Barrington Stage Company, Pittsfield, MA
through July 13, 2019
by Michael J. Moran
by Michael J. Moran
With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by
James Lapine, “Into the Woods” made its Broadway debut in 1987. A mashup of
several classic fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, it has
been produced locally and regionally more often than almost any other Sondheim
show and even became a 2014 film starring Meryl Streep and James Corden.
The large cast of familiar characters makes “Into the Woods”
a great ensemble piece, and director Joe Calarco has assembled a diverse cast
of 15 singing actors for Barrington Stage Company. The bold choice of an
African-American male for the central role of the witch pays off in a winningly
stylish, sharply etched performance by Mykal Kilgore that Billy Porter, of
“Kinky Boots” fame, could only envy.
Having cast a spell on a baker and his wife, so they can
never have children, the witch sends them on a quest to reverse the spell. Jonathan
Raviv is a vulnerable and sensitive baker, and Mara Davi is touchingly scrappy
as his wife. Among the characters they meet as their quest leads them “into the
woods” are: Little Red Riding Hood, an amusingly entitled Dorcas Leung; Jack,
of beanstalk renown, an appealingly dim Clay Singer; and Cinderella, an
endearing and resourceful Amanda Robles.
In smaller roles, Kevin Toniazzo-Naughton and Pepe Nufrio
(who, in a playful nod to the actor’s roots, serenades his beloved Rapunzel in
Spanish) are hilarious as the preening princes, making both versions of their
big number, “Agony,” a hoot. Thom Sesma is a dynamic and versatile
narrator/mysterious man. Sarah Dacey Charles is haughty as Cinderella’s stepmother,
and Megan Orticelli and Zoe Aarts entertainingly daffy as her stepsisters.
Musical highlights include: Singer’s powerful “Giants in the
Sky;” Davi’s affecting “Moments in the Woods;” Kilgore’s tender “Stay with Me”
and shattering “Last Midnight;” and a heartrending “No More” from Raviv and
Sesma.
Scenic design by Brian Prather is ingeniously simple and
flexible; choreography by Mayte Natalio is clever and imaginative; and musical
director Darren R. Cohen leads an impressively full-sounding 10-member
orchestra.
This typically brilliant BSC production will appeal to
thoughtful musical theater audiences of all ages.
