What makes folktales (or fairy tales) universal is their ability to inspire curiosity and imagination, and also serve as cautionary tales. Much like other ancient folklore and storytelling practices, folktales have served a social function for centuries – to convey the moral guardrails of a particular time. As time goes on, they are often adapted to reflect the society and culture in which they are being told.
Into the Woods is perhaps the first fairy tale musical that does all of the above. It is just as playful and curious as it is a deep moral inquiry. It is also able to lean on the plots of several of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales of the past while adapting to reflect the period it was conceived in, the 1980s dawn of individualism, by boldly asking: “What happens after we all get what we wished for?”
This company of actors delivers a stellar performance of Sondheim's classic score
Thirty-five years on from its Broadway premiere, Belvoir St Theatre and Hayes Theatre Co have teamed up to bring this beloved Stephen Sondheim classic to the Sydney stage. With a stacked cast of some of the country’s best musical theatre performers, there is a lot of joy to be found in this production – but it is hampered by an incohesive vision that leaves the tale’s depths largely unexplored.
In the first half we are introduced to Little Red Riding Hood (Mo Lovegrove), Cinderella (Shubshri Kandiah), Jack (from Jack and the Beanstalk) (Marty Alix) and Rapunzel (Stefani Caccamo) as well as the Baker (Justin Smith), the Baker’s Wife (Esther Hannaford),and the Witch (Tamsin Carroll), amongst other assorted fairy tale characters.
We discover that the Witch has cursed the Baker’s house so that he may never have children, something that he and his wife desperately long for. We learn of each characters’ deepest wish and through Sondheim’s distinctive, melodious and playful music and lyrics, we watch joyfully as each of their wishes are met. As we reconvene for the second half, the rule book is thrown out the window (as is the Narrator, played by the legendary Peter Carroll) and as it all falls apart we see our innocent fairytale heroes bloom into relatable humans – and we are reminded that we need each other more than any single wish.
Staging a musical of this scale at Belvoir’s Surry Hills theatre is already ambitious, but staging Into the Woods is like walking a tightrope. The plots are twisted and intertwined, and Sondheim’s music is notoriously difficult to master, but it’s the tone that is most difficult to achieve. James Lapine’s book plays with the fantastical and farcical, winking at the original Grimm fairy tales and then sinking the characters deep into tragedy. To master the tone requires imaginative restraint so that both the light and the dark are equally captivating. Leading up to the show, director Eamon Flack talked about wanting to offer something joyful while also “carrying some of the emotional complexity and murkiness” that we have experienced the last few years. It’s unfortunate that the resulting vision is more murky than emotionally complex, and the reasons why are multiple and compounding.
In Sondheim’s world, the woods are a metaphor for the adventure of life, they represent boundlessness and possibility – we may stray but we may also have our wish granted, or find the treasures that we seek. In this production, however, it manifests as a dark and somewhat unimaginative, yet symbolic, void. Deep blue velvet curtains hem two conjoining walls, lifting to reveal cold metal sheets that create an unfocused mirror effect that envelopes the characters into a fishbowl of reflections.
The darkness and vastness that this creates could have served Sondheim’s woods well if it wasn’t hindered by the choice to place two pianos centre stage. In the intimacy of the Hayes Theatre, this could have really soared, but on the Belvoir stage it limits the vision of the whole show. The boundlessness of the woods are gone and in its place is a platform that forces all movement through, on or around the pianos. This creates an unwelcome distance between the audience and the characters in their most emotional moments. It also makes for repetitive staging, and choreography that is restricted to show-tune focused hand gestures in tight lines.
While this production of Into the Woods is no modern day reckoning for Sondheim, it seems as if it has leaned on ramping up the camp for the supporting characters to compensate. The two Princes (Tim Draxl and Andrew Coshan) are still male-passing and white, but one of them (Coshan) also plays a step-sister who is dressed gloriously Victorian in a corset and tall wig. Costumes for Rapunzel and the Wolf (a fabulously villainous Draxl) are larger than life, and the actors commit to deliver remarkable caricatures, but this is yet another element that fractures the tone of the show. If the same treatment was applied to the main characters it would have created a more harmonious vision.
There are some fun tricks and cabaret-style campery that can be quite entertaining in their own right – handfuls of confetti are tossed in the air at irregular intervals, pop-up windows are used for comedic appearances, and there’s a show-stopping sparkly costume reveal. Some of the lo-fi gags are less effective – the myriad of streamers unnecessarily tossed about the stage in one of the show’s early numbers may serve to give the stage some colour, but then remain as a constant distraction.
It’s a shame that these production elements detach the audience from the show’s inherent emotional complexity, putting all the onus on Guy Simpson’s expansive orchestration and the technical vocal mastery on display by the talented performers. The piano accompaniment (Simon Holt) is tender, purposeful and restrained, and having performer and musician on stage together creates a palpable chemistry-filled dance, particularly with the show’s many female powerhouses.
As the Witch, Tamsin Carroll masters the tone the show is searching for with ease; as the Baker’s Wife, Esther Hannaford fills the void with effortless humour, also meeting Simpson’s tenderness with compassion and controlled vocals in ‘Moments in the Woods’; and, the princess my childhood self always dreamed of seeing on stage, Shubshri Kandiah fills Cinderella with sincerity and delivers vibrato and trills galore. This isn’t Kandiah’s first turn as the slipper-dropping princess (she also starred in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella), and in this performance she makes it clear why she is Australia’s new go-to Disney princess stand-in (she played Princess Jasmine in Aladdin, and will soon star in the Australian premiere of Disney Theatrical’s Beauty and the Beast as Belle).
Other memorable moments include the Princes’ performance of ‘Agony’, in which they demonstrate delightful comedic comradery, and ‘It Takes Two’, performed with gusto by Justin Smith and Esther Hannaford.
It’s a difficult task to strike the right tone for a show like Into the Woods, but this company of actors delivers a stellar performance of Sondheim's classic score. It doesn’t quite reach the emotional tug of the heart strings or the deep moral inquiry we would have hoped for but there will be plenty of laughter – just ask the cow.
Into the Woods is playing at Belvoir St Theatre, Surry Hills, until April 30, 2023. Get your tickets over here.
