STAGE WEST: Moonlight Stage Productions' "Into the Woods"

Left to right: Allison Spratt Pearce, Larry Raben and Bets Malone in "Into the Woods."   Karli Cadel Photography

            Making my way out of the Moonlight Amphitheatre on opening night having just reveled in the enchantment that is “Into the Woods,” I heard someone behind me ask someone else behind me: “So which act did you like better? The first or the second?”
            It’s a reasonable question if you know this legacy musical by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim, their second collaboration following “Sunday in the Park with George” (and to my mind the more entertaining of the two shows): Act One of “Woods,” which was born at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986 and premiered on Broadway a year later, is a charming and just a little subversive deconstruction of the Brothers Grimms’ greatest hits – “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Rapunzel.” Everyone wishes in his or her own way for a happily ever after and – SPOILER ALERT – gets it.
            But as with “Sunday in the Park,” which also has a darker, forward-in-time second act, “Into the Woods” Part 2 finds its fanciful characters confronting the consequences of their wishes-come-true. There is revenge, retribution and death.
            Reality bites in Fairy Tale Land.
            It’s not a question of which half of “Into the Woods” is more appealing – they work together, owing to the ingenuity of Lapine’s adaptation and the brilliance of Sondheim’s music and lyrics.
            Moonlight Stage Productions’ season-opening staging of “Into the Woods” is a faithful, full-fledged reminder of that ingenuity and brilliance, which endure nearly 40 years after the show was first seen in Balboa Park.
            “Woods” is not your typical season opener for family-friendly Moonlight. Kids were few and far between in the Wednesday evening audience. Not a surprise: The darkness and subtle comic treatments of the characters would fly over the heads of most children or, in the case of the second act, possibly prove unsettling.
            Moonlight Artistic Director Steven Glaudini, who also directs this production, wanted to start the season with a theatrical atmosphere to match the vestiges of a lingering winter giving way to a new spring. He also wanted to honor Sondheim, a personal hero and inspiration, who passed away in 2021.
            In a poetic stroke in itself, Glaudini’s wife, Bets Malone, portrays the Witch in this “Into the Woods” – a role she also played years ago at Moonlight when she was only 18 years old.
            Another poetic stroke? The cast of this “Into the Woods” is wearing costumes worn by the original Broadway cast.
            I hadn’t seen this show in 10 years – not since the McCarter Theatre Center and Fiasco Theater staged a production at the Old Globe in summertime 2014. (I unfortunately missed the New Village Arts/Oceanside Theatre collaboration two years ago.) It is gratifying to be reminded of the beauty and cleverness of “Into the Woods” and most of all of Stephen Sondheim and one of his many enduring gifts to American theater. The precise ensemble numbers. The lyrical flourishes that give delightful momentum to the storytelling. The hilarity of the two princes’ “Agony” and the surprising emotion of Jack’s “I Guess This is Goodbye” (sung to a cow) and the Witch’s “Stay With Me” (sung to Rapunzel).
            As for “No More” and “No One is Alone” near the end of the show, they are as thoughtful and stirring as the best of Sondheim, and that’s some best.
            Bravos all around for a marvelous cast, led by Malone reprising her Witch role with supreme bad-assness. The principal parts of the Baker and the Baker’s Wife are charismatically realized by Larry Raben and Allison Spratt Pearce, respectively, with Courtney Blanc shining as a Cinderella who, in this telling, articulately bridges the two halves of “Into the Woods”: She wants neither the oppressed life she had under the thumb of her malevolent stepmother and sisters, nor the “perfect” life in the kingdom of her prince. She wants something in between.
            For all its cerebral reflections, “Into the Woods” is a very funny affair. Moonlight’s production exploits that with animated turns from Brooke Henderson as a sharp-tongued Little Red Ridinghood, Samantha Tullie as a sobbing, downtrodden Rapunzel, and David Burnham and Evan White as dashing if doltish princes.
            Neither Steve Gunderson, who doubles as the narrator and the “Mysterious Man,” nor Sandy Campbell, portraying Jack’s put-upon mother, ever turns in less than a memorable performance. It’s great to have them in this ensemble.
            Moonlight is debuting its new LED screen with this show. That and Blake McCarty’s projections fashion a wondrous woods. And as always, an orchestra conducted by music director Elan McMahan is first-class.
            All due credit to Steven Glaudini for bringing back (for the third time) this classic to Moonlight and also for helming this inspired production which demonstrates that none of the magic has dissipated in these woods.
            “Into the Woods” runs through May 18 at Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista.