If there’s any sensible conclusion to be drawn about the past 16 months of essential shutdown in terms of my professional theatergoing — or lack thereof, more accurately — it might be this: Given that one of the last full-scale, in-person productions I saw in March of 2020 was City Springs Theatre’s “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” how appropriate that the first full-scale, in-person production I’ve seen since is City Springs’ new staging of “Into the Woods.”
In the company’s first endeavor since the oddly abrupt and frankly mystifying departure last month of Brandt Blocker, who had served as executive artistic director since its 2018 inception, the group seems to be embarking on a new phase of sorts with this sufficient but unexceptional undertaking of “Woods,” composer Stephen Sondheim’s popular musical (scripted by James Lapine) that commingles characters from various Brothers Grimm fairy tales — including “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Rapunzel.”
Par for the course, City Springs’ version boasts the same level of extravagant production values we’ve come to expect from the troupe during those formative Blocker years (“42nd Street,” “South Pacific,” “Mary Poppins, “Billy Elliot,” “Hairspray”): here, the imported costumes are credited to Susan Hilferty, who designed them for the 2002 Broadway revival; and the ornate forest scenery is by Paul Wonsek, a veteran of numerous Alabama Shakespeare Festival shows.
As usual, too, the company’s 13-member orchestra provides lush accompaniment for an ensemble of nearly 20 vocalists, this time under the music direction of S. Renee Clark and conducted by musical supervisor Chris Brent Davis (on piano). And, in addition to a few performers with lots of New York and regional credits on their resumes, the capable cast also boasts several actors from Atlanta’s own talent pool.
Terry Burrell receives top billing as the Witch whose spells and machinations control most of the action. Billy Tighe and Felicia Boswell play the childless Baker and Baker’s Wife, who set off on a mission to break a curse placed on them by the Witch, whereupon they mix it up with a variety of more familiar fairy-tale characters looking to fulfill their own wishes.
Credit: Ben Rose/BenRosePhotography.com
Credit: Ben Rose/BenRosePhotography.com
Leigh Ellen Jones and Rayven Bailey portray the distressed damsels Cinderella and Rapunzel, with Colt Prattes and Benjamin H. Moore as their respective princes. Prattes is a particular delight, as are standouts Jalise Wilson as the grandmother-visiting Little Red Riding Hood, and Haden Rider as Jack, the kid with the magic beans who runs afoul of a giant (and his wife). Special kudos also go to Davon Farmer, who steals scenes as Milky White, Jack’s cow.
At the helm of the production is Kayce Grogan-Wallace, a novice director who’s better known as a local actress (“The Color Purple” at Actor’s Express, “Dreamgirls” with Atlanta Lyric). There’s a rushed, haphazard quality to many of the bigger musical numbers that contradicts the show’s prolonged three-hour run time. Part of the issue is the intricate structure of Sondheim’s score itself; often overlapping at a rapid pace, some of the lyrics are frequently undecipherable.
City Springs’ show works best in its less chaotic and more intimate moments: the solos “Stay with Me” (Burrell), “Giants in the Sky” (Rider), “I Know Things Now” (Wilson) and “Moments in the Woods” (Boswell); the duet “Agony” (Prattes, Moore); and the group numbers “No One is Alone” and “Children Will Listen,” which bring everything to an undeniably emotional close.
The first act of “Into the Woods” is all about happy endings, while the second act explores the darker “moral” consequences for characters who get exactly what they wished for. Here’s hoping that, as the company proceeds without Blocker, audiences will continue to flourish happily ever after, rather than having to face the music, as it were.
THEATER REVIEW
“Into the Woods”
Through July 18. 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. $40-$100. Byers Theatre at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center, 1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs. 404-477-4365, www.cityspringstheatre.com.
Bottom line: Slickly designed and solidly played, if seldom magical.
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