By
Shaun Clayton
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Classic Sondheim musical fairy tale presents moral dilemmas for characters
"Once upon a time..." is how those old fairy tales start, moving through fantasy and adventure with fantastic characters by the handful, until winding up inevitably at the "happily ever after."
The University of Arizona production of "Into the Woods," which opens tonight, delves into the very question of whether or not there is indeed happiness in the fairy tales of youth.
"It's a great choice for a college," said director Chris Wilken. "The demands of it are perfect for a professional training ground, and it's a Tony Award-winning musical, so it's just great for the school. Everyone fell into their parts, even the range when they sing is just perfect. I think that it's just perfect timing to have this show with this group of students."
"Into the Woods," written by musical-theater giant Stephen Sondheim, won two Tony Awards in 1988 for Best Score and Best Lyrics.
"This is something that pretty much every musical theater department that I've ever heard of just dies to do," said acting graduate student L. Jay Meyer, who plays the Narrator.
Emphasizing that sentiment was musical theater senior Nick Sarando, who plays the Baker.
"I decided to do theater because of this show. I saw this show in seventh grade, and I left high school wanting to be a baseball player, but this show just kept growing on me and growing on me, and I wanted to do it and decided to do musical theater," Sarando said. "That's how powerful it is."
"Into the Woods" is an adaptation of James Lapine's book "Happily Ever After," which takes the light-hearted, Disney-esque moments of the classic fairy tales and pairs them with their original dark and sinister roots that put the characters in a deep but witty examination of self.
The play brings together Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, the Baker's Wife, Jack (of the Beanstalk) and Rapunzel, and features brief appearances by Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. It centers on lifting a curse that prevents the Baker and his wife from having children.
The solution that follows places the characters in the position of having to face responsibility for their own actions, such as Jack having to deal with a giant widow seeking revenge for the killing of her husband.
With such fantastical elements to the play, sets and special effects have to be used extensively to match the unreality of it all.
"It's a very technical show in many ways - lots of moving parts, lots of sound cues, lots of light cues," said Beth Dell, stage manager and a theater production senior. "We have motorized activity going on with our deck cues - moving things across the stage on a track. It's very interesting."
"It's really challenging," said musical theater senior Melissa Wolfklain, who plays Little Red Riding Hood. "And that's what we like about it, it makes us work. Nothing about this show is easy - in terms of character and set, it's just so massive and so much to work off of."
However, Dell said that despite the complexities and pressures of running the show, the cast and crew will still deliver a top product.
"The university is one of the best places in town to see some really interesting theater, and they always strive for professional work here - they work very hard toward that," she said. "I think people will come because they are really working very hard to achieve a professional status, even though they are students."
