Review: Into the Woods at Her Majesty’s Theatre

“I wish…”

And with those two little words, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine open the door to one of musical theatre’s most extraordinary explorations of desire, consequence, family and the deceptively complicated notion of happily ever after.

Into the Woods has always been so much more than Cinderella finding her prince, Jack climbing a beanstalk or Little Red Riding Hood skipping through the forest. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine take those stories we think we know and ask the much more interesting question: what happens after happily ever after?

In this ambitious new production from State Opera South Australia, those familiar tales become darker, funnier, sexier and considerably more complicated, and under the artistic leadership of Dane Lam, State Opera is proving that opera companies can absolutely own the musical theatre space too. The decision to pair Into the Woods with Hansel & Gretel across the same week is particularly inspired, creating two very different journeys into the forest.

Under the baton of Anthony Hunt, Sondheim’s famously intricate score is delivered with precision, energy and plenty of heart. From the opening number Into the Woods through to the extraordinary Last Midnight, Hunt allows every musical layer to shine without ever overwhelming the performers.

Constantine Costi’s direction embraces both the absurdity and poignancy of the piece. The comedy is wonderfully sharp, but never at the expense of the characters’ emotional journeys. When the story turns from fairytale frolic to something considerably more confronting, the transition feels natural and surprisingly affecting.

Visually, Jonathon Oxlade’s set and costume design is brilliant.

The forest becomes a character in its own right, the circular landscape of towering trees, revolving pathway, shadows and surprises. The costumes capture the recognisable fairytale archetypes while giving each inhabitant a distinctly theatrical personality. There is imagination everywhere you look.

Bernie Tan-Hayes’ lighting design adds another dimension, shifting the atmosphere from enchanted woodland to something considerably more ominous as the narrative progresses. Associate Director Shannon Burns keeps the action moving with impressive clarity, particularly during the ensemble sequences where there is an enormous amount happening simultaneously.

At the centre of the story is Hugh Sheridan as The Baker, and he is simply brilliant.

Sheridan brings warmth, humour and an appealing vulnerability. His portrayal gradually develops from a man focused almost entirely on breaking a curse into someone forced to understand what being a husband and father truly requires. His performance in No More is especially affecting, while No One Is Alone provides a beautiful emotional payoff.

As his Wife, Johanna Allen is mesmerising.

There is tremendous intelligence behind her performance. In Maybe They’re Magic, she brings wit and determination, while Moments in the Woods allows us to see the contradictions within this woman, her longing, frustration, attraction, regret and uncertainty. Allen makes her impossible to dismiss and even harder to forget. In It Takes Two, Sheridan and Allen beautifully capture the Baker and his Wife discovering that the journey they thought they had to navigate alone is infinitely stronger when they face it together.

Jessica Dean’s Cinderella is beautifully nuanced. Her journey from Cinderella at the Grave and A Very Nice Prince through On the Steps of the Palace reveals someone who discovers that choosing your own future can be considerably harder than waiting for somebody else to choose it for you. Dean gives the character both grace and steel.

Then there is Eliza Brill-Reed as Little Red Riding Hood.

She is still at school. She is only 17!

Let that sink in for a moment.

Brill-Reed brings enormous confidence and comic timing to Hello, Little Girl, before showing another side of her ability in I Know Things Now. Little Red’s innocence changes considerably during the story, and Brill-Reed handles that progression with remarkable assurance for such a young performer.

Catherine Campbell as Jack’s Mother delivers plenty of laughs while giving genuine emotional weight. Her exasperation is entirely relatable, but beneath it sits a fierce maternal instinct that Campbell captures beautifully.

Joey Haenen as Jack is another standout.

A brilliant new Elder Conservatorium Music Theatre graduate, Haenen attacks Giants in the Sky with infectious enthusiasm. His Jack is wonderfully naive without becoming irritating, and there is an irresistible sense of wonder in the way he discovers that the world extends far beyond the boundaries he has always known.

As Rapunzel, Jessica Mills brings a beautiful vocal quality, while Cherie Boogaart’s Stepmother embraces the wickedness and theatricality with delicious commitment.

Michaela Burger and Eleanor Brasted as Florinda and Lucinda are hilarious.

Their timing is impeccable, their expressions are priceless and every entrance earns a smile, with their increasingly outrageous behaviour.

Nicholas Cannon and Andrew Crispe have enormous fun as Cinderella’s Prince and Rapunzel’s Prince. Their rendition of Agony is exactly the sort of gloriously self-important theatrical nonsense that makes Sondheim’s comedy so irresistible. The pair play their characters with complete seriousness, which makes the ridiculousness even funnier.

Cannon also takes on The Wolf, switching effortlessly from lovestruck prince to predatory menace in Hello, Little Girl. It is a terrific example of his versatility.

But there is one performance that deserves its own paragraph.

Rosie Hosking as The Witch.

Hosking commands every moment she occupies, but it is the emotional complexity she finds beneath the character’s imposing exterior that makes this portrayal so memorable. Stay with Me is powerful, Witch’s Lament is beautifully judged, and Last Midnight is an absolute showstopper.

She doesn’t simply play The Witch as a villain. There is loneliness, fury, protectiveness, jealousy and ultimately profound grief beneath the surface. By the time she reaches Last Midnight, everything she has been holding together begins to fracture, and Hosking takes us with her.

What makes Into the Woods endure is its refusal to give us uncomplicated fairytales.

Cinderella gets her prince, but discovers marriage isn’t the answer to every question.

Jack reaches the sky, yet learns that adventure has consequences.

Little Red encounters the Wolf and emerges with knowledge she didn’t possess before.

The Baker and his Wife achieve their deepest desire, only to discover that parenthood brings responsibilities they hadn’t anticipated.

The characters enter the forest searching for one thing and emerge understanding something entirely different.

That is where Sondheim’s genius lies.

The first act gives us wishes, magic and happily-ever-after endings.

Then comes the second act.

And suddenly we discover what those endings actually cost.

State Opera South Australia has assembled an impressive company for this production, supported by an orchestra that handles Sondheim’s demanding score with confidence and finesse.

While there were a few technical hiccups along the way, they were little more than fleeting interruptions in an otherwise exceptional evening, with the calibre of the performances never losing their impact.

There are laughs. There are glorious vocals. There is spectacle.

And then, almost before you realise it, there is something much deeper.

Into the Woods asks what happens when we finally get what we wanted.

The answer?

You still have to live with it.

And perhaps that is the most grown-up fairytale of them all.

5 stars

Lia Loves.