One of the most pleasant surprises of the 2022-23 Broadway season was the limited run of Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine’s neoclassic Into the Woods at the St. James Theatre, where the original Bernadette Peters production ran almost 40 years ago. Well, that limited run became so successful that it became an extended limited run, then an an extended extended limited run, and then the biggest surprise of all—the announcement of a national tour with an all-star cast that had mostly appeared in the New York production during its reign there. So, you ask, what can a show that has become a staple for community and high school theatres profit by from a scaled down version touring at an opera house near you? The answer is, under the tight, visionary direction of Lear deBessonet, and the masterful interpretation of a cast of the brightest talents in New York, plenty. Let’s just say this is not your Granny’s Into the Woods.
Sondheim’s well-known premise is cute and clever. Take all the fairytales we grew up with and love, and have their characters intersect and influence each other’s stories through their meetings in the woods as they travel from event to event. Familiar faces Cinderella, Jack of the Beanstalk fame, Little Red Ridinghood, Rapunzel, and the Baker and his Wife (loosely inspired by Rapunzel’s actual parents, given a profession to allow humorous interactions with Red Ridinghood), as well as a Witch and a beloved Villian or five. Leave it to Sondheim to take even the most Disney-fied subject matter one could find and not only reinstall the darkness that Disney habitually sanitized form Perrault, Anderson, and the Grimms, but multiply it exponentially into the most cautionary tale of “Be Careful What You Wish For” one could imagine. One of the most delightful moments of my audience experience happened not onstage but right beside me. Ten-year-old Bryce and his mother drove up from Richmond to see this production, and he was spellbound the entire first act. When the lights went up on the end of Act 1, Bryce put on his coat and began gathering his belongings for the trip home. When his mother informed him it was only intermission, there was more show coming, he was incredulous. “How?!” he implored, “The story’s over. They all lived happily ever after! What else could happen!” Well, strap yourself in , Bryce, cuz you got a whole lot of Sondheiming coming at you after he played pretty nice and reined it in for an entire act. Now we get to see God’s sense of humor tinkle over all their little wishes. Every gain requires a loss to balance the universe. Retaliation, infidelity, epic loss, death….you don’t get off easy in a Sondheim show.
Off the top, I can’t say enough about this astonishing cast. In these days of scaling down and the cost-cutting controversy of non-equity touring companies, for that reason alone run to the Kennedy Center. This superior company is not only stocked with top-notch New York talent but some of the biggest names in the business. Virtually every cast member and understudy has passed through the Broadway production over the winter. It has been decades, if ever, since this many legitimate Broadway stars have been packed into one touring production with a cast of no less than ten Tony nominees (and two landslide winners) on stage this weekend. (That number will almost definitely increase when this year’s nominations come out.)
Led by Tony Award winner Stephanie J. Block (The Cher Show, Falsettos, 9 to 5), fresh off her triumphant turn a mere two weeks ago as Norma Desmond in the Kennedy Center Broadway Center Stage series’ landmark production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece Sunset Boulevard, and her husband Sebastian Arcelus (House of Cards, Madame Secretary), in the central roles of the Baker and his Wife, the production couldn’t ask for any sturdier base on which to build its foundation. Block’s Baker’s Wife is unlike any other. She brings a new vivacity and voraciousness to the character. The voice of reason in the original conception, Block elicits a present day comic sensibility from the role that veers her into broad comedy, milking before unseen legitimate laughs from Lapine’s words. With her unique, soaring voice and clearly amiable energy, even when the Baker’s Wife makes some less than scrupulous decisions, Block is simply dynamic. This month at the Kennedy Center is an absolute testimony to Block’s unbelievable range as a vocalist and an actor. After literally bringing the house down several times mid-show belting Andrew Lloyd Webber’s biggest and best leading lady ballads to the 3rd balcony and bringing new life to one of cinema and musical theatre’s most iconic tragic roles, to come back weeks later and display the restraint and control it takes to lead a Sondheim ensemble is mind-blowing. Throw her Tony winning performance literally as Cher in with that mix and there should be no doubt that Stephanie J. Block has finally arrived as the reigning First Lady of Theatre.
Unfortunately, Arcelus was out of the production this weekend with an injury, but understudy Jason Forbach, normally Rapunzel’s Prince in this tour, went on in an impeccable performance. Forbach, a very engaging and incredibly versatile performer (who I had the pleasure to see understudy Cinderella’s Prince in New York last fall, opposite Block and Arcelus) carried the heart of the show as the determined and steady, even if at times overwhelmed, Baker. His warm vocals embrace Sondheim’s lyrical lines and emotional center to the show are at extreme contrasts to what I had seen at the St. James, a standout of bravura and affectation as the scene stealing Cinderella’s Prince before. But Forbach also gained some industry notoriety when he had to step into this role opening night in New York, which makes him eligible for the Tony and, based on his solid, endearing performance at the Kennedy Center, should garner him a nomination this year.
Montego Glover (Memphis), who alternated with Tony winner Patina Miller in New York, is all the star in the central role of the Witch. Having the biggest slippers to fill (not only Peters, but, over the years, successors as varied as Phylicia Rashaad, Vanessa Williams, and Meryl Streep) leads the company with a powerful performance. Glover effortlessly embodies the most tragic character of the piece, the one who loses not only the most, but everything, and Glover transitions beautifully from big comedy in Act 1 to epic tragedy in Act 2. After entering with a comically adept and verbally acrobatic “Rap” (and it’s Sondheim, so those acrobatics are by Broadway standards downright Olympian) about her prized garden and shady backstory with the Baker’s family, she flawlessly transitions through the shift of events until her big second act “Witch’s Lament”, even bigger 11:00 showstopper “Last Midnight”, and touching finale “Children Will Listen”, which brings down the house.
This superior trio get great support from a deep cast of comic masters. Tony winner Gavin Creel (Hello, Dolly, Hair, Thoroughly Modern Millie) and local hero triple Tony nominee and Olivier Award winner Andy Karl (Groundhog Day, Legally Blonde, Pretty Woman) are hysterical as a pair of pretentious Princes who are the very definition of sibling rivalry. Their hilarious vocal duel of one-upmanship “Agony” (and its equally clever second act reprise) are the comic high points of each act. While wailing their privileged woes pursuing the ladies that inexplicably evade their princely charms, Cinderella and Rapunzel respectively, Creel and Karl are a pair of comic pros with their flamboyant histrionics and melodramatic comic posturing, flawlessly timed for best effect, all the while delivering Sondheim’s brightest and funniest moments of the show. Special praise goes to Karl who literally saved the show when, after getting the call in New York to fill in for Forbach (who had to fill in for Arcelus) was in town on hours’ notice to step into the Saturday matinee without missing one fancy boot step.
[Aside, as Karl is only in for the weekend, having had the privilege between New York and DC to have seen Arcelus, Creel, Karl, and Forbach (in two roles), I can guarantee you a superior show no matter how you shuffle this ridiculously talented and professional quartet into whatever roles this run deals them.]
Secondary leads Katy Garaghty is an overbearing and overly confident Little Red Riding Hood with a sweet tooth for the Baker’s wares, so sure of herself and her capability to take care of herself—and any other woodsian threats that may come along—and Cole Thompson is delightfully dim but good-natured as Jack, much to the detriment of his impoverished, frustrated mother (Rayanne Glonzales). Both combine to echo and magnify the subtle dynamics between the married couple Baker and His Wife (reinforcing Sondheim’s parting lessons: Careful the things you say, children will listen). Garaghty laments the lessons she learned straying from her path after encountering a delectably lascivious Wolf (Creel in a brilliant dual role), in the comic “I Know Things Now”, while Thompson delivers an enthusiastic and vocally stunning “Giants in the Sky”, unaware that his blissful discovery will have disastrous after-effects. The two have a fast and steady comic rapport that is reflective of the makeshift family they would eventually become, spiritual siblings if not necessarily a couple.
Cinderella and her horrible Stepfamily make up the final dysfunctional segment of the intertwining plot. Diane Phelan as Cinderella is radiant even in rags, flawless in voice, and we watch her grow from weak victim to rescued damsel to strong woman even without the crown. Stepmother Nancy Opel and stepsisters Ta’Nika Gibson and Brooke Ishibashi are perfect as her vain, shallow, harpy foils.
In the midst of all this embarrassment of talent, it is shocking that the single character that steals the show from every last veteran professional gracing the stage—is Milky White the cow. DeBessonet has opened a totally new chapter in this well-known story by incorporating inspired puppetry as Jack’s cow and Cinderella’s bird friends, more than masterfully manipulated by puppeteer Kennedy Kanagawa and Josh Breckenridge respectively. Kanagawa’s work is simply outstanding, instilling his cow with life, and a wide range of emotions from exuberance to sadness to death, despite its stationary face. His Milky White dances and wags her tail in joy, she cries, she loves, she is weak from hunger, and she milks our hearts as she dies (pun intended). And even though we clearly see a gray clad Kanagawa the entire time, his manipulation holds us enthralled as he brings the puppet to life to share scenes with his accomplished costars. DeBessonet’s call and Kanagawa’s artistry are the surprise standouts of this show.
As I mentioned before, this touring production mirrors the scaled down version that played its limited run on Broadway. Even if it is more minimalistic than usual (actually, it’s even less than the Kennedy Center’s sublime Sunset Boulevard set earlier this month—more kudos to the Broadway Center Stage series), David Rockwell’s set design is perfectly functional and does nothing to visually upstage the superior talent the show should be highlighting anyhow. A bandstand up a few stairs, a series of hollow tree trunks suspended over the stage, and a few small houses above the lead families at the top of each act (delightfully modified to reflect the events of the first act when they reappear after intermission) are all that is necessary to work with Tyler Micoleau’s saturated palette of background lighting that reinforces the Disney-fication we’re used to in our fairytales.
Costume designer Andrea Hood brings a delectable selection of period fashion filtered through a contemporary lens, again, much as Disney does when re-envisioning the fairytales. Cleaner lines, brighter patches of solid color, signature shades for each character in a palette of earth and sherbet tones that all coordinate with the other leads (contrasted with the over-the-top comic Princes in bright primary yellow and red, and the villainous Stepfamily in colder blues and greens). Montego’s “beautiful” Witch transformation is simple but breathtaking and deserving of the ovation it gets when she reappears. And special praise for an innovative way to simplify the set when Cinderella visits her mother’s grave, marked by a tree. Hood actually dresses her mother (local Felicia Curry, who also plays Red Ridinghood’s Granny and the Giant’s Wife who storms the stage in Act 2) in an inspired tree-like dress complete with branches that extrude from the collar and a bouquet of flowers that Cinderella has planted at her base. She also gives an inspired interpreation, aided by actress Nancy Opel and director deBessonet, in her execution of Cinderella’s gauche stepmother as a salute to Catherine O’Hara in Schitt’s Creek. If there is a flaw in her design it is merely that for whatever reasons, she blatantly chooses to ignore the handful of times that Sondheim actually dictates the color of a costume (sacrilege to a Sondheim purist, which fortunately I am not one). The lessons learned by the shallow Stepsisters at the end of act 1 are merely “Never wear mauve to a ball. Or pink” when they clearly wore royal blue and turquoise. And Cinderella implores her mother’s spirit to send her a ballgown of “silver and gold, rain down on me”, but, like Wayfair gone wrong, what she gets is an absolutely stunning gown—of orange and yellow. Check “not the color I ordered” on the return. Admittedly, Phelan does look fabulous in it. Maybe Mother knows best in this instance. (Sorry, wrong Disney reference.)
Special praise again for Puppet Designer James Ortiz who provides Kanagawa with a versatile design of articulation in Milky White with which to work his puppet mastery. He even deserves a nod for the birds design that include a version that can sit upon Phelan’s finger to chat, as every Disney heroine since Snow White has had. Credit must also be given for the innovative addition of a pair of gigantic wire boots to emulate the disgruntled Lady Giant that arrives in the second act to settle a few scores. We’ve always had to imagine her enormous presence, but when we watch Kanagawa and Breckenridge stamp, stomp, and even tap her impatient foot before she chases the characters away to their eventual demise gives a concrete permanence to the story we’ve never had before.
While hardly a dance show by any means, Choreographer Lorin Latarro provides simple and effective movement throughout, most effective with Creel and Karl’s dueling clowning, each trying unsuccessfully to upstage the other in the best ways throughout every time they sing of their respective “Agony”, and the reel-like gavotte the company employs intersecting with each other throughout the title song.
Music Director/Conductor John Bell does a stunning job with the accompaniment, Sondheim scores renowned to be the most difficult in the business. Fluid, intricate, and precise, and never upstaging the clarity of the lead vocals expressing Sondheim’s masterful lyrics. (An infamous Forbidden Broadway parody of the show refers to it as “Into the Words”, and it definitely is, especially the last three 11:00 tearjerking ballads). Balanced by Scott Lehrer and Alex Neumann’s usual immaculate Kennedy Center sound makes for a vocally perfect interpretation of the material.
But the entire evening boils down to a brilliant reinvention of the piece by director Lear DeBessonet. Her inspiring take comes in the surprise of playing a serious Sondheim piece with comical elements for massive, broad comedy throughout, and it works. Brilliantly. She takes the cues we’ve come to subconsciously incorporate from Disney and, without at all Disney-fying it, uses them to her best advantage to breath new life into a 40 year old classic.
Truth be told, over the years I have tired of this show after enough bad community and high school productions I’ve had to sit through. But DeBessonet’s vision has literally taken my breath away. Twice. As I said at the top of this article, this isn’t your Granny’s Into the Woods. If you like the show, you’ll love this revival. If you worship the show, you’ll still be pleasantly surprised. Even if you think you don’t like the show (guilty), you’ll absolutely change your mind and experience the magic. I just wrote a 5 page rave about a show I’ve never particulary enjoyed. Until this production, which makes all the others worth it to appreciate it even more. So hurry, run over the river, through the woods, past Grandmother’s house and all the way to the Kennedy Center for this very limited run of an unforgettable tour. It’s almost guaranteed you will never see this degree of Broadway talent on the road again. And the chances of seeing the exhilarating Stephanie Block and another stellar company in your hometown twice in the same month is about the same as that of a big old giant falling out of the sky and handing you a golden egg-laying hen. But haste, it will be the final stroke of midnight before you know it and the magic will be gone.
All photos by Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman for Murphy Made
Running Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission
Into the Woods plays through March 19, 2023, in the Opera House/ at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington, DC. For tickets call the box office at (202) 467-4600 or purchase them online.