Went to the Temple University production of Into the Woods last night, and met with disappointment. This was one of those styles of production I've experienced many times before - caapable cast, terrible plot. I'd never seen Into the Woods before last night, but I knew it was a modern twist on traditional fairy tales. I was pretty stoked because I took a class on fairy tales and their social constructs and I was hoping the play would address those issues. Not so.
The show opened with a professor teaching a lecture on fairy tales, and the stage was set with blackboards filled with academic jibberish about magic realism. It looked promising, but as soon as the action entered into the fairytale world it went downhill. The plot intermingles more fairy tale stories than anyone can stomache in one night without actually developing any of them sufficiently. I was extremely disappointed with the story. I'm a fan of old movies, too, with full five minute scenes of people simply driving in a car, so my boredom says a lot.
The first act is very long, so long in fact that I thought it was the entire performance. The plot (little that there is) is tied up neatly at the end of the act so that most of the audience members were unsure as to whether or not they should leave. The second act is so redundant that I actually fell asleep (again, this is probably a reflection of my limited slumber the night before). The writing is also an odd mixture or cheesiness with the darker aspects of fairy tales. Most of the performance is cheesy, but then a few dark bits, like the evil stepsisters having their eyes pecked out and the Baker's wife sleeping with the prince, are slipped in. It's not enough for the play to examine these darker elements, so they really just appear awkward and completely out of place.
The band was very good, and the singing was on point. I simply found most of the characters dull or annoying. There were a few exceptions, however. Sean Thompson as the wolf, of Little Red Riding Hood, was excellent in act one, although his appearance was brief. He merged physical hunger with sexual appetite seemlessly when he sang about Red Riding Hood, and I've rarely seen anyone pull off leather pants quite so well. The princes, too, handled the comic turn of their vain, philandering characters quite well, especially LJ Norelli when he simulated climbing Rapunzel's hair.
The standout performance of the show, however, was clearly Da'vine Joy Randolph as the Witch. the audience visibly perked when she came on stage. Both her speaking and her singing voices were extremely powerful and her presence was so strong that she almost dwarfed the other actors. She clearly has a career ahead of her.
My recommendation for Into the Woods: unless you're into extreme cheesiness and find actual plots difficult to follow, it's a miss. You're better off picking up a copy of the Brothers Grimm.
