A Fairytale for Grownups Famous characters learn life lessons in ‘Into the Woods’ Theatre Review

Though narrator (Steve Callahan) opens Stray Dog Theatre Company’s “Into the Woods” with the timeworn prelude to dreamland, “Once upon a time,” audience members don’t have to worry about nodding off. This Grimm’s Fairy Tales mash-up will keep them riveted to the stage.

A diverse group of characters –– including Cinderella, Jack (of beanstalk fame), Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel –– coexist in a world on the edge of the woods. All must eventually go into the dark forest to learn important life lessons: coming out of isolation, becoming a man, learning that actions have consequences. To calm their fears, the cast sings: “The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood.”

Scene one begins with a theme of wishing. Cinderella wishes to go to the King’s ball, a baker (whose father was said to have been killed in a terrible baking accident) and his wife long for a child, and Jack yearns for his cow, Milky-White, to give milk. As each one sings of his or her plight, the others “freeze,” their mannequin-like state belied only by blinking eyes and an occasional shaky hand.

As the spirited witch, Deborah Sharn comes out rapping about Jack’s theft of her magic legumes: “I let him go, I didn’t know, he’d stolen my beans.” Other voices of note include Christina Rios as Cinderella and JT Ricroft as the baker, who must, along with his wife, collect four items –– including Little Red Riding Hood’s cape –– to make a potion that will enable them to have a child.

At the end of Act I, it seems that fairytales indeed do come true. But the light mood shifts dramatically in Act II, illustrating that sometimes the woods is a scary place after all.

Leave your comments here or on our FaceBook page.

by Nancy Larson