Review: Into the Woods

Into the Woods
Victorian Opera
19 July 2014
The Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
to 26 July
victorianopera.com.au

Photo by Jeff Busby

After the success of their Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine created Into the Woods (1986), which beat Phantom of the Opera at the Tonys and firmly sits on the top of many favourite-musical lists. Following the success of their 2013 production of Sunday in the Park with George, Victorian Opera have followed with an Into the Woods that's as close to sold out as it can be and even closer to perfection.

With a boldness, a sense of cheekiness and an understated sophistication, Vic Opera tell the tale with Australian twists and a loving understanding of the power of once-upon-a-time story telling. If you have a ticket, don't let it out of your sight because the show's simply unforgettable and reminds us that music theatre should never be a fading and dull copy of another production.

Lapine's book (he also directed the Broadway version) takes characters and well-known stories from the Brothers Grimm's collection of European fairy tales (mid-1800s) and sends them into the woods to find themselves together as part of a bigger story. Act one brings everyone through trials to their happy-ever-after; Act two asks what happens next and is as dark, confronting and blood-filled as traditional fairy tales really are.

Part of the inspiration for Woods was the 1976 book The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by academic and therapist Bruno Bettleheim. Since his death (1990), Bettleheim has been criticised academically and personally, but his book continues to influence and inspire countless writers. Internationally successful Australian children's/young adult writer John Marsden (Tomorrow When the War Began series) is among those who recommend it. It's partly a Freudian psychoanalytic analysis of Fairy Tales (mostly the Grimm's collection) and the rest is a discussion about the psychological impact of fairy tales on children – or the importance of telling and re-telling stories. At the most simple level, we tell stories to understand the world.

But there's nothing simple about Into the Woods. From its surface of fairy tales and gorgeous syncopated rhymes (that Sondheim and his lyrics!), layers are torn away and complexities revealed until grown ups find themselves crying because they see it as a story about themselves. We re-tell stories to understand the world and our place in it.

And the music's by Sondheim, so it shares the every emotion without a word being spoken.

Photo by Jeff Busby

While one of the genius notes of Into the Woods is the complexity of its re-telling of known tales, much of the magnificence of Victorian Opera's production is how director Stuart Maunder lets the story be told without over complication or sentimentality, while supporting the comedy and freeing it from the so-well-known Broadway production that so many of us have seen because it was filmed for TV.

Adam Gardnir's design of bare trees creates an ever-changing wood that's comforting and familiar and terrifying and bone-like (with perhaps a nod to Freud), and the woods are given depth, darkness and magic flashes by Philip Lethlean's lighting. Which are all an ideal world for Harriet Oxley's costumes that take the shape of pantomime-fairy-tale costumes, but are filled with bold colour and geometric shapes that help tell a story that's for now and forever.

Conductor Benjamin Northey and sound designer Jim Atkins create a recordable pit–stage balance that uses the amplification to emphasise the unique sound of each singer, and helps to enforce the idea that stories are best told by human voices.

Vocally and emotionally the cast nail it. While Christina O'Neil (Baker's wife), Rowan Witt (Jack), Queenie van de Zandt (Witch), Josie Lane (Red Riding Hood) and Lucy Maunder (Cinderella) lead the way, everyone brings a real bit of themselves to their roles and every character has their moment of pure enchantment.

The only disappointment about Into the Woods is that it has so few shows and the tickets left can be counted on one hand (hint: try for singles). With producers letting sub-standard shows run for months in big theatres, surely there are ways to bring this production to a bigger audience. #IWish.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Grease

Grease
John Frost et al
5 January 2013
Her Majesty's Theatre
to 16 March
greaseistheword.com.au

When I was 10, Grease was my word. I knew the film soundtrack album inside out before I saw the film (at the cinema), my school-friend group called ourselves the Pink Ladies and I still have a crush on John Travolta. Sitting with other 40-something woman with similar memories, the enthusiasm of nostalgia did a lot to up our enjoyment.

First seen in the UK, this production, with its shiny new Australian cast, has been to Brisbane and Sydney on its way to Melbourne.

Touring has left it as slick as Danny's quiff and as tight as Sandy's black cat suit, and the cast seem to love every moment.

With the costumes that joyfully exaggerate the 50s style, a design of posters from the 50s and lots of fluro lights, and an onstage band who are having as much fun as the cast, there's so much that should make this Grease zoom.

But something's missing. The show coasts and doesn't pick up after its audience-sing-along opening with Auntie Val and the fabulousness of the opening and "Summer Loving".

The direction feels like it jumps from concert-perfect number to number, losing the story and dumping the emotion along the way. Grease isn't a tear-jerking Sondheim, but it is a story about teenage love, the pressure to fit in and the ultimate triumph of friendship. There are reasons that this show, created in the 1970s, resonates so much with fans and to tone down its grit and conflict breaks the heart of Grease.

As in many bought-in productions, the terrific cast don't seem to be allowed to bring themselves or too much guts to their roles. Lucy Maunder is the exception as Rizzo and the supporting Pink Ladies and T-Birds each shine in their solo numbers, but no one is unforgettable and Danny (Rob Mills) and Sandy (Gretel Scarlett) don't seem to actually fancy each other.

And there's the odd need for celebrity guest stars in commercial shows. (Does it really sell more tickets?) Val Lehman as Miss Lynch is a hoot, for those who get the Prisoner jokes; Todd McKenny enjoys himself a bit too much as Teen Angel, with Boy from Oz jokes; no one knows what Anthony Callea is doing for his one-song appearance as Johnny Casino; and Bert Newton as the young, sexually-irresistible DJ Vince Fontaine is so ridiculous that its absurdity almost works. But, as with most of the show, it was always Val, Todd, Anthony and Bert, never characters.

This Grease is a celebration of the memories and nostalgia of Grease rather than a production to remember or one to define it for a new audience.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

Harp on the Willow

Harp on the Willow
Presented by Malcolm Cooke and Ensemble Productions
1 March 2007
Comedy Theatre

Mary O’Hara’s story deserves telling and re-telling. Playwright John Misto spent many years searching for her and was thrilled to be able to beat Hollywood and television to the story. If you prefer an episode of Touched By An Angel to a Six Feet Under, then Harp on the Willow will be an ideal night of theatre for you.

Following the death of her husband and years of success and fame as a singer, O’ Hara entered a convent when she was 25. Completely withdrawing from her life, her family and any contact with the world, she was believed dead. Harp on the Willow enters the story 12 years later. She is still a nun and suffering from clinical depression. The only person close to her says that she “lives without joy and despairs of life”.

What could follow is a work about depression, grief and guilt. As a huge crucified Jesus dominates the stage; I also expected that faith, God and belief would be significant themes. All appear in the script, but are about as significant as religion is to The Sound of Music.

Harp on the Willow is written to entertain; not to challenge, question or confront. Jokes appear almost rhythmically – especially nun jokes. According to the audience, there is nothing funnier than a sex/nun joke – except a nun smoking, of course. The jokes break any tension that was developing and continually remind the audience that this is a piece of safe theatre. The delivery and direction ensure that the actors wait for the beat that allows the audience to laugh. This distracts from the drama and reminded me a bit too much of a bad sit com.

The acting style also drifts to the TV soap/sit com style. Marina Prior and Julie Hudspeth both give engaging and enjoyable performances, but neither were convincing as their characters. Prior’s style jumps from “funny nun” to “distraught woman”, but never allows them to be the same person. O’Hara’s depression is only evident by lines in the script, not by her performance.

In contrast Lucy Maunder, as the young O’Hara, and Christopher Stollery, as the man who releases her pain, both present real characters who are able to touch the hearts and minds of the audience. Stollery was skilfully able to balance the drama and the comedy, without distracting from his character. Maunder was working with scenes that could so easily have turned to melodrama, but was able to turn down the drama and subsequently make the young O’Hara’s grief and pain real.

The highlight of the evening is brief an appearance by the real O’Hara. With the help of slides, she briefly talks about her amazing life after the convent. This allows a very happy ending for the audience and makes the past couple of hours on the stage much more real. She has not read or seen the play – and does not intend to. I really wonder what she would think. As she gave Misto the freedom to dramatise, I also wonder why he didn’t explore the obvious themes more thoroughly.

This review origially appeared on AussieTheatre.com.