Into the Woods @ Dallas Theater Center
Photos by Jordan Fraker and Imani Thomas
—Martha Heimberg
A child leaned forward in the front row, mesmerized by the beautiful princess in front of her. A young woman across the way silently lip-synced all the words to the song the actress sang.
There’s no theater like live theater.
The power of Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim’s collision of fairy tales, life lessons and pure fun, ran straight from the excellent 18-member cast and into the rapt audience for the Saturday night preview performance at the Wyly. This Dallas Theater Center production is (and will be) something to remember—directed and choreographed with heart and precision by Joel Ferrell, and with music direction by Gary Adler, whose eight-member orchestra carries us off into the magic forest, from the exuberant opening title song to the touching reassurances of “You Are Not Alone.”
Bob Hess is our natty, chatty Narrator, smartly guiding us through the action with James Lapine’s clever book, and introducing us to the timeless characters we’ve known since childhood, either from Grimm’s rendition or Disney’s. Hess tries on new voices, grabs a wig or a puppet, and gets every chuckle and tear out of playing a variety of mysterious characters, including parents and a talking tree. As we’re finding our seats, Hess is moving styrofoam mountains and down-sized castle parts around the stage, in Yu-Hsuan Chen’s roomy and mobile kindergarten-style set design.
We meet Cinderella (fluttering, stumbling Christina Austin Lopez), Little Red Riding Hood (feisty, fearless Hollyn Gayle), Rapunzel (literally bewitching Taylor Nash), the Witch (scary, ruthless, gorgeous, heartbreaking Cherish Love Robinson) and Jack (sweet-hearted, earnest Kevin Solis, understudy for Zachary J. Willis), of pet cow and beanstalk fame, and his heartless, sell-the-dry-cow Mother (shrieking, distraught, whatever-it-takes Sally Nystuen Vahle). Yvonne Miranda’s lavish, detailed, punk-grandiose costumes, wigs and makeup are just spectacular. Cinderella, all tarted up and running home from the ball, falls over a hill and flat on her face—and we see five feet of gauzy ruffles and underpinning sprawled around those magic shoes.
The dashing Princes are just like in the picture books, but with bigger swords, and egos to match. The witch is terrifying. I wanted to play dress-up.
The nameless princes (though one says he was raised to be “Charming”) are literally made to pursue whatever damsel they come upon in the woods. Dashing and pretty-much dauntless Christopher Llewyn Ramirez (what a pompadour!) is Rapunzel’s Prince, helplessly seduced by tower-length braids and a ravish-me voice. Estaban Vilchez, understudy for Alex Organ, is Cinderella’s hot Prince, sensual and experienced, who loves tracking the golden slipper of his vanishing “princess” through the woods. Vilchez also plays the hungry Wolf (also hot to trot), with a big expanding telescope to track Red Riding Hood, before he gobbles up her granny. Gotta be careful in the woods.
Ramirez and Vilchez, brothers in princedom, are hilarious in their perfectly timed duet “Agony,” a song about how tough it is to find that perfect woman in the wood. In the darker second half, their reprise of the same song (after the consummation of their pursuits) is funny and telling. What they love, of course, is chasing women. Fresh women. For a well-trained prince, marriage is, well, an “agony” of sameness.
At the heart of this mash-up of folklore and human love is our ordinary couple: The Baker (subtle, funny, brave, humble Blake Hackler) and the Baker’s Wife (sweet-voiced Tiffany Solano, summoning up everything from the truest country wife to Lady MacBeth and a star-struck Elvis fan) want a child, and aren’t having any luck. Well, no wonder: they’re under a curse that dates back to the Baker’s father. Or so says the local Witch, who offers to lift the curse of barrenness that she put on the family in the first place. All they have to do is find a few things in the forest: “a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold.” You remember, right?
Hackler is an astonishing actor: seen in profile at the outset, he’s all Boy Scout honesty and bravery, determined to go it alone, come back with the goods, and make that baby. Then he tells a small lie, urged on by his wife, and his face changes, darkens and ages, as he sings of the end justifying the means. Solano and Hackler make you want to reach for that special somebody’s hand when they sing “It Takes Two.” To find the way, to make a baby, and mostly to learn what each person brings to the other’s life.
All the voices are strong, and Sondheim’s intricate score and delicious songs weave the disparate tales together into a fresh and ageless musical about mating and marriage and parenting and ambition, and other “boring” social topics. He pulls rhymes out of thin air to match the mood and rhythm of the melodies.
The happy first act, often performed alone in high schools, could be a satisfying Ever After. But the second half reveals that charming doesn’t equal sincere, that beloved children are for parents to love and lose, and that people suffer, and die—sometimes only a moment after things are just fine. Robinson’s suddenly human and familiar Witch pleads with her protected child Rapunzel to “Stay with Me,” in a song fraught with power and parental anguish.
Lopez’s heartbroken Cinderella consoles another disenchanted woman singing, “You Are Not Alone” in a true, clear voice that carries the lovely message of the show. We are on this earth and in this human world together, and our job is to help each other through the joys and sorrows. We are not really out of the woods until we die, and before that happens we must try to be sure we leave great forests—both the real ones and those like Sondheim’s.
WHEN: Through April 30
WHERE: Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Flora Street, Dallas
