PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Six months after composer Stephen Sondheim's death, the Arden Theatre Company is producing one of his most beloved musicals: “Into the Woods.”
The Arden has had a long relationship with Sondheim. This is their 15th production of a Sondheim musical, and in 2015, he was honored with their first Master Storyteller Award.
“Into the Woods” is a re-telling of several classic fairytales. In this production, the opening scene sparks instant nostalgia with the actors all reading children’s books. The production elements are pared back, asking the audience to activate their imaginations.
For example, The Witch, played by local actress Kim Carson, doesn’t have a hunched costume or makeup to make her look old and scary.
“I don’t have a mask. I don’t have a wig. It’s just me,” Carson explained. “It’s all just what I’m doing with my body and my voice.”
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Other costumes are just as simple, like a red hoodie for Little Red Riding Hood and overalls for Cinderella. Even the sound effects are made by the actors using their voices and bodies.
“Everything, including the stomps of the giant and things like that … it’s all coming from the human,” Carson described, “allowing the humans in the audience and their imaginations to make it even bigger than it already is.”
The idea is to make it feel like the story is happening in our world, with people just like us.
“It’s important to us that the audience feels a part of it, that we’re all in this together, versus we’re of a time or of some other world that doesn’t really exist,” she added. “I think we’re all kind of in the woods right now. Just the pandemic and everything political that’s happening … where we are in real life feels a little bit like where we are in this play.”
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During the pandemic, many theater workers turned to “Into the Woods” for comfort. There are countless social media posts quoting the musical and YouTube covers of one song in particular: “No One Is Alone.” That message makes this show all the more poignant for Carson.
“For me, it’s my first show back after the pandemic shut everything down. And so the idea of going from doing no theater, no auditions, to jumping into a show like this that sort of confronts where we are, where we’ve been these last couple years … it feels huge.”
“Into the Woods” opened this week and has already been extended to run through July 10.