Into The Woods - Roleystone Theatre

I had the good fortune this Saturday just gone to drive up the hill to Roleystone Theatre and see their current production of Sondheim's Into the Woods. As a blanket statement at the beginning of my review, I would like to say that before I saw this production, I would not have believed a community theatre would have been able to pull this show off so well. A pleasant (and most enjoyable) surprise!

The production was set very cleverly, with large books present on the apron that would open to create staging for that particular fairytale. For example, the book entitled Rapunzel would open up to reveal Rapunzel in her tower. Very clever and effective. My one small gripe with this was the addition of a Red Riding Hood book that never opened. I understand that this was clearly built to balance the set, however, I personally feel in this case that the set would have worked equally well with one book on one side and two on the other - but that could be part of my personal vendetta against symmetry ;) Upstage of the apron, the designers created a wood for the performers to get lost in that exhibited a beautiful fairytale book quality with its simplicity while avoiding "cardboard cut-out syndrome". And apart from the odd jolted fly in, the crew are to be commended for their manipulation of the intricate details of the set.

I would also like to offer my profound respect to Musical Director Matt Austin. The understanding of Sondheim's score and the precision with which Mr. Austin controlled both the orchestra and the performers on stage is to be commended. In my humble opinion, a Sondheim musical doesn't have room for error - the lyrics are convoluted, the melodies rarely go where one would expect them to and more often than not there are more people singing separate parts than there are orchestra members. The music in this production was sublimely crafted and controlled; a strong testament to the discipline and efforts of an extremely talented MD - well done indeed.

As for individual performances... Well, it's very difficult to pick stand outs from the cast, as the whole ensemble put in a performances that I feel they can be proud of. Pretty much every character had their own stand out moments: be it the two Prince Charmings' Agony (stunning comic timing); or Jack's Giants in the Sky (breath-taking vocal control - it would be easy to belt, but to draw the audience in with softness...); or Rapunzel's pure voice; or the Baker's heart-wrenching realisation that his wife had died (you had me in tears); or the Bakers Wife's strength and determination; or the Witch's, well, everything. I could go on and on about the various moments that I connected with in this show, but it is getting late and I should probably think about wrapping this up and heading to bed.

All in all, I would just like to offer my humble congratulations to the cast and crew of Into the Woods  - I feel you have a show that you can be truly proud of, well done :)

Darren