Amateur production of Into the Woods

My third musical, and the first time that there have been chinks in the production...but still, it was a wonderful evening. It started very shakily, the characters didn't look comfortable and there were a lot of errors. 'I have emptied some ash into the fireplace' instead of 'lentils into the ashes' was particularly bad. Also the speakers had a lot of interference, and for a while I thought the show was going totally to pieces!

Thankfully though the cast pulled their socks up as it went on. There was only one faultless performance: Little Red Riding Hood. She was just soooo cool!! I'm seriously considering going again this week to see her for another time. :-)

Anyway, back to the performance. The witch hammed it up a bit too much in the first half; I just didn't like her much. Rapunzel wasn't very good at all. Cinderella sang well enough, but didn't look the part. Jack was really good, the second best performance. The baker was good, he seemed like a really nice guy. His wife was also good except she looked in her 40's. Cinderella's prince was ok, though he looked too nervous to be charming! Rapunzels prince wasn't too hot. During the first Agony he started to sing 'high in a tower, like yours was but higher..' then he realised his mistake and apologised while he missed the whole verse!

The wolf was very enjoyable, and the whole encounter between the wolf and LRRH was one of the highlights. My favourite song, 'It takes two', went very well. The orchestra wasn't too good though, a lot of it was badly timed or too quiet. The narrator wasn't very easy to hear and he often stuttered during the narration. 'Giants in the sky' was very good. The conclusion of the first part was brilliant, with every character onstage belting out Into the Woods.

The second part was a huge improvement on the first, much more proffesional. For a start the young looking witch was a different person to the old witch and she was far better, capturing the spirit of the witch perfectly. There were still quite a few errors, but the last half hour was just captivating, and far more moving than I expected. 'Last midnight' was stunning, with the lighting switching between green and red. 'Noone is alone' was lovely, and the finale was the highlight, totally rousing. Unfortunately there was never going to be enough applause for the cast to come out individually at the end, so I didn't get to see LRRH just one last time! (awww!)

It definitely wasn't a high quality production overall, but all the cast put their hearts into it and I really enjoyed it!

Here are the songs and how much I enjoyed them on the night:

1.Prologue (7)
2.Into the woods (10)
3.Hello, little girl (10)
4.I guess this is goodbye (9)
5.Our little world (7)
6.I know things now (8)
7.A very nice Prince (8)
8.Giants in the sky (10)
9.Agony (9)
10.It takes two (10)
11.Stay with me (7)
12.On the steps of the palace (10)
13.Finale of part 1 (10)
14.So happy (9)
15.Any moment (9)
16.Your fault (9)
17.Last midnight (10)
18.No more (10)
19.No One is alone (10)
20.Children will listen (10)
21.Finale (10)

I went back to see the musical a second time, this time on it's final night. There was a much bigger audience, and the show went down much better. Nearly all of the mistakes had been ironed out, and I enjoyed it more than the first time. Half of the reason I went a second time was to see LRRH, and she was just superb again. I would have liked to have met her afterwards but it wasn't to be. All I can do is hope that she'll be in another musical some day...