Stephen Sondheim is one of the great names of American musical theater, and he has provided countless glorious evenings for millions of people. But a few of his creations, like "Into the Woods," which opened last night as a sprightly, enjoyable production by the Stray Dog Theatre at the Tower Grove Abbey, leave me disappointed and frustrated. The musical, with music and lyrics by Sondheim, book adapted from some Grimm fairy tales by James Lapine, opened last night to run through Oct. 10.
Gary Bell's direction is little short of miraculous as he maneuvers a cast of 17 up and down stairs on several levels of the stage, through tunnels, even into the audience. Tyler Duenow designed the intricate set and also did the lighting design; Sheila Lenkman is responsible for the impressive costumes.
But as in "Sunday in the Park With George," another by Sondheim, I felt let down. After a brilliant, tuneful, pun-strewn first act, Sondheim gives us a heavy-handed, morose, often-cruel second act. Perhaps he thinks, as film director Robert Altman once told me, that the audience must pay for a bright, light-hearted, optimistic first part by sitting through a bleak second one, almost as if it had come from an enjoyable party to listen to a Puritan minister promising everlasting damnation.
Several cruel, almost-sadistic fairy tales-"Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood" and "Jack and the Beanstalk" to name a few-are linked together by Lapine, and the Sondheim score is a rollicking one, including the title song by the entire company; "I Know Things Now," a song to growing up by Red Riding Hood (a perky, flip, totally delightful Alex Miller); "It Takes Two," a love song by the Baker (the strong JT Ricroft, who also did the excellent musical staging) and his Wife (the vocally outstanding Laura Kyro); "Moments in the Woods," a much darker song by Kyro; "Agony," by the two princes, Justin Ivan Brown, who wins Cinderella, and Jeffrey M. Wright, who conquers Rapunzel; the show's anthem, "No One Is Alone," by the charming Christina Rios as Cinderella, Miller, Ricroft and Zack Huels as the wistful, delightful Jack, who epitomizes someone as dumb as a box of rocks; and its co-anthem, "Children Will Listen," with Deborah Sharn, as the Witch who brings everything to an ending that may not be happy but which has some optimistic road signs ahead. Sharn also lights up the stage with "Last Midnight," and "Stay With Me."
Huels is part of a real life/stage life multi-generational team. His real grandmother, long-time, always steady actress Donna Weinsting, portrays his mother, berating him for exchanging the cow, Milky White, for a few beans, even if they do have magical qualities.
Two excellent, non-singing performances come from Steve Callahan and Vincent Wieck. Callahan is a delight as the narrator, his wit as dry as a James Bond martini, and he also shows up as a Mysterious Man who helps advance the plot and straighten things out here and there, though his difficulties getting out of his cloak on one occasion almost caused a problem. Wieck, as the steward, wanders around with a spear, but his understated presence and wry expression, and comments to match, made me laugh every time he appeared. He was a major delight.
So is the show, at least most of the time. A line like "the end justifies the beans" is just right. The cow has one of the great non-speaking parts, and when a Prince reports that he's supposed to be charming but not sincere, well, the evening is almost complete.
If we only didn't have to do our penance with the second act.
A Stray Dog Theatre Production at the Tower Grove Abbey through Oct. 10
–Joe