Written by Stephanie Snyder, photo courtesy of The Office of Marketing and Communication
On a chilly Thursday evening royalty, children, and a witch were dancing across a stage, singing to birds, and walking into the woods. While sitting in the balcony, I watched the two hour musical, “Into The Woods,” below on stage in Pfeiffer Hall.
Guest artist Jim Beaudry brought Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s classic Into the Woods musical to North Central College. The musical incorporates The Brothers Grimm fairy tales: Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and a few others. The story begins with a baker and his wife who are having trouble bearing a child. The characters from the other fairy tales one by one bump into each other in the woods while on a journey of their own. By the end, their stories become one and they will have to team up against an angry mother of a giant, whom Jack has encountered before when he killed her son.
Other than the balcony bar in my line of sight half of the musical, I found it to be a fascinating twist on the classic fairytales we have all known and come to love. The stage was creatively designed as one big puzzle piece as the backdrop. Each piece moves forward and back with every scene change. The idea was there, but my one critique on this would be a stronger identification of what the background was trying to appear as. Part of the puzzle was a castle, a beanstalk, and Rapunzel’s blond locks of hair. It took a few scenes for me to finally realize what the backdrop was depicting but once I figured it out I thought it was brilliantly crafted.
I think the lighting could have been handled a little differently. It seemed like a struggle to highlight certain characters that were singing on stage, as well as following them as they walked and danced around. In certain scenes it was almost distracting from the actual performance.
As far as the cast goes, each one played their part exceptionally well. As scenes changed, characters froze in place, while another scene took place on another side of the stage. The stillness of the “paused” characters was impressive based on the amount of time they had to hold their positions.
Regardless, the actors owned their roles in the musical. Their voices captivated the audience and filled the theatre with beautiful notes of adventure and love. The princes’ voices, played by junior Aronzo Taylor and senior Hunter Linder, in particular matched perfectly as they sang side by side about their beloved princesses, Rapunzel, played by senior Jane Marshall, and Cinderella, played by senior Savanna Rae.
The voice that I felt commanded the stage was junior Tina Naponelli’s for her character as The Witch. I was surprised to hear her soft tones when she spoke because your typical witch voice is one with raspy rough tones, but when she belted out her musical numbers I didn’t doubt her abilities a second more. Strong and effortless are two words that came to mind as I listened to her sing.
As the scenes moved forward and the show came to an end, I could not help but think back to my childhood memories of the fairy tales I had seen recreated on stage. This twist on The Grimm Brothers’ classics, first debuted in 1986, was a great show to bring week eight of classes to a close. They remind us of the wonderful times to come where fairy tales seem to come true with the magic of the holidays.
