|
(Posted
2:30 p.m., Apr. 21)
St.
Peter Players produce another magical musical
By
Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online
 |
|  The
St. Peter Players present the Stephen Sondheim play 'Into the Woods' all this
week at St. Peter High School on Charlemagne Blvd. Fred Sherwin/Photo
| | Following
in the footsteps of such classics as "West Side Story" and last
year's amazing "Les Misérables", the 2005 version of the St.
Peter Players took to the stage Wednesday night to tackle Stephen Sondheim's Tony
Award winning play "Into the Woods". "Into
the Woods" is a wonderful amalgam of such fairy tale classics as Cinderella,
Jack in the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel which answers the question
what happens AFTER happily ever after? In
the opening scene we're introduced to the main characters including the baker
and his wife and the witch who long ago placed a curse on their house that the
baker would never have children. To reverse the curse the couple has to find a
cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper
as pure as gold. During
the rest of the first act, our hero the baker enters the woods to seek out each
item with the help of his wife. They get the cow as white as milk from Jack in
exchange for a handful of magical beans. The cape is given to the baker by Little
Red Riding Hood after he frees her and her grandmother from the stomach of the
big, bad wolf. The baker's wife grabs a lock of golden hair from Rapunzel (who
is revealed to be the baker's sister) and she manages to get the golden slipper
from Cinderella. When
they bring all four items to the witch, she makes them feed a piece of the cape,
the golden slipper and the lock of hair to the cow. When the cow fails to produce
any milk, they feed her the hair from an ear of corn which does the trick. The
witch then drinks a cup of the milk which restores her youthful looks. The
first act ends with one of the princes marrying Cinderella; Jack, having killed
the Giant gets to keep the Golden Harp; Rapunzel having been banished to a desert
by the witch (who we learn is her mother) finds her prince; and the baker's wife
is pregnant with their first child. Everything
was so neatly tied up in a big bow that it was easy to think that the play was
over. In fact, it is only the beginning. In Act 2, the village is set upon by
the giant's widow who is determined to avenge her husband's death. After
several of the characters come to an unfortunate end, the baker, Cinderella, Little
Red and Jack conspire to slay the giantess after which they all move in together. While
the play and the performances are tremendously entertaining, problems with the
wireless mikes during the first half were distracting to the point of being annoying.
That said, any comment about the sound must be taken in the context that the cafetorium
at St. Peter High School is not the ideal location for a musical production and
the job of outfitting a large cast with wireless microphones is extremely difficult. Thankfully,
the problems with the microphones were completely eliminated by the second half
of the show which musically was much stronger. First
act highlights include the witty Agony performed by the two princes played
by Jordan Rouliff and Mike Molinsky and Stay With Me in which the witch,
played by Kate Heney, pleads for Rapunzel not to runaway with her prince after
she's been freed from the tower. While
Heney's performance as the mean old witch was brilliant in the first act, it was
positively spellbinding in Act 2, especially her solo performances of Lament,
when Rapunzel is killed by the giantess and Last Midnight. It
was wonderful to see Heney take centre stage after playing Madame Thenardier in
last year's production of Les Mis. Aside from her obvious ability as an actress,
she is an incredibly talented singer who will hopefully pursue other projects
after she leaves St. Pete's. As
for the other performances, Wade Muir's solo rendition of "No More Baker"
in Act 2 was amazing. Kudos also to Megan Peloso as Cinderella and Michelle Redmond
who plays the baker's wife. Both young women turned in memorable performances.
Redmond's talent as an actress really came through in her scene with Cinderella's
prince in Act 2 and in an early scene when she convinces Jack to trade his cow
for the beans. Perhaps
the surprise of the evening was the performance turned in by St. Peter Players
newcomer Erin Lang as Little Red Riding Hood. For a first timer she had a tremendous
stage presence and her ability to seamlessly switch from the perky Little Red
we've come to know in the politically correct version of the fairy tale to the
mildly psychotic, knife wielding Little Red Riding Hood Sondheim created was a
wonder to behold. One
of the funniest scenes in the play comes when the Baker cuts open the wolf to
free Little Red and her grandmother. Once they're freed, granny wants to chop
the wolf into a hundred pieces, or better yet, fill his stomach with rocks and
watch him try to run away. 
Into
the Woods is filled with a number of humourous moments and the casts' comedic
timing is truly impressive, especially when you consider their relative lack of
experience. The
principal players are rounded out by Lukasz Lukaszek as Jack and Dylan Ryan who
does double duty as the Narrator and the Mysterious Man. The
individual performances strong throughout, but it is during the ensemble numbers
that the entire cast is allowed to shine, especially in the closing number. The
supporting cast members are Christina Embleton as Rapunzel; Katrina Waters as
Jack's mother; Mike Doiron as Cinderella's father; Juliana Siok as Cinderella's
mother; Tori Ellis as Cinderella's step.m.other; Hannah Schaltz and Katie Pearce
who are both hilarious as Cinderella's ugly stepsisters; Marley Cameron as Granny;
Shane Houlston as the tap dancing wolf; Jason Dinardo as the steward and Czeska
Dumali as the giant. The
cast is made up of 20 members which doesn’t include the all-volunteer orchestra
led by Lisa MacLean, or the production and stage crews led by producer Carla Boyle,
and the driving force behind the St. Peter Players – Bernie Leger. All
in all, "Into the Woods" is another strong production in a long line
of memorable performances and is well worth the $10 price of admission. If
you've never experienced live theatre before, make "Into the Woods"
your first. You won't be disappointed and you can feel good about the fact that
your presence will provide a measure of positive reinforcement to a group of students
who for the past four months, have poured their blood, sweat and tears into something
they do for the pure enjoyment of it. "Into
the Woods" continues tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday night. Curtain
time all three nights is 7 p.m. (This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local
business partners.) Return
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