Their next act Their next act (December 02, 2005)

TheatreWorks journeys into the forest for an encore of Sondheim favorite 'Into the Woods'

By Rebecca Wallace

The applause rang out, the curtain fell, and the cast and crew of TheatreWorks' 1992 production of "Into the Woods" lived happily ever after.

Thirteen years passed. The theater company grew and grew, like a burgeoning beanstalk. There were bright sets and sparkling costumes galore. And one day Robert Kelley arose from his TheatreWorks throne and pronounced, "Let's do it again."

Second acts may be rare in American life, but they are also irresistible. Stephen Sondheim's 1987 musical, replete with princes and magic beans, intricate lyrics and clever yet gentle lessons about learning to stand on your own, is an enduring favorite.

"I had a longing to see it again," said Kelley, director of both productions and founding artistic director of the group. "For a show with as much guts as it has, it's still a fun holiday show, and it works for all ages."

Exploring what happens after happily ever after is apropos. Act One of "Into the Woods" follows the exploits of such familiar fairytale characters as Cinderella, Jack (and his beanstalk) and Rapunzel, halting for intermission with what appears to be the fabled happy ending.

But there's still Act Two. The sly beauty of the musical, which is viewed by many as Sondheim's most accessible, is that it shows all the turmoil of what happens after the wedding kiss or the fulfilled quest with drama, poignancy and good humor. The paper fairytale characters become people we know and people we are.

"You spend your whole life wanting to be a princess, and then you get it, and it isn't anything you thought it would be," said actor James Monroe Iglehart, who plays The Wolf. (Making a meal out of that tasty morsel Little Red Riding Hood doesn't exactly turn out the way The Wolf hoped, either, as any child knows.)

Appropriately, Iglehart is speaking under a canopy of trees in front of a TheatreWorks rehearsal building in Mountain View, where he and fellow actor Jackson Davis are pondering why they love "Into the Woods" so much.

"It's fun because of the first act versus the second act. People are split on which act they like," says Davis, a wiry man in glasses who looks perfect to play the everyman character of The Baker.

In fact, he enjoys the role so much that it's worth playing twice. Davis was also The Baker in the 1992 production, and he leaped at the chance to once more play the simple man who with his wife pledges to do anything to have a child.

"The themes are for everyone," Davis says. "Life goes on, and what decisions do you make? It would be boring if there was one adventure, then it was happily ever after."

The two are also taken with the show because, like the eerie Grimm tales of old, it doesn't shy away from darkness. There really are giants in the sky, and scary things can happen when you get lost in the maze of the woods.

"There are consequences to your actions, and that's great for kids to see," Davis says, citing as an example, "Jack steals the goose and giants come after him."

Iglehart, of course, gets to revel in the dark side as The Wolf. It's quite the reversal from his previous role as the Cowardly Lion in "The Wizard of Oz" at American Musical Theatre of San Jose.

"'What's your motivation?' I'm hungry. I'm evil," Iglehart says with a smirk.

Like many actors, Davis and Iglehart also love the deliciously complicated music and lyrics, which are pure Sondheim.

"He puts harmony in places you don't expect. It sounds wonderful, but it's hard for actors," Iglehart says.

Then his eyes light up, and he pronounces Sondheim "before his time." Who else in 1987 was putting rap in a Broadway show? And yet the "Woods" witch busts out into a rap about her garden.

"He had a hip-hop moment in the show!" Iglehart marvels. He shakes his head. "But no rapper would put 'arugula' in his song."

The jittery energy of The Witch's rap always packs a punch. But there will be some differences in TheatreWorks' production of "Into the Woods" this time around.

The set will again be influenced by the intricate, chimerical drawings of Arthur Rackham, an early-20th-century English illustrator, Kelley said. This time, though, the set will have "a more spare, abstract feeling," he said.

In another change, a prop will become a person. In 1992, the cow Milky White was a wooden beast on wheels; now the animal will be played by an actor.

TheatreWorks costume director Jill Bowers, a veteran of the 1992 production, says she's also been influenced by Rackham's drawings in creating the woodsy garb. This year, the colors will be "a bit bigger and a bit zingier" than before, and all the costumes will have "an edgier, modern, more intense feel," she said.

Contrast is also key this time. The costumes will strongly reflect the class difference in the woods: characters such as The Baker and The Baker's Wife, Jack and Cinderella, are peasants, unlike the princes. So they often have fewer tools to help them through the maze of the forest, Bowers said: "They're at the mercy of the royalty and the magic of the witch."

But no one is alone, and even the poor aren't defenseless. Little Red Riding Hood, for example, will get a major costume upgrade after she bests the Wolf, Bowers said.

"She gets a knife and a wolf pelt, but I'm pushing it a little farther. You might see some Doc Martens on her," she said.

The show marks a homecoming of sorts for Bowers. She designed costumes for TheatreWorks from 1986 through 1997, then was at American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and then returned to TheatreWorks about a year and a half ago.

The powerhouse theater company is a far cry from its early days, when the costume department was one person and plays were sometimes staged at the nature center at Palo Alto's Baylands Preserve, Bowers recalled.

"They had to move the harbor seal exhibit every night to make room for the show," she said, chuckling.

Now Bowers is part of a four-person, full-time costume department that also periodically hires temps. It means less time at the sewing machine and more time looking at the big picture of costuming a world of actors.

Stretching well beyond small nature-center performances, TheatreWorks now stages performances at the 589-seat Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts and the 428-seat Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. "Into the Woods" will be at the Lucie Stern.

While Kelley acknowledges that this is a big show to fit onto the Palo Alto stage, he's ultimately pleased with the choice because of its intimacy.

One of his favorite themes in "Into the Woods" is the coming together of characters who feel small and afraid in the face of magic and other things that go bump in the night. That instinct of humans to help each other, to build a community under tenuous circumstances, is timeless, he said.

"The woods in which they live were threatened or crushed by a giant. But it could be anything -- a war, a hurricane, an overwhelming disaster that threatens us," Kelley said. "In the end, you see the survivors banding together to carry on, to defeat the enemy, and start again."

This story originally ran in the Palo Alto Weekly, the Voice's sister paper.

INFORMATION:
What: "Into the Woods," with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, presented by TheatreWorks
Where: Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto
When: Through Jan. 7, Tuesday to Sunday. There will be no shows on Dec. 24, 25 and 27 and on Jan. 3
Cost: $20-$54, with discounts available for youth, students, seniors and members
Info: Call (650) 903-6000 or go to www.theatreworks.org

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