So let's talk about Into the Woods.
I've watched many musicals in my life, but the 1991 PBS recording of Into the Woods stands out. As much as I had watched many movie musicals before this recording, this was the play that I feel like I actively fell in love with and went on to re-watch it many, many times. That original performance was via Laserdisc, and we had made a VHS recording that we could more readily re-watch. So it's one of the musicals that I know pretty much backwards and forwards because of that one recording.
I fell in love with Into the Woods because of how cleverly it tied so many different fairy tales together into one generally coherent narrative. In addition, Sondheim's unique approach to music and lyrics resulted in some devilishly complex songs that have so many layers of meaning to them. Upon reflection, I also recognize that it's a truly ensemble production with most of the songs being actual conversations between groups of characters. As someone always looking for things to sing at O Bar, this musical features few standout solo songs and most require at least one other person to sing along with.
This musical made me want to see more musicals - specifically, actual staged musicals and not just movie adaptations. This also set me on the road to falling in love with the unique lyricism of Stephen Sondheim.
Needless to say, I was both excited and scared to watch the Theatre Group Asia staging of Into the Woods. I was eager to finally see the play as a live production, especially with the rather notable cast they had assembled. But I was also worried that I'd find it difficult to separate myself from the original 1986 production and how it brought the story to life. That would be totally unfair to this new staging, and I kept reminding myself to keep an open mind.
On the whole, it's still a great show. You can't deny the caliber of theater talent they brought together for this show. Beyond the obvious fact that Lea Salonga was amazing as the Witch, the likes of Arielle Jacobs as Cinderella, and Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante as the Baker's Wife had some truly standout performances as well. Eugene Domingo had some great bits as Jack's mother, and Josh Dela Cruz was a crowd favorite, probably more as Prince Charming than as the Wolf. And Teetin Villanueva was a great Little Red Riding Hood - she clearly enjoyed herself in this role.
Nyoy Volante as the Baker and Christian Bautista as the other Prince Charming definitely sang very well, but may not have had as much stage impact, whether due to acting styles or weird audio issues that had their dialogue or singing lines trail off at the end. Everyone else felt fairly competent in their performances, but they didn't necessarily stand out either - something most painfully felt with Rody Vera as the Narrator and the Mysterious Man, and with Nic Chien as Jack.
The production itself held the overall show back from being something truly great - and this was despite the particularly high price tag for this show. The set (as now publicized in many photos online) is a lot of Capiz panels to make the whole thing feel like some classic Filipino home. But there was no reason for this styling, and this also lacked any sort of transition for our characters needing to go into the woods to fulfill their hearts' desire and coming back out again. There were some tree-like pillars, but the titular woods were definitely lacking.
Then there are stranger technical issues in the venue as well. This is the second production we've watched at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater, where they had a weird secondary tech booth in the center orchestra, despite the fact that there's still a dedicated control booth at the back of the venue. At least this time, they had some black mesh to help diffuse the distracting light from the booth monitors (unlike in Come From Away). But they had another source of light pollution - two large TV screens mounted to the front of the balcony area that were visible, given that we had orchestra side seats. The screens seemed to be focused on the conductor and ended up showing part of the stage (even with the curtains closed!), and eventually the audience during the show itself. I do not understand what value this had for the performers - and you have to assume it was for them since the screens were facing the stage.
Finally, the overall pacing of the show felt a little rushed, or at least the performers weren't giving lines (and jokes!) time to breathe. The cast was clearly saying all the lines from the original musical, but the beats just felt so off. This is a very witty play when you play things right, and it felt like most of the jokes ended up not landing because the line delivery was too close together. I don't know if they were trying to shorten the overall runtime of the play, as this does go on for nearly 3 hours. But it's still a long production, so I don't think they saved a lot of time with their style of line delivery.
I obviously have a hundred other things to nitpick about the show, like the Giant's weird accent, the sad prop used to depict the Giant's fall, or the styling choices for Cinderella's mother. It all just comes together to make me feel like the show had so much potential given the assembled talent, but then I guess most of the ticket fees went to paying for the talent instead of making the production more robust and worthy of living up to the other Broadway stagings of this show.
I'm glad I didn't gamble on a TGA Season Pass right away, as this show doesn't give me a lot of faith in the production company. They're already advertising A Chorus Line for next year, and I haven't tried to acquire tickets. It's another of those plays that I'm eager to watch as a live performance but I don't quite trust TGA to do a great job of it.
At least I got to experience that Into the Woods magic in person. Despite my misgivings, I still teared up numerous times throughout the show as the story has a heck of a lot of emotional weight. It's still one of my favorite musicals, and I'll continue to be on the lookout for other productions just because.
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