Much depends on a bunch of beans in Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed musical, “Into the Woods,” opening Friday, presented by Hood River Valley High School drama department. Directed by Mark Steighner, it’s based on the Grimm Bros. fairy tale characters all famous in their own right but who interact in ways you never dreamed of. Much of what befalls them (off stage but with sound effects) is just as gruesome as in the original tales.
Those beans are probably more trouble than they are worth. Transactions involving the magical, or not, legumes, propel an action-packed, humorous and touching story that challenges us to think of the cause and effect of our actions, and how we work in community.
The story is comical, and more than a little whimsical. A Sondheim-invented character, The Baker’s Wife, sings out half way through, “This is ridiculous/What am I doing here?/I’m in the wrong story!”
But make no mistake, in the midst of mix-ups and mash-ups of beloved Grimm fairy tale characters the business of hopes and wishes turns serious, somber, and grim-ly fatal. All with a comic side, and told via the compelling and melodic music of maestro Stephen Sondheim.
“Be careful what you wish for,” in the fairy tale sense, receives a bracing reinterpretation.
“I think the musical has a number of important themes: the importance of community and how they are created around a common goal,” Steighner said. “The impact of one’s actions and decisions far beyond what one can know, but with the simultaneous idea that one should not bear the mistakes of the past as determiners of the present. One of the reasons I chose this musical is because those themes strongly connect with what I try to teach students: looking forward, taking responsibility for decisions, and forming a community. Of course, the other reason for choosing it is practical: it fit the talents and abilities of the students pretty well.”
Matters turn dark in the second act, the least of which is Cinderella’s “happily ever after” turning sour in the face of her Prince who proclaims, “I was made to be charming, not sincere.”
And this is not the Little Red Riding Hood you remember.
“It’s kind of like I have to go back to my younger roots and remember what; it’s like to be a kid,” said senior Hannah Simons, who plays Little Red. “She’s sassy and spoiled a little, and I have to get into that mindset. She sort of wants to rebel, she kind of wants to be bad.”
She’s willful and selfish but makes a grand entrance (spoiler alert) with the help of The Baker (Noah Tauscher) from an, shall we say, uncomfortable spot vis-à-vis The Wolf (Miguel Vasquez). (No spoiler here, but look for a thrilling bit of staging in Grandma’s bedroom, pulled off with perfect timing and fierceness by the Baker, The Wolf, Little Red, and Grandma.)
“At the beginning Little Red is snotty, and then when she meets the Wolf she’s kind of bad,” Simons said. “She wants to see what it’s like to not be a nice little girl. It’s fun. I like being a little kid.”
There are surprises in store, in the variations in identity and behavior from what you might be used to with Jack in the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and other beloved characters. Among those surprises, and twisting transformations within the musical itself, is found in The Witch, played by senior Rebecca Wolf.
“The witch is not evil, she’s right,” said Wolf, who called the play “the hardest show I‘ve been and I’ve been in 30 plays. It’s stressful, but a lot of fun.”
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This will be the last musical of Steighner’s long and distinguished career at HRVHS; the students also performed “Into the Woods in 1991.
“One of the biggest differences between the show in 1991 and now is that back then, there were far fewer parents involved and less overall community awareness and support,” Steighner said. “’Into the Woods in 1991 was our first ‘sell out’ show and really gave the program a boost.”
Steighner wants to remind a new generation of the power of these folk tales.
“The fairy tales of Brothers Grimm are of course iconic versions of stories that were told and retold for hundreds of years,” he said. “They exist to pass along important lessons about growing up, and how to behave in a society. The current generation of students is perhaps one of the first where parents to some extent eschewed those classic tales, in favor of children’s literature that was steeped in irony (to appeal to the parents), and technology. Sociologists have commented about the clear lack of moral center amongst some young people. How and where do children learn these lessons?”
Sondheim’s work will receive its biggest audience this Christmas season with release of the Disney version of the musical. Steighner was asked, “How do you focus on the stories as they come together with the underlying themes, without too much seeping in of the Disney? Or is that even an issue?”
“When I picked the show last Spring I actually had no idea the movie was coming out so close to our production,” he said. “On one hand I think that simply having the show out in the public awareness is a good thing. No one expects us to have a Meryl Streep or Johnny Depp in the cast, but they might be curious about what the story and music are like. I think the problem would be if we opened after the movie musical came out. I’ve heard rumors that the Disney version softens a lot of the musical’s edge and more challenging themes.
“However, I think it’s interesting to think about the fact that for many kids, their only experience of classic fairy tales has been through the dark, violent, special-effects heavy Hollywood versions. The Disney ‘Into the Woods’ — at least from the trailers — follows this trend. It focuses on the gloomy, Gothic aspects of the setting but the musical has a lot of humor. In fact, it’s really a musical comedy, not a drama (though things do take a dark turn).”
“You go into the woods/where nothing’s clear,” the company sings in the act one finale. “Where witches ghosts and wolves appear/into the woods/and through the fear/you have to take the journey.”
And, oft comically, those beans keep turning up in the strangest places. Watch closely.
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