As if pouring from the pages of a storybook, the fairy tale denizens of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods (★★★☆☆) emerge from every nook and threshold in the enchanted forest of Matthew Gardiner’s bustling Signature Theatre production.
Cinderella steps out of a fireplace, Jack pops out of a lacquered box, and Little Red Ridinghood comes skipping out of a wardrobe onto Lee Savage’s handsome set, a voluminous fairy tale cottage, beautifully decaying and seemingly invaded by forest vines and flora.
Inside and just beyond the house’s crumbling walls, Amanda Zieve’s meticulous lighting dapples through the leaves like sunlight, or floods in through the windows and overhead, defining pockets of space for further adventure.
Hatching the company’s 32nd Sondheim production, the magical elves and designers at Signature have created a transporting backdrop that music director Jon Kalbfleisch and his impressive 15-piece orchestra fill with the late maestro’s loping, soaring score.
Undoubtedly, the production looks and sounds great — and yet, that pure thrill of inhabiting the Grimm world of Sondheim and Lapine’s fertile imaginations feels fleeting. It comes and goes with stories and characters rather than sustaining us from beginning to end.
Jake Loewenthal and Erin Weaver offer a compelling Baker and Wife, a vital success, as the loving couple whose dear wish for a child of their own is bound to failure by a witch’s curse. Nova Y. Payton’s comically crotchety crone — sung beautifully, though not quite as compelling — sends the childless pair venturing into the woods on a quest to lift her curse.
A dark be-careful-what-you-wish-for journey through childlessness and childhood, parenthood and loss, the show weaves the Baker, his Wife, and the Witch into a tapestry of interconnected “I wish” stories.
Katie Mariko Murray’s sweet Cinderella seeks her purpose in a stirring performance of “Cinderella at the Grave.” Alex De Bard’s adorably fearless Red Ridinghood explores her loss of innocence in the cheeky “I Know Things Now.” De Bard’s chipper moppet bounds into the woods on her way to grandma’s house fully prepared for disappointment. “For all I know she’s already dead,” Red supposes, cheerfully unfazed.
Of course, somehow, by the end of the first act, nearly everyone sees their wishes granted in time for a second act where the reality after happily ever after comes crashing down like the foot of a giant.
For their Giant, Signature has enlisted Phylicia Rashad, once upon a time a replacement Witch in the musical’s original Broadway run, to voice the towering villain who terrorizes the forest in search of that pesky climber Jack (David Merino). Rashad’s booming vocal turn as the unseen Giant evokes as much character and atmosphere as many of the performances we do see.
Kudos to Vincent Kempski, who does a lot with his appearances in dual roles as the Wolf and as Cinderella’s “charming, not sincere” Prince. And Christopher Bloch consistently captures the show’s arch tone playing a Narrator whose very presence calls the act of storytelling into question.
The songs supply some answers, and countless questions, culminating in the beloved closer “Children Will Listen” — though Payton’s Witch hits higher heights in her lovely first-act number “Stay With Me.”
But it’s Loewenthal’s searing take on the Baker’s final “No More” that lingers into the night, his wondering “what even worse is still in store.” No more giants waging war, we wish, knowing we must be careful what we wish for.
Into the Woods runs through Jan. 29, 2023 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Avenue in Arlington, with a Pride Night performance on Dec. 9. Tickets are $40 to $109. Call 703-820-9771, or visit www.sigtheatre.org.
The queens are fighting, fucking, partying, and serving fierce performances at the spirited Montréal drag bar centered in Sophie Dupuis' award-winning drama Solo.
At the bar is where Simon (Théodore Pellerin) meets Olivier (Félix Maritaud), and love takes over. Newly arrived from Paris, Olivier performs as La Dragona, a punk-styled genderfuck queen, who makes her debut at the club with an alluringly cocky lip-sync to an ice-cold electro track. Welcomed by his fellow performers with champagne and a night out after the show, Olivier immediately catches Simon's eye.
Tasked with translating Sophocles' tragedy Antigone into Urdu, Adil Mansoor decided to approach the assignment as an opportunity to forge a deeper connection with his mother, a hijabi Muslim and scholar, born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan.
The queer writer and performer, himself born in Karachi and raised in Chicago, explores their mother-son journey in his poignant solo play Amm(i)gone, in for a four-week run at Woolly Mammoth.
Mansoor, who developed the work at Pittsburgh's Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and co-directs with D.C. native Lyam B. Gabel, defines the play partly as an apology from mother to son, presented primarily in first-person monologue.
If you wait long enough, your favorite recording artist will have a musical based on their catalog of songs. Neil Diamond, Huey Lewis, Michael Jackson, and The Who are currently represented on Broadway. Clearly theatrical pop is cash in the bank.
So it stands to reason that Alicia Keys would jump on the bandwagon for the semi-autobiographical musical Hell's Kitchen. Reviews were fairly solid, and plenty of buzz was generated when the jukebox tuner premiered at the end of last year at New York's Public Theater.
It didn't even complete its run in January before Keys, along with producers, announced a transfer to Broadway, where it opened in April.
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