The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center’s first production under its new name is also the biggest in its estimable history.
The remonikered Fine Arts Center Theatre Company takes audiences deep “Into the Woods” – perhaps a half-hour deeper than anyone might want to go. Still, with its latest big-bang, big-bucks to-do, the FAC again proves that nobody, but nobody, does musicals like they do musicals to our south.
The FAC follows last year’s Denver Post Ovation-winning best musical “Pirates of Penzance” with a stunning staging by a cast dotted with Broadway veterans and opera-caliber singers, with sets and costumes also worthy of the Great White Way.
The troupe is no secret to Colorado Springs. Every show I’ve attended there in six years has been sold out in its now gorgeously refurbished, 400-seat SaGâJi Theatre. To anyone in Denver who wonders whether it’s worth the drive – don’t wonder.
The company, under new boss Alan Osburn, well-known in Denver as an actor, directs Stephen Sondheim’s musical that magically blends three classic fairy tales with James Lapine’s invented story of a childless baker (he’s Rapunzel’s brother!) and his wife.
Characters from all four cleverly intermingled tales now have reasons to journey into the woods – Jack to sell the family cow, Little Red Riding Hood to visit her big-fanged Grandma, Cinderella to go to the Festival, and the baker to reverse a witch’s progenitive curse.
Real-life marrieds Kelly Walters and Susan Dawn Carson are the baker and his wife. Walters played Candide on Broadway; his wife was Fantine in “Les Miserables.” Walters, who hasn’t yet had the best vehicle to show off his chops for Denver audiences, is marvelous here. So, too, is Mercedes Perez, who plays the haggard-turned-seductive witch.
These are no out-of-town ringers. The 17 members of this high-caliber ensemble all call Colorado home. (Osburn did have an inside track on landing Perez, who starred for 20 months in the New Denver Civic’s “Menopause the Musical” – she’s his wife.) They are complemented by a supremely talented support cast, including an adorable Sally Lewis Hybl as Cinderella, young Brandon Sward’s giant-killing Jack, Carmen Mock’s snarky Little Red and Maija-Liisa Nielsen’s (sigh) lovely Rapunzel. There’s even a narrator (Mark Hennessy) cleverly made up to look like a young Sondheim.
The story comes together flawlessly from great characters to fine voices to pure theatrical spectacle, thanks to another spellbinding set by Christopher Sheley (a storybook come to 3-D life), glorious light and sound enhancement, and an impressive 11-person orchestra.
But there’s much more going on in “Into the Woods” than a simple reimagining of some straightforward fairy tales.
Many in the audience, especially the youngsters, will believe the very loooong first act will suffice as an entertaining-enough afternoon in itself. I admit, I wouldn’t have cried to see it followed by a curtain call. By its end, all four primary stories have come to their expected happy ends.
(Parents should be advised that these tales, while tastefully presented, are told as written – so Little Red gets carved out of the wolf’s stomach, and Cinderella’s sisters slice off their toes to fool the prince. While these bits aren’t at all frightening to watch, some sound effects had kiddies covering their ears).
So what then could be left for Act II? Turns out that’s the real meat, imagination and message of the piece. By now, Cinderella has married her prince, Little Red has rescued Granny, Jack has stolen his way to great wealth without consequence, and the Baker and his wife are on their way to parenthood.
Act II dares to ask, what next? Certainly not happily ever after. It’s as dark as the first act is festive. The writers imagine new reasons for each to venture into the woods, and the motives are now far more questionable.
The dead giant’s wife has come down, seeking justifiable revenge against the boy who not only killed her husband but ransacked his goods. Soon this fantastic tangent becomes a complex treatise on greed, infidelity, cowardice and moral inexactitude. And though 20 years old, it resonates today when it is chillingly shouted, “Wake up: People are dying all around you.”
There are more villains than you might expect in this far more existential chapter.
Compelling as this all is, it does go on, stretching the day to nearly three hours. The stories grow static and verbose. Not even the luxuriantly refurbished seats can prevent the squirming.
But overall, it’s a joyful presentation. The end most definitely justifies the beans.
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-954-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
“Into the Woods”
MUSICAL|Fine Arts Center Theatre Company|Written by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine|Directed by Alan Osburn| Starring Kelly Walters, Mercedes Perez and Susan Dawn Carson|THROUGH JUNE 3|At the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 30 W. Dale St.|8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays|2 hours, 50 minutes|$28-$30| 719-634-5583, csfineartscenter.org
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“GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE” Square Product Theater presents Emily K. Harrison’s adaptation of the Flannery O’Connor short story about an ill, irritated, intelligent and godless woman forced to live with her mother on a Georgia farm in the 1950s. Cast includes Ovation- winning actor Dee Covington. Four shows only: 8 p.m. today, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday at Naropa University, 2130 Arapahoe St., Boulder. Pay what you can (303-245-4833).
“THE THREEPENNY OPERA”OpenStage’s staging, in association with CSU Opera Theatre, plays it close to Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s original vision, cast in the Berlin cabaret style of post-World War I Germany. 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays through June 23, plus 2 p.m. June 10 and 17, 7:30 p.m. June 21, at 417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins. Tickets $13-$20 (970-484-5237 or www.openstage.com).
“THE GLASS MENAGERIE” Lake Dillon Theatre Company presents Tennessee Williams’ classic, along with “For Whom the Southern Bell Tolls” (late nights). 7:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 6:30 p.m. Sundays through June 17 at 176 Lake Dillon Dr. $15-$18 (970-513-9386).
–John Moore
