March 9, 2004

Features

Sondheim’s musical full of twisted tales twisWoods

Lee Kauffheil
Mesa Legend

Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” is a musical full of metaphor and humor from start to finish. The MCC Act One Musical Playhouse will be performing its interpretation of the play from March 10 to March 13.
Director Lori Towne said the only change made is an added song from the 2002 revival, sung by Rapunzel in the first act. One of the witch’s songs is a rap song where she has to speak fast to music with a fast tempo. The area that she is concentrating on with the cast is good diction. “They have a lot of word and they play very fast,” said Towne.
The play is reminiscent of the “Fractured Fairytales” shorts that ran during the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. Numerous amounts of the characters that have been in familiar stories for the past centuries are present. A witch, Jack (who trades his cow for beans), Rapunzel and Cinderella are present, as well as a pair of princes and several others. There are two new characters, the baker and his wife. Their quest to lift a curse on the baker’s house is the driving force of the story.
Towne said she enjoyed how the weaving of the Grimm original versions makes one giant story. Sondheim takes these stories even further by showing the consequences of the character’s actions even after the typical happily-ever-after ending.
The biggest challenge Towne sees is the large amount of scenery required to tell the story and the limited amount of stage space. “The video [the Broadway production recording] has been out for a long time now and they had stages with walkways and moving scenery,” she said.
She said she does feel confident they can pull it off. This is her first time doing any of Sondheim’s works and she said she is excited to do this one because the content is very strong, interesting and different.
The musical parts follow a familiar pattern. The story continues during the song breaks, revealing the nature of the characters singing. The speed of the story’s movement is often faster than the spoken parts.
Towne’s favorite part is the finale, in which everything that happens comes to a head and all the characters realize the lessons the audience already knows. The fairy tale ends with a strong sense of community.

Back to Top | Previous Page | Home