New Phoenix Theatre on McGregor Boulevard is producing Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods April 13th through the 30th. There are three big reasons to attend this show.
First and foremost, the musical’s theme is perhaps more relevant today than when Sondheim wrote the score and lyrics in 1986.
If you haven’t been fortunate enough to see either the musical or the film, Into the Woods is a mash up of four Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault fairy tales – Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Jack in the Beanstalk using The Baker and His Wife to weave the storylines all together. By the end of Act 1, each beloved character achieves their happily ever after. But in Act 2 they learn that choices come with consequences and their actions invariably impact others, sometimes in very harmful ways.
Little Red Riding Hood (To Jack): See, it's your fault.
Jack: No!
Baker: So it's your fault...
Jack: No!
Little Red Riding Hood: Yes, it is!
Jack: It's not!
Baker: It's true. Jack: Wait a minute- But I only stole the gold to get my cow back from you!
Little Red Riding Hood (To Baker): So it's your fault!
Playing the blame game is just a classic way of avoiding responsibility for the choices we make. But as Cinderella learns, even failing to choose is a choice that has ramifications.
It's your first big decision, The choice isn't easy to make.
To arrive at a ball Is exciting and all-
Once you're there, though, it's scary.
And it's fun to deceive When you know you can leave,
But you have to be wary.
There's a lot that's at stake, But you've stalled long enough, '
Cause you're still standing stuck In the stuff on the steps...
Better run along home And avoid the collision.
Even though they don't care, You'll be better of there
Where there's nothing to choose, So there's nothing to lose.
So you pry up your shoes. Then from out of the blue,
And without any guide, You know what your decision is, Which is not to decide.
You'll leave him a clue: For example, a shoe. And then see what he'll do.
Cinderella is played by Aimee Naughton. She’s seen Into the Woods dozens of times including, most recently, last summer’s Broadway revival in New York. She says that Cinderella is not alone when it comes to letting circumstance or others make important life decisions for us.
“She has to grow up very quickly learning that getting what you want is not always the best thing for you, " said Naughton. "And you have to deal with the consequences of the choices that you make, and none of the characters in this show are used to making choices. They’ve never had to make choices for themselves.”
It’s not just fairy tale characters who are guilty of this. Who hasn’t let a parent, spouse, politician or pundit do our thinking for us? Into the Woods warns us that when we do, Act 2 can happen, and Act 2 in the New Phoenix production is raw, provocative and emotional.
“Act 2 for this show, it’s deep,” Naughton continued. “We’re really digging in. We’re crying in rehearsals. We’re really tapping into the feelings that those characters are going through … Maybe you’ll get something different from Act 2 this time that you haven’t seen before.”
A second reason to catch this production is the music. Hamilton-In the Heights creator Lin-Manuel Miranda credits Stephen Sondheim as his inspiration and mentor. In fact, he watched Act 1 of Into the Woods hundreds of times beginning at the age of 10. Like Miranda, Sondheim uses melody and lyrics to tell the story
Nikki Hagel, who plays Little Red Riding Hood, observed, “This isn’t about singing pretty and Sondheim always said he can use people that can’t sing well, they just have to play characters. And, as you know, a lot of the music it’s not so much melodic as it is character and it’s overlapping character parts, which makes it very difficult because it will be four characters overlapping each other, and they’re all saying things.”
But with Julie Carver providing musical direction, everyone in this cast can and does sing well.
The third reason that this is a must-see musical is because of the cast’s buy-in, as Wyatt Burton, the Baker, explains.
“I find myself bringing myself here like every day for rehearsal an hour before because I have to put myself into the realm of the script and the stories because it’s so different from what you would typically read or see outside of everyday life. And I think its more so about finding, finding the world that Sondheim existed in in his own head and relating to that to portray a new character that you’re creating on stage.”
Each performance of this musical promises to be highly impactful because each cast member is also poignantly and painfully aware that New Phoenix Theatre will close its doors for the final time after the April 30 finale. Aimee Naughton not only speaks for the cast, but the entire theater community.
“The opportunity to perform here has just been outstanding. The quality of the shows I’ve been able to be in here has been top notch. It’s going to be something that’s missed in the theater community in Southwest Florida.”
FAST FACTS:
- Into the Woods is one of Stephen Sondheim’s most popular and enduring works.
- The musical premiered on Broadway on November 5, 1987. It won Tony Awards for Best Score, Best Book and Best Actress in a Musical (for Joanna Gleason) notwithstanding stiff competition from Phantom of the Opera.
- The musical has enjoyed national tours, a 2002 Broadway revival and a second Broadway revival on June 28, 2022 at the St. James Theatre.
- Go here for play dates, times and a full cast list.
- Into the Woods has been produced locally by a number of theaters, but even if you’ve seen the show there or someplace else, the New Phoenix production promises to be different and unique. “Any time you’re going through the woods, it’s always a different journey no matter where you go see it because it’s different people, it’s different people playing different characters,” observes Nikki Hagel, who portrays Little Red Riding Hood. “So you can see the same show five times and it will never be the same Into the Woods. Everything is open for interpretation with these style of characters so you never know what you’re going to see in the woods.
- Aimee Naughton, who plays Cinderella, agrees. “So many organic moments are happening on stage that it’s not always the same. ‘You’re Fault’ is not choreographed at all so it’s completely different every single night, and I know that a lot of theaters do that because it’s difficult to choreograph, right? Yeah, but things happening organically and a lot of authenticity and a lot of tears from us so I hope we’ll get some tears from the audience too.”
- In addition to playing Little Red, Nikki Hagel also designed the set. “The set is actually pieces from the last show, Jekyll & Hyde,” Hagel reveals. “We took tubing that was hanging on the ceiling and they got repurposes with an insulation foam called Gaps & Cracks and then it got turned into the gorgeous trees, and it really makes it look like they’re real trees on the stage. But it’s not. And the beauty of it is because it’s a tube with insulation foam, they’re extremely light weight. So they’re safe too.”
- Hagel also crocheted Milky White, the cow. “It’s $50 of yarn on Milky White, as you can see. It was a lot of work. It was about, I would say, 5 hours just on the legs to crochet Milky White.”
- Wyatt Burton plays the Baker, who is sent on a quest with his wife to procure four items in order to induce a nearby witch to remove a curse she placed on him so that the couple can have children. It’s a dream role not only because he’s long been a fan of Chip Zien’s portrayal in the 1991 production, but because Wyatt’s favorite fairy tale character is “pretty much any witch.” Burton adds, “There’s something that’s super cool about a strong, powerful, angry woman. It shows a strength that I feel like a lot of people see as wrong but, in reality, it’s showing a huge amount of strength. And I thought that was really cool to be able to sit there and see and witness and identify in a sense that it’s okay to be angry sometimes, because life can make you angry. But it can make you stronger at the same time.”
- Cinderella is Aimee Naughton’s dream role. “I sang ‘On the Steps of the Palace’ my senior college recital, and as I’m about to age out of this part, it’s nice to get a chance to do it now. She’s a lot more complicated, I think, now having the life experience that I’ve had versus when I was singing her when I was 21.”
- Over the course of its five-year life, New Phoenix Theatre built a reputation for edgy, avant-garde programming such as Jekyll & Hyde, Head Over Heels, Young Frankenstein, Rocky Horror Show and the COVID-abbreviated production of The Full Monty.
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.
Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is funded in part by Naomi Bloom, Jay & Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie & Phil Wade.