Maybe They're Magic

Into the Woods is a major motion picture but it's still an oft-performed stage musical. Not long ago, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival mounted an acclaimed but slightly-unconventional production and it's been imported into Beverly Hills for a few weeks at the new Wallis theater complex. I went last night and enjoyed it quite a bit even though Into the Woods is not my favorite Sondheim show. My two main problems with it are that…

  1. I think the first act is much better than the second. It also feels to me quite complete in itself. (Supposedly, people have been known to leave the theater at intermission because they don't realize the play's not over. I don't know if that was the reason but the people seated right in front of us last night did not come back for Act 2.) To me, Act 1 feels like a real good musical and Act 2 feels like the guys who did Act 1 were pressured into producing a sequel.
  2. Much of the show's exposition is in its lyrics and the way Mr. Sondheim writes, it's crammed in with great density and there's a limit to how slow the actors can sing a tune without it sounding wrong musically. Every time I see it, I wish they were subtitled and it's not the actors' fault. It's like listening to Patti LuPone. You practically have to know the songs to hear them.

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The O.S.E. production was full of great performances, a few daring athletic feats, a couple of genuine magic tricks, superb costumes (designed by Linda Roethke), some audience participation, fine orchestrations and very clever staging (by Amanda Dehnert). I could list all the actors for fine work but I'll just mention three: Jennie Greenberry as Cinderella, Miriam A. Laube as The Witch and John Vickery as the Narrator. But I thought everyone was really good. This production is scheduled to be there until December 21.

"There" is the new Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, which opened a year ago and which houses two theaters. Into the Woods was in the Bram Goldsmith Theater, which I guess means that Mr. Goldsmith (the CEO of City National Bank) gave them a lot of money. Whatever the price was, it was well spent. It's a beautiful, functional theater that seats 500 — a size theater we don't have nearly enough of in Los Angeles. The sound was great and I liked that the seats weren't chosen on the assumption that all theatergoers are anorexic. I may go there even if I don't like what's playing just to sit. Parking was also quite comfy.

Into the Woods when performed in full (as they're doing) is a bit long and last night, it got a few bits longer. About seven minutes from the end — at a peak dramatic moment — it was suddenly necessary to stop. The house lights came up and a voice on the P.A. system commanded the proceedings to halt due to a medical emergency in the audience. The actors stepped off stage while the on-stage orchestra just sat quietly.

The Beverly Hills Fire Department came in to treat an audience member, then take him out on a stretcher. The house lights then were lowered, the actors returned to their positions and restarted, repeating about the last 90 seconds before the interruption and continuing on through to the end. I was impressed with how smoothly and professionally it was done…and with surprisingly little harm to the presentation. Those folks at the Wallis really have their act together. I want to see more shows there.