'Into the Woods' at Great Lakes Theater is a Musical Treat

Into the Woods, through Nov. 10 at Great Lakes Theater Credit: Photography Credit: Roger Mastroianni

If you described the musical Into the Woods as a romp with various fairy tale characters who interact with each other in often amusing ways, you’d be right. You’d also be right if you said the play is a journey into the dark place where all our demons reside and that you may emerge wiser, or not.

This Great Lakes Theater production of the much-loved Stephen Sondheim musical bristles with invigorating movement and features a raft of fine singing voices. And aside from a couple wrinkles, it is a richly involving treat.

It all revolves around a Baker and his Wife who attempt to have a child by following a witch’s instructions to bring back four random items: a red cape, yellow hair, a golden slipper and a white cow.

While this play may not be the best example of “musical theater for grownups,” as director Victoria Bussert posits in her program notes (better Sondheim examples include Assassins and Sweeney Todd), it certainly is a fabulously fractured fairy tale for grownups.

Having eternal characters such as Cinderella, Little Red Ridinghood, Rapunzel, and Jack (of Beanstalk fame) collide into each other in the same story seemed irresistible to Sondheim and book writer James Lapine. And indeed it is, with Baker and Wife (the excellent Joe Wegner and Jodi Dominick) bickering with each other like a typical sitcom couple while all about them those iconic folks are living their respective tales—along with the occasional house-crushing giant and human-devouring wolf.

The first act begins with a volley of wishes, including the Bakers’ parental dream, and ends with the idea of “happily forever after.” But in Act Two, those fairy tale hopes T-bone into reality and the “forever after” part gets complicated as the play explores the consequences of wishes achieved and dreams denied.

Of course, a Witch is central to many fairy tales and that role is taken by Jillian Cates , who sings powerfully and early on conveys a demonical presence that will curl your Crocs. As hapless Jack, Nic Scott Hermick is appropriately befuddled as he sells his milky-white cow to the Bakers for a few beans and then tries to buy it back.

Many of the biggest laughs are generated by the two charming Princes (Dan Hoy and Benjamin Michael Hall) who frequently dash onto the stage in search of their beloved Cinderella (RhonniRose Mantilla) and Rapunzel (Angela Utrera). Or perhaps they’re just looking for a mirror, since each of the dashing lads—one all in gold and the other in silver— are constantly posing to announce their self-adoration. It all culminates in their duet of shared frustration, “Agony,” in which they declare their love for the ladies by enumerating their multitude of manly virtues.

In the category of interesting characters that are underused, Cinderella’s Stepmother is given a Matt Gaetz-in-drag vibe by Boe Wank. And Cindy’s evil stepsisters Florinda (Zoë Lewis-McLean and Lucinda (Royer Bockus) are served their just desserts in heaping amounts.

While Sondheim’s music and Lapine’s book are wonderful, there is a lot of repetition—musically and otherwise—which makes the entire production feel overlong. Also, the scenic design by Courtney O’Neill, comprised of a stand of barren tree trunks with a few elevated platforms connecting them, is impressive at first glance. But it never changes or evolves with the story line, turning the “forest” into nothing more than vertical impediments the actors have to avoid as they enter and exit.

The dual themes of In the Woods come into clarity in the Finale when the implied message is made crystal clear: “What do you leave your child when you’re dead/Only whatever you put in its head…Careful what you say/Children will listen.”

Into the Woods
Through November 10 at Great Lakes Theater, Hanna Theatre, Playhouse Square, 2067 E. 14th Street, 216-241-6000, greatlakestheater.org.

Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.