Into The Woods by Geoids
Into the Woods is possibly my favourite Sondheim show and for musical theatre lovers this is a big statement. For those unfamiliar with Into The Woods, within this show you meet a slew of familiar fairy tale characters all of whom are in the woods for a variety of reasons. Tying the stories together however is that of The Baker and his wife whose family have been cursed by the Witch. In order to break the curse she tells them that they need to bring back a cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn and the slipper as pure as gold. Act 1 deals with the struggles in achieving these objects and act 2 looks at what happens after the happily ever after.
The show is a notoriously difficult sing with complex harmonies and ever changing time signatures however under the watchful eye, or baton of Dominic Veall, the Musical Director this is the productions strength. Not a beat is missed by the cast or 15 piece orchestra and from the first ‘Once upon a time,’ you could tell that you were in assured hands with this cast. With such well drilled vocals it then meant that there was a chance for creativity and the playful side of the show to come to the fore. Agony sung by Cinderella’s Prince (Arthur Lewis) and Rapunzel’s Prince (Chris Peters) was so in sync it heightened the comedy perfectly.
The cast was incredibly strong across the board. Kate Gledhill as the Baker’s Wife was exceptional managing to convey not only her yearning for a child and the lengths she would go to but the lighter and more comedic moments to equal success. Her and Rob Archibald as the Baker made a formidable pair together on stage. Equally Adrianna Cordero-Marino was a warm and charming Cinderella played with enough gumption that she avoided the trap of being wet, Emma Bowker was a wonderfully precocious Little Red whose character development was a delight to watch as the show progressed. There is a litany of other performers, all of whom fully embraced their moment in the woods from Rapunzel played by Polly Haynes whose reactions to her mother were comedy gold through to Cinderella’s Step sisters Florinda and Lucinda played by Helen Parsons and Isla Brendon who were delightfully vile. It was an incredibly strong cast across the board.
At times the myriad of stories within the one piece can become confusing but under Tama Knight’s direction she ensured that the piece was easy to follow. The only exception to this would be the Witch’s demise after the Last Midnight as this was harder to follow and the action had moved on before the audience had even processed what had happened. I also adored the choice to have many of the performers use their own accent, an Australian Wolf was a stroke of genius. There were also some lovely reoccurring tableaus such as the gathering around the rocking chair for story time and even ‘What’s The Time Mr Wolf,’ that stirred up those childlike nostalgia.
There were also the odd moment where Knight could have trusted her cast more. For example in Giant’s In The Sky, impressively sung by James Daly as Jack, the cast were acting out moments that he was describing. This proved distracting as it drew my attention away from Daly. Daly was was positioned at the back of the stage and had the vocal ability and the acting chops to more than hold the audiences attention throughout the number. I also appreciate that there is limited budget in an amateur piece but there were times such as Little Red and Grandmother being cut out of the wolf and other moments that relied on ‘effects’ that could have had a little more imagination applied as the way they are currently staged felt awkward and not up to the high standard of the rest of the production. I must however stress that the above constructive criticism is all minor points and to be able to go into that level of minutia in a review speaks as to how strong the show was overall.
Geoids production of Into the Woods is possibly one of the most musically assured pieces of amateur theatre I have seen in recent years. That combined with a huge amount of talent in the cast means that if you are able to get yourself to West London and have a moment in the woods, you absolutely should.
Into the Woods is on at The London Oratory School until 2nd November. You can find out more and buy tickets here.
If you like this review you might also like my review of Saturday Night Fever and Spring Awakening by Geoids and Rock of Ages by Mayhem.