By Bill Lockwood
ARTS CORRESPONDENT
Live theater in the form of big stage musicals will return to the Bellows Falls Opera House as The Wild Goose Players present the well known and critically acclaimed musical, “Into The Woods,” with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine.
Production dates are Friday, April 22, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 23, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, April 24, at 2 p.m.; Friday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, April 30, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m.
“I’m excited that the Bellows Falls Opera House is able to continue hosting a full length theatrical production each year,” said Sean Edward Roberts, who is in charge of live performances at the Bellows Falls Opera House. “I believe this is a great opportunity for the community and a great financial support for the continuation of the Bellows Falls Opera House.”
“Into the Woods” director David Stern has become known for similar productions there in recent years including Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Chicago,” and “Secret Garden.” The last such production scheduled there was Stern’s Main Street Arts production of “Cabaret”that was primed for a March 11, 2020, debut but ultimately canceled due to the ongoing nocel coronavirus pandemic just two days before its scheduled opening.
About a third of that cast and pretty much the entire crew is returning with Stern for “Into the Woods.”
Dominic DiBenedetto, who plays the narrator this time around, was with two of the prior productions.
“It’s such a beautiful space,” DiBenedetto said. “It’s so suitable for the level of theater that we do. It just feels right.”
Sally Regentine, who plays Little Red, was in three of the shows.
“I love that when I step onto that stage a wave of memories wash over me,” she said.
Stern says he is “ecstatic” to be back.
“I have missed the human to human connecting that the work and the community allow,” he said. “‘Cabaret’ made all the performers a little gun shy. We have all become acclimated to the COVID phenomenon and having things ripped out from under us.”
He chose this play partly due to its smaller ensemble and a desire to acknowledge Sondheim’s passing this year, “whose work and what he accomplished in the American theater is moving to me.” He sees “Into the Woods” as “a sort of actor’s musical … music and lyrics that automatically create dramatic action. His songs have authentic dialog in them, and that is a special gift Sondheim has given to the theater.”
Stern’s daughter Rachel is commuting from Burlington to play one of Cinderella’s step sisters.
“Growing up with him makes sense that he is doing this show,” she said.
“Sondheim’s music definitely wakes you up at times,” said Musical Director Parker Eastman. “Although they are overlapping bits, they all compliment each other in a gross way.”
“Into the Woods” debuted at the Old Globe Theater, San Diego in 1986 and opened on Broadway on November, 5, 1987. It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards and won three. A movie version directed by Rob Marshall in 2014 was nominated for both Academy and Golden Globe awards.
The drama involves an intertwining of a number of popular fairy tales. These include Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and more. It also has giants, a witch, charming princes, magic beans, and even a “mysterious man.” It has mystical and magic elements that make it quite fun. But, unlike the well known Disney version of many of these tales, Sondheim and Lapine’s telling presents a much darker serious, thought provoking view than say Disney’s Snow White and her seven lovable little cartoon dwarfs. “Be careful what you wish for” is a dominant theme through this telling of the tales. Stern notes it also deals with, “growing up, parents and children, accepting responsibility, morality, and finally, wish-fulfillment and its consequences.”
“[Fairy tales] have things to teach us,” Stern said. “That’s why they are there. Sondheim has made a realistic fairy tale that has destroyed the happily ever after.”
The staying power of these tales through the ages proves their timeliness. The bulk of our popular fairy tales can be credited to collections compiled by the Brothers Grimm. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were scholars who in 1805 began collecting and publishing folk tales from mostly German and some French nannies and storytellers where they lived in Kassel, Germany. In 1825, Wilhelm married one of the storytellers who he had known for years, and in 1836 Jacob became a professor of Old German Literature and Head Librarian at a university in Gottingen. Wilhelm became a librarian there too. Besides those collected by the Grimms in Germany our popular culture, and Sondheim and Lapine’s show, include French and other European tales too. Though mystical, they all have some bit of wisdom for the ages. This show will leave you entertained but thoughtful as well.
Stern has designed another of his signature moving sets. This one appropriately spooky and woodsy has moving trees and other effects such as Jack’s beanstalk and Rapunzel’s long hair. Liz Guzynski has again exquisitely designed costumes appropriate to the fairytale world the characters are presenting.
“Many talented sewists and builders have worked very hard to help the cast to bring these fairy tale icons to life,” she said. “I am proud to present beloved characters in a recognizable yet freshly imagined manner, using mainly repurposed materials.”
Due to continuing COVID-19 concerns, masks will be required. For tickets and reservations visit bellowsfallsoperahouse.com. And for further information email [email protected].
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