Staff Writer
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| Freshman David Flowers in his role as Herman the Brownie. |
The Apex Peak Players’ first musical of the year, Steven Sondheim’s Into the Woods, opened on March 2 to an
absolutely packed audience. Into the
Woods is the story of various fairytale characters and their journeys to
‘happily ever after.’ They soon discover that upon acquiring their wishes,
however, that the traditional ‘happily ever after’ isn’t really all it’s
cracked up to be.
Into the Woods follows three
main stories: Cinderella, the Baker and his childless wife, and Jack, a lonely
boy that lives with his mother. Cinderella wants to go to the Prince’s festival
and dance the night away, the Baker just wants to lift the spell on his home
and raise a family, and Jack wants to get his best friend, who just so happens
to be his cow, back. At the end of the first act, and after many mishaps and
run-ins with each other, all three goals are met, and each of the characters is
happy.
Then comes Act II, which takes place eight months later. All the happy
endings are falling apart, and the characters are once again discontent. Cinderella
is bored, and her Prince is now in love with another maiden in a tower, who
sleeps until awakened by love’s first kiss; the Baker and his wife are at odds
over their old cottage; Jack is still living with his mother and still lonely,
save his new golden harp. It takes more trouble and conflict before everyone
realizes that maybe what they wanted in the first place was not going to make
them happy.
While all of the acting and singing was absolutely phenomenal, a few
key characters deserve some special recognition. In the original Into the Woods script, there is one
narrator who moves the story along. In the Peak Players’ production, the part
of the narrator was expanded and re-written for a total of six characters:
Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall, and two brownies named Horace and Herman. All of
these new characters were delightfully entertaining and brought a new dynamic
and originality to the narration. However, the best of these characters was the
brownie Herman, played by freshman David Flowers, who completely stole the show.
Seeing him in the background of nearly every scene making little facial
expressions and improvising reactions to the events of the story was incredibly
entertaining.
Other favorites of the production included Mark Parrish’s Prince
Charming, who was conceited and hysterical, Allison Collins’ Red Riding Hood,
who was crazy and energetic, and Trey Lower’s Jack, who was adorable and very
heartfelt. Along with the actors, the orchestra did an excellent job, and I
thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the production. The set was very well
constructed, and everything ran smoothly, thanks to what was clearly a
well-oiled machine of a production crew. There’s still a chance to catch the
show for its last running weekend, March 8-10.
