Into the woods

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Book by James Lapine. Directed by Peter Jorgensen. Presented by Patrick Street Productions. At the Vancouver East Cultural Centre on Tuesday, March 11. Continues until March 29

With a cast of 15—and an eight-piece orchestra in this production—Into the Woods is a huge show. Patrick Street Productions has taken it on as its inaugural project, which is a kind of insanity, but the company does a remarkably good job with it.

Many of Stephen Sondheim’s songs for Into the Woods are memorable, and James Lapine extends their wit in his book. I’m less crazy about the narrative, which is crowded and schematic. In Act 1, Sondheim and Lapine braid together a handful of fairy tales. In order to break the spell of barrenness, a baker and his wife must collect a blood-red cape from Little Red Ridinghood, a golden slipper from Cinderella, hair as yellow as corn from Rapunzel, and a snow-white cow from Jack, of beanstalk fame. The first act lasts almost an hour and a half and feels longer. In Act 2, the story is simpler: the characters unite to fight a giant. It’s also more moving, because the relationships acquire some depth.

Throughout, though, there’s pleasure in the music, and it is sparklingly played here under Scott Knight’s direction. And there’s plenty of humour. In the middle of his first meeting with Red Ridinghood, the wolf sings: “There’s no possible way/To describe what you feel/When you’re talking to your meal.” In the second act, which is about the difficulty of maintaining “happily ever after”, Cinderella’s Prince meets the Baker’s Wife in the forest and has sex with her. When Cinderella confronts him about it—the birds have revealed the tryst to her—he replies calmly, “I was raised to be charming, not sincere.”

For me, the knockout performance in this mounting comes from Ingrid Nilson, who plays Red Ridinghood. She makes Red an endearingly spooky clown, full of both innocence and appetite. Linda Quibell plays the Witch, and her voice is fantastically rich and powerful. I also particularly enjoyed Rapunzel’s Prince, Jonathan Winsby; the guy is a gifted comic actor and he’s got tremendous vocal control. The beautifully operatic Megan Morrison proves that she can also act as Rapunzel. And Katey Wright displays an admirably easy sense of style as the Baker’s Wife.

There are a couple of problems. Robert Clarke is bland in the central role of the Baker. And Patti Allan sounds shrill as Jack’s Mother, although you could argue that’s appropriate for the character.

Director Peter Jorgensen creates pleasing stage pictures and keeps the style consistent. His vision could be more original and the pace could be tighter, but he gets the damn thing done, and that’s impressive.