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- [00:00]
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- [00:20]
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- [00:50]
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Par le tout francais, hablas espanol? Par le italiano. If you've used Babbel, you would Babbel's conversation based technique teaches you useful words and phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel today. Get up to 55% off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com acast spelled B-A B-B-E-L.com acast rules and restrictions may apply.
- [01:31]
Mickey Jo Theatre (Theatre Critic)
At this point. After seeing three completely different productions over the last decade and a half, I am starting to feel as though I will never be fully satisfied and delighted by any production of into the Woods. Not because I don't love the show, but because it is my favourite musical of all time. And this major new revival at the Bridge Theatre in London has without a doubt been my most anticipated new show of the year. And the show that they have built together is utterly respectable, momentarily captivating, occasionally enchanting and very nice. But as we learn in the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine written musical, nice is different than good. Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel or hello to those of you listening to this review on podcast platforms. My name is Mickey Geo and I am obsessed with all things theatre as a theatre critic and content creator here on social media. Today we're going to be talking all about the Bridge Theatre's brand new production of into the woods, which has just opened this week in London. The first major revival of the Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical in several years. A musical which to my mind is among the greatest ever to be written, and which is certainly beloved of a great many dedicated musical theatre fans. Which I dare say may mean that several of you listening to this review will have already had the chance to see it for yourselves. And if you have, I would love to know what you thought in the comments section down below, particularly if you disagree with anything that I have to say. For my part going into this, not unlike Little Red Riding Hood, I was both excited and scared because there was such a weight of expectation. And it's true that I hold faith few pieces of theatre to such a high standard as into the woods because I think it's capable of such extraordinary range of articulating so much about the human condition and experience, such that when I perceive any individual production to be falling short of that, it feels disappointing. At which point, wasting no more time, I will begin to tell you everything that I thought about last night's opening night performance of the new London revival of into the Woods. So into the woods made its world premiere at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego before transferring to Broadway. It tells the story, the interwoven story of all of these different classic fairy tale characters with Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack of Beanstalk fame, Rapunzel, and a couple of original characters, including a baker and his wife who may be rooted in another fairy tale story, as well as their neighbor the witch from next door, as well as a narrator character whose responsibility it is to the story, which in the first act concerns each of these characters desires and the wishes that they share aloud, which they sing aloud in an extended prologue that acquaints us with each of them and these different strands of the story that are going to come together. You have Cinderella, who so desperately wants to attend the festival, being thrown by the prince in spite of the wishes of her cruel stepmother and stepsisters. You have the baker and his wife, who long to have a child and are concerned that all efforts thus far seem to be failing, for which they are about to receive an explanat from the witch who lives next door, who has an agenda entirely of her own but isn't forthcoming enough to sing about it in the narrative. We will find out what it is that she wants a little bit later on, and it is something she wants quite desperately. Jack, meanwhile, though his frenzied mother has more realistic concerns, wishes for little more than for his cow and best friend Milky White, to be able to produce some milk in order that Milky White won't have to be taken to market, sold, and or turned into a hamburger. And as the first act of the musical plays out, so do each of their stories with considerable familiar familiarity. Cinderella happens upon a beautiful ball gown and attends the ball, but flees from the prince, who subsequently tries to discover her identity by carrying around a single shoe. Little Red Riding Hood happens upon a wolf on the way to her grandmother's house, by whom she is distracted. Eventually, she reaches her grandmother's house and questions the appearance of her familiar granny, what big eyes you have, etc. Etc. It's almost never the fur that tips them off. Interestingly enough, that almost never seems to come up. Jack, meanwhile, sells his beloved cow in exchange for magic beans, climbs a newly arrived be stalk up into the sky Kingdom of the Giants, and sings a very popular musical theatre audition song about it, with each of the familiar fairy tale characters coming into contact with the baker and his wife, who are on something of a quest throughout the woods under the instructions of the witch from next door in order to retrieve four the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold. This being the catalyzing detail in the narrative which brings all of these stories together, at least in the first act, there is something different which will unite them in the second, because interestingly enough, everything which we know about their stories and their lives has been concluded by the end of the first act. Cinderella's foot has fit the slipper and she has married the prince. Jack has become wealthy by retrieving items from the kingdom of the giant, some may say stealing. Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother have been freed from the stomach of the wolf, and all characters join together to sing a song called Ever after, where they talk about how happy they are now and how neatly their stories have all been concluded. Only the narrator reminds us at the end that after the interval there is going to be an entire extension of this story, and the whole thing is to be continued as a beamstalk begins to grow into the sky. Another one that is, and this is the real brilliance of into the woods is this extension of the whole thing. And it's almost like you don't really even reach the payoff until the second act. The first act is so brilliantly written, but in the second we get to explore this idea of these fairy tale characters being brought into contact with real world problems and scenarios that they were never equipped to deal with, these difficult philosophical questions and human realities that their stories never particularly contended with. And to that end, it becomes a story about all of us about society and community, a timeless one about the way in which we try to protect each other and do right by each other. And there's just so much in there brought about by this life altering event, by the arrival of a destructive giant on a rampage throughout the kingdom, ridding them of any kind of concept of class division and leaving all of the characters that we've met thus far scrambling around the world trying to come up with some kind of a solution that they can agree upon. And we see desperation and selfishness and the inclination to flee and to absolve yourself of responsibility, to protect your children, to protect yourself, to do the right thing, to seek vengeance, to question what the right thing even is, to try and grapple with the concept of how to possibly go on with your life after circumstances like this. It's all, all there and into the woods. And ingeniously it equips, I think, audiences everywhere to be able to understand this story by rooting it in something that we not only knew in childhood, but we learned from in childhood. These stories, these characters were our original perspective on morality. These were fables, these were lessons to be learned about doing the right thing. And these honorable, earnest, well intentioned characters winning the day, like Cinderella, who gets her prince, who gets everything she ever want, we never dared to question at that time whether that really would be fulfilling for her or what the next chapter might hold after happily ever after. This ignition point of childhood memory and fairy tale stories is echoed by one of the major themes running through the show, about parenthood and the stories passed between generations. And this is particularly carried by the new characters created for the show. The baker, his wife, the witch from next door, who in contrast with their fairy tale neighbours, have slightly more human, everyday goals and perspectives. The baker and his wife have been previously compared to a more traditional, recognisable, relatable couple who happened to buy in a cheap and slightly bizarre neighborhood, finding themselves living next to a witch, finding giants running around, etc. At the show's conclusion, it is the witch, who throughout the increasingly dark proceedings has offered her own sort of chilling wisdom, who issues to us the instruction as the baker is telling the story of everything that has unfolded to his young child. Careful, the things you say children will listen in into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine remind us that there is so much to learn from the fairy tale stories we may have forgotten as we grew into adulthood, not just from what was on the page, but also from what lies beyond it. Now the show has enjoyed a couple of major Broadway revivals is produced extensively around the US and is seen a little less frequently here in the uk. There was an original London production which happened subsequently, not a replica of the Broadway one. There was also an outdoor staging at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre that later transferred back to New York, as well as a handful of smaller scale and regional productions. But this, in many ways is the most major revival of into the woods that we've seen in more than a decade here in London. All of which hopefully helps you begin to understand why I had such high hopes for the thing. Let's talk about this production. Now. I'm generalizing a little bit here, but I do think British productions, by and large, really lean into the darkness of the whole thing. And this is something that I've said before, where a lot of British revivals of American musicals try and find this sort of bittersweet and bleak and slightly heartbroken quality. We did it not too long ago with hello Dolly. We like to really try and find what darkness and humanity there is. And I don't know if it's just that we want everything to be Les Miserables or that our point of reference for fairy tale stories in the case of into the woods, might be closer to a Brother's Grimm kind of a realm. Meanwhile, over in the us into the woods is performed in a great many high school schools. And the way that a lot of people will encounter it for the first time is being performed by teenagers. That doesn't really happen here. That's not really part of the show's British identity. And this production, directed by Jordan Fine and designed by Tom Scutt, is no exception to that idea. This is one that decisively leans into the darkness of the whole thing almost to the extent that we're kind of tonally doing Act 2 in Act 1 already, which understandably is a little to the detriment of that first act. And I've seen enough productions of into the woods where we dial back on the comedy of the whole thing a little bit, and where perhaps the witch's first arrival is more just overtly sinister. But this is a puzzling example because the witch is still quite funny in this, and we're still going for a lot of comedy lines. And you have things like the princes arriving in these sort of 70s pantomime costumes with headbands and tights and codpieces and puffy sleeves. And there's an awful lot about it visually that does arrive with a very deliberate wit. Milky White is a great example of this and if there's any truth to the notion that the creative intention of a production, the woods, can be understood by the way that they have conceived Milky White, I don't think that holds up here, because this Milky White, more closely resembling a childhood toy that Jack is clinging to than anything else which, you know, works on an emotional level, is a small handheld puppet being very deftly puppeteered, hilariously reacting to things that are being said about him and pronouncements being made that, you know, Milky White will have to be taken to market. Milky White is to be sold, etc. Steam emits from the udders, which thought was hysterically funny. But later on, when Jack and the baker are feuding over who is the rightful owner of Milky White, at which point in the material Milky White falls down dead, they actually wrestle with the puppet. And Milky White gets Caucasian chalk circled in half with his head being torn off, which makes the delivery of the line as Jack picture this now is holding the separated head of Milky White that has just been torn from its body. For Jack to then pause and say Milky White is dead becomes quite funny. But all of this funny is very much at odds with the aesthetic of the production. With the arrival of the production and with this slightly puzzling initial framing device in which the narrator walks out on stage tentatively and then waits to be joined by the other initial players as though into the woods is a story that they are telling. There's no other reference to this throughout the production. And though a similar sort of thing is replicated at the start of the second act, it's never really contextualized. We are never able to understand or I wasn't at least what this is supposed to mean. Now, the narrator himself is dressed like a 1970s geography teacher, and as per most productions, he also plays the role of the mysterious man who is burdened, I must say, with much of the show's weakest material. There are moments as they are trying to bring all of the found items together to create this potion for the Witch at the climax of the first act, in which he has to deliver a lot of messy lines that magically fix things quite quickly. And each of his little arriving rhyming couplets didn't really work for me in this production when he's given it. You know, when first I appear, I seem deleterious. When explained, I'm nothing serious. There is a nice choice, one that I interpret as perhaps even a deliberate homage to the pre Broadway production of the show, in which it is vaguely suggested that perhaps the narrator is the adult version of the baker's child who is being told the story. Hence why he is then able to tell the story to us, the audience. There used to be a line, I think, either in previews on Broadway or before the show even made it to Broadway, when after the baker is encouraged to tell the story to the child, the narrator returns, having disappeared partway through the second act and saying upon his return, I remembered every word. But back to this prologue and this initial black box setting and this one shared table around which all of the characters appear, fostering perhaps something of a sense of community. I don't know whether that idea is beneficial in the first act or if it's something that needs to be established in the second. In general, I think what we're beginning to itch at here is one of my larger dissatisfactions with this production, which is that Act 2 wasn't able to feel particularly transformative because so much of what it finds, so much of the harsh light of day that is suddenly shone on the show, as it were, is already present in the first act. A lot of these characters already feel like entirely realized people with genuine human problems. Problems. And to my surprise, I think this production showed me that Cinderella is deceptively important in the narrative of the first act. And she's a character I've always written off a little bit in comparison with some of the meteor arcs in the show. She's also perhaps the most tangentially connected to everybody else, encountering the baker's wife on a couple of occasions and eventually offering her her one remaining slipper so that she can better run away from the prince in exchange for her shoe. But I think what I realized is that Cinderella is carrying a lot of the burden of fairy tale whimsy in the first act. And she is perhaps the best understood to be truly longing for and wishing for something. In the fairy tale sense, Jack just loves this cow. The baker and his wife just want a child. But Cinderella is wishing, as she did in her story, for something very romantic and fantasized and impractical. She just wants to go to the ball and she becomes a princess. And it's deeply whimsical. And in this production, as Cinderella is portrayed by the fantastic rising star, Misa Dawnford, May she feels gutsy and real and there is considerably less whimsy or naivety. And don't get me wrong, I really love this sort of industry wide arrival of new takes on ingenue soprano roles that have a little bit more bite. I've really been enjoying that. But when reflecting specifically on her Cinderella, it seemed to me that she didn't have an enough to wake from in the second act when she was finding out how the world really was, what kind of a prince that she had married, because she was already sort of disillusioned at the beginning. And if all these fairy tale characters that we meet at the start already seem to be acquainted with the harsh realities of an impoverished life and already seem to know such hardship, then generally speaking, there's just less for them to come to terms with. Now, the end of the prologue, the black backdrop behind our characters opens up and reveals this very realistic woods setting with all of these different trees. It's quite breathtaking when we see it for the very first time. And it's landed specifically by the lighting design as well. Like, the set looks absolutely fantastic, but the way that they create dappled light coming through those trees in a handful of different ways, a glow that comes from upstage right, this harsher white light coming through upstage left as if by moonlight, it's really gorgeous. The lighting throughout this production is exemplary and stunning. This won't be the last time that I mention it. And though it's largely a static set thereafter, with the woods occasionally parting to bring forth Rapunzel's Tower as an example, or Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother's cottage, it's a set rich enough in theatrical possibilities, with enough exciting entrances and exits, that that'll do, really, for this production of into the Woods. It's a really brilliant, functional set, one which has changed by the start of the second act because we again have an introductory segment, they are around the table once more, only this time, when they decide more, each for their own reasons, that they must return to the woods, and the woods are revealed in the same way. We see an entirely different set, one which has become the victim of deforestation, with several felled trees as a result of the havoc wreaked upon the kingdom by the giant. My favorite detail of which is that the floor has split open, leaving this small gulf in the center of the playing space, widening as we get closer to the front of the stage, which feels a little akin to perhaps a giant's footprint, which there are various references to in the script. But also, meaningfully, it's this idea of the familiar fairy tale woods, the ones which they recognize, the paths which they knew having been changed and altered and sort of torn apart. There is a vast deal more to say about this production. I'm going to continue by telling you what I really enjoy.
- [19:41]
Progressive Insurance Announcer
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- [20:01]
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- [20:42]
Mickey Jo Theatre (Theatre Critic)
About it. Now. I think a great note to start this on would be Kate Fleetwood's performance performance as the witch who can be a real standout, fantastic character when played with balance because she is capable of intense, sorrowful drama, particularly heading into the second act, but also characterful comedy in the first. The versatility of a performer like Bernadette Peters, who was hysterically funny and also heartbreaking, is really baked into the identity of this character. And I've seen some great witches in my time time, but I don't know that any I've seen live have really been able to achieve both facets of this character in the way that Kate Fleetwood does. And she's a remarkable stage actress. I would say a little less confident in the vocal delivery, certainly stronger in the second act singing wise than in the first. There was something of a quality of her character speaking voice disappearing when she began to sing, as though it was a little bit disconnected. But the voice that she used for the witch as she appeared behind the baker and his wife looking like a freaking nightmare before draping herself across their kitchen table like a chanteuse, is this very nasal, very British, sort of like an obnoxious receptionist, worker or HR manager going, it's not what I wish, it's what you wish. And it worked really well. It really worked for this patronizing, condescending energy that she brings to the couple at the beginning, issuing them with all of these instructions. And it allowed her to feel, even when she becomes as downtrodden as everyone else in the second act at all times, utterly superior. But also there was a comic quality in it as well. I've been desperate for the longest time to see a witch who could really make it funny on stage, and she does. She lands a lot of the biggest laughs in the show, but she also has these captivatingly intense moments. She, before cutting off Rapunzel's hair for betraying her, raises this knife above her head like she's about to stab her in the back of the neck. She also really pours on the impetus of hearing Rapunzel's vocalizing echoing throughout the woods every time she sings, which happens just so many times. And in that moment alone, Fleetwood plays comic and dark in the same breath because she'll be talking to the baker and she'll become giddily distracted as soon as she hears it. And she'll be like, that's my Rapunzel. Like a proud parent, before doubling down on the desperation of get me what I need. Once she remembers Rapunzel and thinks about the life that she wants for the two of them and what she needs for herself and this desire she has to once more be young and beautiful. So it's not like remembering he's there like, get me what I need. It's like, please get me what I need. I'd never connected to that line in the same way, and that was staggering. Hell of a choice there. The witch in this production, I thought, for what it's worth, was also the only person who was really able to land the great moral lines. There was a lot that just didn't really emerge. When the witch and Little Red Riding Hood are arguing back and forth in the second act, and she says, a wolf's not the same. And the witch replies, ask a wolf's mother. That definitely landed. What didn't quite so well is her transformation reveal initially, and I really like how she was styled going into the second act. But when she first came out in this white smock, I guess, and this long Morticia Addams black wig, looking more like that one episode of The Simpsons When Mr. Burns is mistaken for an alien slash the girl from the ring. It did not get an audience response of applause or any kind of sense of a loud recognition. I think just because we were all taking it in and she did look younger. I don't know whether she looked. I. It just. It was just a look. It was just a choice. I don't know whether the witch seemed really happy with the end result. And as long as the client is satisfied, then that's. Then that's really all that you can ask. For so much of the rest of what I have to say about the show's strengths are in the set and the costume and the lighting design. The set and costume designed by Tom Skirt, the lighting design from Aideen Malone. Really beautiful work. A lot of it with silhouettes and shadow puppetry. When the birds first are flying around Cinderella in the prologue, we see Cinderella's shadow cast large against the backdrop, surrounded by these little shadowy birds. We see sinister silhouette cast from within Little Red's grandmother's house. The way that the giant is realized in this production is with a live, not pre recorded, as is often the case off stage voice, but just the silhouette of a giant cast across the stage. The characters plunged into darkness, stood in her shadow, which to my mind actually makes her more threatening than I think she's ever been before. And I've seen productions where the giant has been an enormous face aloft over the line of trees surrounding the stage, or a large leg and a shoe meant to resemble a childhood doll being brought down at the side of the stage. And in both instances, you have the innate sense, I think, as an audience member, that it would be very cumbersome for this giant to try and step on anybody. But when they're in the trembling shadow of the giant standing above them, it feels like they're all going to get squashed at any minute. Suddenly it felt dangerous and fearful for them to stay where they were or even move around. I've already told you how much I loved Milky White, and I really did. But there's also a moving chicken puppet that hangs out in Jack's backpack at one point and pops up amongst the woods. And I just loved. Really. The only problem with those is that they aren't selling replicas among the merchandise. Do you know how much I would have paid for a puppet? Milky White? Please, somebody take my money. I also loved the foot lighting that they used in hello, Little Girl. Leaning into this unashamed theatricality that was continued in the way that the wolf was costumed. Not to look like a hyper realistic wolf, but in a very true theatrical sense. The aesthetic of the costume design generally felt quite European, a little Scandinavian, perhaps quite in the realm of Brothers Grimm, with a lot of sort of earth tone, medieval peasant vibes that began to tend a bit more towards sort of medieval pageantry when characters came into any kind of wealth. A couple of real standout costumes. Cinderella's ball gown was just breathtaking. Absolutely stunning dress that was. And so apart from the traditional way that we see Cinderella's ball gowns We've seen white versions and blue versions, but this was greyer with perhaps some gold scattered amongst it, but gray and textured and fascinating and just stunning. Tom Scott's work is always so, so beautiful. We absolutely have to talk about Rapunzel's hair. And let me see if I can find anyone who specifically worked on this. Yeah, Wake's hair and makeup designer, Sam Cole Cox for this production puppetry. Before I forget to point it out, Cheryl. Chuck Brown, Max Humphries and Tom Scutt accredited as puppetry designers. But it's Rapunzel's wig that we need to talk about the most because she has the long blonde hair coming down that ingeniously, ingeniously, wittily is braided in the shape of a ladder with rungs that she lowers out of her tower and which the witch begins to climb, and some of which the baker's wife pulls and separates. So she has a couple rungs of hair to go and celebrate with as she takes it back to her husband. And that I thought was a great and deeply original choice. The only place where it sort of fell down for me was when the witch, rather than cutting off Rapunzel's hair much closer to her head, giving her, like, the Fantine Les Mis special, just cut off the part of her hair where it started to turn into a ladder, leaving her with long blonde hair that still, like, reached down to her lower back. And if I'm Rapunzel in that moment, I'm saying, oh, no, don't, don't, don't take the ladder. I, I wanted that. Don't leave me with this very nice and functional, still long blonde haircut. I'm. I'm so sad to lose the ladder bit. It made me think of those social media videos where people are crying about the haircuts they got from hairdressers that misunderstood what they asked for. And then you go to the comments and you're like, girl, your hair was a ladder before that was a ladder. This looks much better. Oh, also, statement handbags. Oh, how we love a statement handbag. Little Red Riding Riding Hood is given a bag that looks like a basket and then folds up and it's a little cottage to take her sweets in. They carry it as well into the second act. But when stepmother and stepsisters of Cinderella are going to the ball, they each have a little statement handbag. I thought that was fun. Once again, something I would pay good money for. From the merchandise stand. For hardcore fans of into the woods, here are a few fun Little tidbits. They add a sixth note to the bean distribution. Melody, Melody. When like that. Because the baker and his wife actually have six beans when negotiating with Jack, bartering for the cow and the baker's wife to try and sell the thing says, no, we'll only give you five. We can't possibly part with all of them. And so the bean that is pocketed and returned gets a sort of little lower bass note. The voice of Cinderella's mother, not specifically credited in the program or when the cast was announced, who is heard that this sort of ethereal way from beyond the grave as she visits her tree is, I think, spoken by one performer and sung by another. It sounded like Bella Brown, who plays Rapunzel, possibly with a couple other voices harmonizing as well the first time that we heard it. Joe Foster I very much enjoyed as Jack. I thought they have never sounded better. Some really lovely vocal tone. I liked absolutely everything that Gracie McGonagall did as little Red from the plosive pleases at the beginning when singing Just a Low from Bread Please. This very bratty, stubborn, childish characterization of Little Red that she was leading with throughout was fantastic. Seeing her sing I Know Things now with a blood red stained Shirley Temple kind of a wig really sold that number. And throughout the second act, everything that she did with that characterization, I thought was just perfect. Agony really worked. Continues to be very popular with audiences. Agony Reprise sat a little strangely on this set and among this design, but the Princes sort of did did throughout. And when you establish in the introductory moments this very bleak, colourless, dark quality, then those vibrant and silly moments of the show are always going to play a little bit oddly against it. It almost felt like an aesthetic and a direction that weren't entirely singing from the same hymn sheet. Also, this is perhaps the first time I've seen Into the woods in the UK that hasn't included any of the revisions to the original material. No our little work world, no little bit in Children will listen where they nod to the cut verses from Second Midnight when they do, like, how do you say to your child who's in flight, don't slip away and I won't hold so tight. All of that is gone. No alternate lyrics in Last Midnight. It's back to you're so nice, you're not good, you're not bad, you're just nice. All of which I think I do ultimately prefer. I loved, loved, loved the staging of Any Moment. I loved that it was Katy Brabin's baker's wife who made the decision to grab the prince's head and then kiss him, even after saying like, no, we couldn't possibly do that. I love that they were rolling around having an affair in the middle of the playing space as the baker and Cinderella played their scene from either side across this gulf of betrayal in the middle as their respective partners were making out on the floor. But nothing compares, not one single moment of this production to the electrifying quality that was Last Midnight. And every detail of this, everything that Kate Fleetwood had built in this characterization paid off in this moment. Her delivery of this first still and then growing to this quiet rage. The fact that and I love them for this, they put in the delicious Roboto moment for all right Mother when that is a choice we should be making in every subsequent production of into the Woods. As far as I am concerned, that is the one thing the film got right. But at that moment, there is this kaleidoscopic multi colored light show happening from behind her like it's Disney's Fantasmic. The floor has opened up into a ramp. The ghost of Rapunzel is walking up to greet her. And that is the kind of electrifying, exciting, new, innovative creative thinking I want to see brought to this production and the kind of energy that I desperately wanted throughout the rest of the show. Which brings me to more of my thoughts on performances, creative choices, etc. But the ones that I.
- [32:44]
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- [32:50]
Mickey Jo Theatre (Theatre Critic)
Wait, we're going on tour?
- [32:51]
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- [32:55]
Mickey Jo Theatre (Theatre Critic)
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- [32:57]
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- [33:01]
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- [33:03]
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- [33:05]
Mickey Jo Theatre (Theatre Critic)
Oh, you're definitely a groupie.
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Mickey Jo Theatre (Theatre Critic)
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- [33:14]
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- [33:56]
Mickey Jo Theatre (Theatre Critic)
Didn't like. So, in general, this did feel like a production where the second act was always going to play better than the first, and it did. But there were still a couple of choices in the second act that I wish had been more intense, more sinister, more bleak and gothic and dark. If that's the aesthetic that we're going for, if that's the vibe we're trying to bring to into the world, woods really lean into it, really, like, mess me up with it. When we first heard a giant's footstep creating this kind of earthquake sound in the second act, disrupting all of the contentment that they were singing about together, we see this sort of distortion happening on the background and I'm like, oh, is it going to get really weird? And it never truly does, because in the thorniest and most complicated philosophical debate sequence of the second act, which culminates in them deciding to sacrifice, sacrifice, the narrator and Jack's mother being accidentally murdered because one of the characters on stage is concerned that she may be provoking the giant in anger. This is a chance for it to really devolve into the crucible. Why not have a version where Jack's mother is not just sort of swatted above the head with a long stick, but truly, like, beaten to death in cold blood on the floor by a terrified individual who was like, no, stop it, stop it. Like, go that dark, go that bleak. If the first act is going to be as colourless as it is, the second has to get darker, and it couldn't because of where we started. Adding insult to injury, there are three deaths that happen over the course of that one scene, and each was accompanied by a sort of cartoonish sound effect. And it was indicative of the entire production, which is not knowing what to do with the comedy of the thing and whether it could be ironic or whether it could be silly or sort of darkly comic. And we never found enough of a characteristic of black comedy that I think would work in the vision the Jordan and creative team had for this production. Because I can tell you about a dozen laughs in the first act that just didn't happen. A dozen lines that would normally get some kind of response and don't always have to, but it felt less like they were going for a different interpretation and more like they were going for a laugh line that just didn't happen now. Mark Aspinall was the music supervisor and music director. Director. And so much of it sounded like gorgeous, perfect, quintessential into the woods played brilliantly by this band split across either side of the stage. I did have issues with the way a couple of things were sung. Katie Brabin, towards the end of Moments in the woods had a few sort of strange American vowels. Misa's performance of on the Steps of the palace ended in a sort of strange Passaggio placement. And there were a surprising number of moments where the music was almost out of sync. And Katy Brady, but I think fared the best in terms of navigating a very complicated Sondheim score with a tremendous, evident musicianship. She rescued a song that was about to go very out of time. At one moment towards the end of the show, but at the beginning of Forever after, we were sort of momentarily on the brink of everything completely collapsing. There was also a point during Stay With Me where it didn't sound like the orchestra were in sync with themselves. Just a couple of musical oddities that I wouldn't normally find myself being distracted by. Very possibly it's because I'm better acquainted with the sound of this score than I am with a lot of other others. Very possibly it's also just because rehearsal periods are finite. And I dare say in terms of that and also these performances and finding something truly tonally cohesive between each of them, the show is probably only going to get better and better. I might go back and see it towards the end of the run where it could very well be quite changed. Now is a good time, I think, to talk about Jamie Parker and Katie Braben as the Baker and the Baker's Wife. And I felt as though, you know, I was so excited by this casting because I. They're both staggering actors. I'm a huge fan of each of them on stage in various shows. And I think Jamie only seemed to really be able to get both hands around this role after the Baker's Wife's death, which I do think was staged a little underwhelmingly, certainly by the time that we've seen that because of. However the hydraulics work. Every time the woods have to part, there is a big old trapdoor in the middle of the playing space. I was anticipating that we were going to get some kind of a horrifying just fall into darkness and nothingness, not unlike the recent Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, where they just go. And so to have her lowered down instead on a slow moving hydraulic lift like A reverse Velma Kelly about to do all that jazz was comparatively not as exciting, though it looked stylish with the way that it was lit and with some leaves falling down. I just think it's such a sudden gut punch, death that comes absolutely out of nowhere after she's had this profound moment of actualizing realization. I would always love for it to punch me in the gut. And so few moments of this production really punched me, the gut in general. And this is a real big picture criticism here. I did not cry nearly as much as I wanted to. I did not laugh nearly as much as I wanted to. I found this sort of inherently cold and perhaps minimally emotionally affecting. It reminded me both of the hello, Dolly production I spoke about at the Palladium, but also of Eater at the Palladium, where a lot of remarkable, impressive creative work is happening. But I don't know to what extent it was in service of the overall story being told. I. I don't know what themes this production was trying to uplift creatively. I don't even know that I could tell you what the vision was here, what the goal was here. It talks a lot about parenthood. And some of the most striking moments towards the end of the second act are about parenthood and struggling to cope with that in a turbulent society, which I think is perhaps the best thing that into the woods is equipped to talk about right now. Trying to raise the next generation when, you know, the world seems increasingly damaged and hopeless. But that only emerged as this very late revelation, not something that had really been foreshadowed and framed from the start. I go back to how unusual that framing device was and how little I felt able to gain from it. This is before we get to bigger issues like the final musical moments of the show that begin with the slotted spoon can catch the potato happening, because all of these perhaps dead characters just walk on stage in a vague lighting state and then stand there in two rows like it's an amateur production. Not to mention that if you're not going to represent Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, who have been sung about in Agony Reprise with actual performers on stage, then you really need to articulate by the Princes, the harder to wake, the better to have. Not just the harder to wake, the better to have, because they've already sung the line, the harder to get, the better to have. And now it's a clarification, it's an amendment to that. The harder to wake. Oh, we were talking about the Baker and the Baker's Wife, and I got Entirely distracted. And I didn't really talk about Katie Braben as the baker's wife. And she's doing great work. She is a formidable actress. There's some something that is not all the way connecting because it's witty, it's not fully funny and I don't know if there's something in a lack of warmth. She is clearly dissatisfied. And by the time that she has this romantic encounter with the prince and Singh's moments in the woods, then I think we get a stronger sense by that point of who she is. But it's altogether too late by then. I don't know that she was situated well within the context of this project production to be able to really succeed with that. Because when the quality of the whole thing at the beginning, and I'm repeating myself here, is bleak and honest and realistic, then the baker and the baker's wife almost have nobody to be. If they can't feel like the reluctant surrogate parents of all of these wide eyed, nonsensical, cartoonish fairy tale characters in the first act, then they're just that couple who are fighting, who you end up queuing next to, who you try not to pay any kind of attention to because they're ruining your day at end. The Disneyland. I actually quite liked the sort of East End accent that she seemed to be going with. I thought occasionally some of the line reading choices were maybe just the littlest bit too blatant. And there was a strange cut off at the end of the justification of the Beans, which she sang very well. She justified those beans. And that wasn't something that was limited just to that song Agony. Every time the word agony itself was sung, there was a strange cut off there. It wasn't held as long as it usually was would be. Which makes it sound like I'm just a purist who only wants to hear into the woods portrayed and sung as it was originally. And I'm not. I welcome changes. I love the fact that we had Rapunzel vocalizing over the end of Last midnight that shook me to my core. I love that we have Rapunzel dueting with the witch during Children Will Listen. I've never heard of that being done before. And I thought that was great. And I would have loved even more great. I would have loved impact and laughter and tears and Feeling rather than a production which I thought was exceedingly smart and deeply stylish and beautifully atmospheric and maybe one of the best set designs for into the woods that we're ever going to see, but one that left me not unlike its characters, roaming about midnight, after midnight in the middle of the woods, frustrated and cold. So those have been my thoughts about the London revival of into the woods at the Bridge Theatre. I dare say I will return to this production. I encourage absolutely everyone to go and see it. It's an extraordinary piece of theatre. It wins an awful lot of points because the material being performed on stage is so, so good. I have such high expectations for how well this show can be done and for how brilliant this creative team are. Their acclaimed production of Fiddler on the Roof at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, currently on tour around the uk. Go see that as well if you haven't already. If it's going to be at a theatre near you was so extraordinary and I think there was the potential here for a really brilliant, perhaps even like pivotal redefining production of the show. Maybe one of the best that the UK has ever seen scene. But I don't know that it all the way got there and I think it really struggled to get the first act right or contend with this inherently challenging balance of comedy and darkness that performers and creatives alike always seem to struggle with a little bit when it comes to this show. Like I said, America takes it to a slightly more comic place. UK almost always does it darker. Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic, someone is staging the most perfect production of the into the Woods. And while I have yet to see a production I truly think is extraordinary, I live in hope that someday I shall. In the meantime, like I said, go and check this one out for yourselves. If you already have, let me know and everyone else in the comment section down below what you thought of it. Finally, if my thoughts on this weren't too controversial for you and you would like to hear what I have to say about other shows coming soon in the West End and on Broadway, make sure to subscribe to my theatre themed YouTube channel or follow me on podcast platforms. In the meantime, as always, I hope that everyone is safe staying safe and that you have a stagey day for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. Hey, thanks for watching. Have a Stagey day. Subscribe.
- [44:25]
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- [44:55]
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Par le tu francais hablas espanol par l'. Italiano. If you've used Babbel, you would. Babbel's conversation based technique teaches you useful words and procedures phrases to get you speaking quickly about the things you actually talk about in the real world. With lessons handcrafted by over 200 language experts and voiced by real native speakers, Babbel is like having a private tutor in your pocket. Start speaking with Babbel today. Get up to 55% off your Babbel subscription right now at babbel.com acast spelled B A B B E L.com acast rules and restrictions may apply.
- [45:34]
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