Into the Woods<\/a>,\u201d playing in the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage at the Old Globe through August 17, the writer admits supreme bias. She was there when the piece was created, heard the voices and repeatedly witnessed the mishmash of fractured fairy tales before the show was first reimagined for Bernadette Peters\u2019 \u201cWitch,\u201d and opened on Broadway.<\/p>\nIn performance, Sondheim is an unforgiving taskmaster. While singing in the core of each pitch, a singer must articulate the rapid-fire genius text. Without such dedicated purity and clarity, much is lost and listeners catch only a small percentage of Sondheim\u2019s brilliant, profound meaning, which lies fathoms deep and spans the entire show.<\/p>\n
The reimagined production, originally developed and premiered at the Old Globe in 1987, is played for laughs. There\u2019s lots of cross-gender playing \u2014 for instance Cinderella\u2019s step-sisters are played by men \u2014 and Jack\u2019s Cow, Milky White, originally a prop on wheels, is played by Andy Grotelueschen, who moos piteously. Highly amusing.<\/p>\n
Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld direct the production, with scenic design by Derek McLane, costumes by Whitney Locher, lighting by Tim Cryan and sound design by Darron L. West. Lisa Shriver is choreographer, and Matt Castle and Frank Galgano effected the orchestrations.<\/p>\n
The music is still there, enthusiastically played by music director Castle on a wheeled hither-and-thither upright piano. According to the current show biz trend, cast members \u2014 in the main actors, not singers \u2014 contribute fragments of the original score on tonal instruments (cello, horn, bassoon) and percussion. There\u2019s even a toy piano, which can hardly be defined as tonal. For the purist, it\u2019s a bit off, just like everything else. Granted, the work is a bit off, too, and that is meant in an adoring sense. As modified and softened prior to Broadway, the Witch (here a fine Alison Cimmet) and her new song are still at sixes and sevens with the rest of the show. Her child-rearing pronouncements \u2013 \u201cChildren Will Listen\u201d and in another place, they don\u2019t\/won\u2019t, still make no sense.<\/p>\n
Some superb moments remain and resonate, moments that remind one why Jack\u2019s (Patrick Mulryan) apparent dim-wittedness and his mother\u2019s (Liz Hayes) concern and sarcasm ring true; why the 11th hour \u201cNo More,\u201d sung by the Baker (Ben Steinfeld) with the Mysterious Man (Paul L. Coffey), packs such a wallop; why the two Princes\u2019 (Noah Brody and Andy Grotelueschen) \u201cAgony\u201d was so outrageously amusing; why The Baker\u2019s Wife\u2019s (Jessie Austrian) \u201cMoments in the Woods\u201d was so poignant; why Cinderella\u2019s (Claire Karpen) relinquishing of royal status rang so true; and why Little Red Ridinghood\u2019s (Emily Young, who also plays Rapunzel) \u201cI Know Things Now\u201d was so uproariously funny.<\/p>\n
All of us know things now that we didn\u2019t know before. Sondheim\u2019s wisdom strikes ever more resonant chords as wars are waged and losses are suffered. Yes, indeed, people leave us halfway through the woods. Sondheim reminds us why it is important to participate in the journey; that no matter our failures and losses, we are not alone.<\/p>\n
That is why readers must see \u201cInto the Woods.\u201d Even reimagined, even imperfectly realized, its impact remains.<\/p>\n
\u201cInto the Woods\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nTuesdays \u2013 Sundays | through August 17 | Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage |<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nOld Globe Theatre |1363 Old Globe Way | Balboa Park<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nNote: “Into the Woods” was originally slated to run through Aug. 10, but performances have been extended through Aug. 17.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlene Baldridge |\u00a0Uptown News<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":247579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"The defanged wolf","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Into_the_Woods3_printWEB.jpg\")
<\/a>