For anyone who’s ever sighed over the story of Cinderella or dreamed of scaling a beanstalk like Jack, “Into The Woods” is for you — especially if you ever wondered whether happily ever after was all that it was cracked up to be.
The Resident Theater Company’s cast of 19 – its largest yet, according to RTC Artistic Director Kristin McLaughlin Mitchell – brings to life the stories of Cinderella and her family, Prince Charming, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and others in wonderfully unexpected ways.
The performance opens with four of its main characters as seen in their individual homes – Cinderella (Sophie Jones); Jack (Jacob Entenman) and his beloved cow, Milky White; and the baker and his wife (Jeff Raab and Hillary Parker). We are soon introduced to Little Red (Rita Castagna, who plays her as the sassy red-hooded girl with a big appetite and lots of confidence), and the witch (Jennie Eisenhower), and even Jack’s mother (Heidi Hayes).
Eisenhower as the witch curses the baker and his wife and reveals that the baker’s sister (Rapunzel, played by Ashley Lennick) has been under her care. The baker and his wife want a child, but first, the baker needs to go into the woods to find things like a red hood, a white cow, yellow hair, and a golden slipper.
Jack has to sell his milk-less cow to buy food, and Cinderella wants to head to the festival. “Into the Woods” is where all their stories come together, and where other characters truly shine as well.
The wolf who chases Little Red first appears on stage wearing velour pants and a fur vest, showcasing his smooth approach to luring Red to her doom. His one-liners – like “There’s no possible way to describe how you feel when talking to your meal” – garnered laughs from the audience.
Two of the biggest laugh-makers and scene-stealers were Kevin Toniazzo-Naughton as Cinderella’s Prince and Grant Struble as Rapunzel’s Prince. Watching them leap forward in exaggerated fashion every time they left a scene was hysterical. They played the perfect stereotypes of the “perfect” princes, except their happily-ever-afters, weren’t quite what they thought they wanted.
And their lines — hearing Struble as Rapunzel’s Prince exclaim, “You know nothing of madness until you’re climbing her hair” and delivered with a believable level of frustration and humor was fabulous.
Castagna as Little Red had plenty of great lines as well, especially once she is rescued from the wolf and sports a rather-familiar looking fur coat that her granny made for her.
Jennie Eisenhower plays the witch perfectly, first as an older, stooped-over witch who just wants people to stay out of her garden, and then as a young and beautiful woman who loses her powers. The narrator, played by Paul Weagraff, and Cinderella’s step-mother, played by Weagraff’s real-life wife Gerri, both play their parts perfectly.
“Into The Woods” is a must-see this holiday season. It runs through Dec. 29. For more information or to purchase tickets, go online to www.rtcwc.org. Adult tickets range from $25 to $62.
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies.
She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field.
But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard.
Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
