair
When Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater announced their season for this year, I jumped on the opportunity to review this show, which is a favorite in our family. Written by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, Into the Woods is a mash up of fairy tales – Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack and The Beanstalk. Baker and his wife (Stefan Espinosa and Ginger Bess) have been cursed by the witch next door (Alissa Anderson). In order to have the curse reversed, they need to go on a quest to find ingredients for a spell. Along the way they meet Little Red Riding Hood (Cecilia Trippiedi), Jack (Conor Shatto), the Wolf (Markel Reed), Cinderella (Olivia Yokers) and Rapunzel (Emily Dyer Reed ) and their princes (Robert Gerold and Benjamin Howard). Everyone is out chasing their own dream, but what happens when the dream meets reality is what the play is all about.
Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater company is a consistently outstanding technical company and Into The Woods lives up to their high standards. The set (design by Patrick Larsen) is as much a central character in the show as the cast is. The trees for the woods are rolled and repositioned to indicate movement. The tree for Cinderalla’s mother (Jenina Galloway) is simply breathtaking. Costumes (Mallory Maria Prucha) and wigs and make-up (Georgiana Eberhard) have just the right mix of fairy tale and reality. Lights (Chris Wood) and sound (Carl J. Whitaker) help tell some of the more complicated aspects of the story with ease. What is really fun is having the stage crew in character and costume. They appear as random villagers onstage, which keeps the magic of the show alive. Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater Company employs a live orchestra, William Renners conducting.
The glue that holds this show together are Baker and his wife, which is a daunting task for any actor. Espinosa and Bess are more than up to this challenge. You really get the feel of the complexity of their relationship. Bess brings aspects out in her character that are often glossed over by other companies (who really downplay her tryst with the prince) and it makes her character more human and more in control of her actions. Anderson played her own version of the Witch (and not a Bernadette Peters imitation). You see her love for Rapunzel, but you also see her vindictive nature bubble up from time to time. She is cynical and that leads to her be the prototypical over protective parent. Her “Children Will Listen” is part parental lament and warning to Baker as he raises his son. Yorkers’ Cinderella is one of the most balanced we’ve seen. Even though she is not a mother, she becomes the mother to their little band as they fight the giant. When she says good bye to her prince saying “living in my father’s house was a nightmare, living in your house was a dream – now I am ready for something in between”, you feel her heart and her heartbreak.
Trippiedi’s Little Red shows the heart of a girl who is ready to see the best in others and when they don’t show their best, she struggles with how to react to it. Her energy is infectious – onstage and in the audience. Shatto’s Jack is the perfect counterpart to Little Red. His energy and heart are equally infectious. Gerold and Howard as the princes give their characters a dimension not often seen in other productions. Gerold’s “I was raised to be charming, not sincere,” had a tinge of sadness and regret that brings a tear to the eye.
The ensemble (Cassandra Coulam, Jonathan Ray, Pamela Gee, Vanessa Ballam, Leah Brzyski, Olvia LaBarge, Sarah-Nicole Carter, Darren Lekeith Drone, Stephanos Tsirakoglou, Tascha Anderson, Liana Gineitis, and Kevin Nakatani) is a great collection of standouts. Jack’s Mother (Carter), the palace Steward (Drone), the Narrator (Tsirakoglou) and the wicked step-sisters, Florinda and Lucinda (Anderson and Gineitis) all had their hysterical moments. One of the best moments came with Baker and the Mysterious Man (Nakatani) have their moment in “No More”. This song is often a “throw away” song in many productions, but the connection between the two actors brought out all of the sorrow, regret, and determination (to correct a wrong). This really is the lynch pin song of Act Two and these men really hit home with it.
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The moment that really captured the heart of the show was in Act Two. “You Are Not Alone”, features Cinderella, Baker, Jack, and Little Red and brought the audience to tears. It reminds us all that, no matter what we are going through, we aren’t alone. There are others who are there for us, just as Baker and Cinderella are there for Jack and Little Red. Director/Choreographer Valerie Rachelle does an excellent job of bringing the heart of this show to the forefront. The director appears to know the material well enough to create a vision for her world and that led to a great collaborative effort to bring this world to life.
Utah Festival Opera’s Into the Woods is one of the best we have ever seen. It brings insight that is missed in many productions. Take the drive, go over the river and Into the Woods. I promise, you will thank yourself for it. And driving up to Logan for a production of Into The Woods is a much appreciated break from the summer heat.
Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater presents Into the Woods, book by James Lapine, Lyrics and Music by Stephen Sondheim.
Ellen Eccles Theatre, 43 South Main Street Logan Ut 84321.
July 6, 12, 14*, 19*, 21, 26, 28*, August 3, 2018 (* are matinees). 1:00 PM, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $16-79
Contact: 800-262-0074 ext 3
https://www.facebook.com/utahfestivalopera/
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