Ever wondered what happens after “happily ever after”? Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods has the answers. This month, the Theater Department at Connecticut College will stage an ambitious new production of Into the Woods, under the guidance of guest director Jimmy Maize.
Maize has long wanted to direct a Sondheim musical, citing “the complexity and richness” of Sondheim’s score. Stephen Sondheim, considered by many to be the greatest musical theater composer, “creates a very tight theatrical form with his seamless mesh of book and music,” said Maize. Sondheim’s characters are complex, multi-dimensional and flawed. Maize was attracted to Into the Woods and its characters because, as he puts it, the play is “imbued with a level of meta-theatricality” and has an “implicit embrace of the theatrical form.” Maize thought Into the Woods was a perfect choice for Connecticut College as it offers many challenges and opportunities for the performers, and the technical team and musicians.
So what’s it all about? Into the Woods contains many fairytale stories that audiences will immediately recognize. It has Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (of beanstalk fame), Cinderella and many other familiar faces, all inhabiting the same world. Through the first act, the audience watches these fairytales play out much as we know them but with a lot more heart, wit and heaviness than we may be accustomed to. As the show progresses, all things go to hell, and these same characters are forced to deal with a world that’s not so happily ever after.
“Sondheim and Lapine portray some pretty heavy events in the play: murder, infidelity, revenge, lying and cheating,” said Maize. It’s far from your grandmother’s fairytale.
Inhabiting this world are wolves, witches, giants and the like, brought to life by a tight-knit cast of fifteen performers. At the center of this world is the Witch, played by Leila Teitelman ’15, who has had audiences cheering with her previous mainstage roles in Bat Boy and I <3 Juliet. When asked to describe her role, she said, “[The Witch] is the unspecified ‘evil’ character that appears in most fairy tales… but in [Into the Woods] she acts as a more human version of the bad guy. One you can sympathize with.” The role of the Witch has been played by many big names over the years, namely Bernadette Peters and Vanessa Williams. Teitelman has big shoes to fill, but she looks poised to deliver another show-stopping performance in Into the Woods.
New to the stage at Connecticut College, but certainly no stranger to performance, is Ryan Foley, a senior member of CoCo Beaux. In Into the Woods, Foley takes on the dual supporting roles of Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf (from Little Red’s subplot). Foley explained the doubling: “In the play, they both represent dominant, seductive males that first succeed, but are eventually defeated by their own hubris.” Both roles require Foley to amp up the charm and have pushed him in new directions. Foley, traditionally a bass, is singing roles written for a baritone, challenging him to find what he calls “a brighter, more Broadway tone” above his comfortable singing range. It’s a new experience for Foley, but he seemed elated to be doing “musical theater for the first time at Conn with a bunch of [his friends],” further describing it as “refreshing and really enjoyable.”
Dave Socolar ’16 will be familiar to most from his performance in the fall student theater hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In Into the Woods, Socolar embodies Jack, an adventurous and somewhat dim lad whose story, Socolar said, is one of “greed and guilt.” Through his experience with the beanstalk and encounters with the giants, Jack grows as a character from a somewhat selfish young boy to a weathered and independent man.
The cast is rounded out by some of the best and most talented performers Connecticut College has to offer, ranging from theater majors to a cappella performers. Each actor brings his or her own energy to the production, creating a dynamic ensemble that is sure to entertain and touch its audience.
Into the Woods is a must-see event. Whether you love musicals, or you don’t know a Bernstein from a Hammerstein, you should see this show. The material itself is brilliant, and the collaboration between the artistic team and the acting ensemble is sure to yield positive results.
Into the Woods will play in Tansill Theater on April 25, 26 and 27 at 7:30 PM and on April 27 and 28 at 2 PM. Tickets are available for purchase at the Palmer Box Office as well as the Box Office in Cro. Reduced price student tickets are available.
