While watching Shadowbox Live’s production of the steam-punk/gypsy adaptation of the musical Into the Woods I struggled to decide how I felt. I truly enjoy the Sondheim classic as it contains excellent music and an interesting story, but the Shadowbox production omits and alters a sizable portion of the show. However, I relish creative liberties and changes to make shows more fascinating and Shadowbox’s attempts at least fall into that realm. Ultimately though, I believe they failed.
Composed by Stephen Sondheim with book by James Lapine, the show intertwines the stories of several fairy tale characters including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack (of the Beanstalk), Rapunzel, and the Baker and his wife. Beginning with “Once upon a time” as so many stories do, the Narrator introduces these characters, their plights, and wishes. Cinderella wishes to go to the festival, Jack wishes his bovine best friend would produce milk, and the Baker and his wife desperately want a child. Learning of a curse on the family by a neighboring witch, the Baker (Maker in the Shadowbox version) and his wife set out to find the ingredients to compose the antidote: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, a slipper as pure as gold. As they search for these items in the woods, the Maker and his wife encounter the other characters as they work to fulfill their wishes.
In Shadowbox form, they make it a bit different. We see familiar costuming with a gypsy/steam-punk feel and note several line and lyrical changes to fit this theme. This production loses a few songs from the original score as well. Modern, “edgy” (curse-word laden) dialogue is introduced in lieu of the original writing and songs. Most songs lose a verse or two. In all of this, we find rushed character development and plot holes that never existed in the story made famous on Broadway. The ending does not even follow the original script, making for a very preachy climax. This all raises the question, “Why?”
Sure, some things work in this production. The costumes, designed by Linda Mullin and constructed by Drema Sargent, look wonderful and the sound design (Scott Aldridge and Brain Rau) feels relatively immersive and engaging. Nikos Fyodor Rutkowski designs several large gorgeous puppets for this production, including a golden harp and the milky white cow.
Jim Andes performs nicely as a wandering, eastern European Narrator who provides short snippets of story-line. John Boyd and Leah Haviland produce some chemistry as the Maker and his wife, and Boyd’s version of “No More” sounds quite good. Will Macke plays a delightfully innocent yet believable Jack with just a touch of humor. “The Last Midnight” sang by the Witch (Julie Klein) looks and sounds great.
Apart from this, a lot of the show feels rushed and forced, as though Shadowbox tried to make something really edgy and intriguing in a limited amount of time, when the original sufficed. Even the songs do not feel quite ready; the band, in a huge change for them, felt off as did many of the vocals. Hopefully, this, as well as the lighting since at least half of the time the actors possess shadowed faces, improve over the course of the run.
The entire endeavor results in a confusing and awkward couple of hours. This brings me back to the question: Why? Why do Sondheim if you cannot do the songs? Why do a show that already exists where you alter a lot of the content when you are known for original works? This production is not quite Into the Woods and it’s not quite Shadowbox Live. Rather, it seems a muddled mess at an in-between.
Into the Woods runs until June 8, at Shadowbox Live, 503 S. Front Street. Sun. at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Tickets $25. $20 student and senior.
More information can be found online at www.shadowboxlive.org.
Photos via Shadowbox Live.
