Call me ignorant, but I've never heard of Stephen Sondheim until I watched Rent last week, and heard his name being mentioned in "La Vie Boheme." Yeah, I know, pathetic and a bit too late, but better late than never. Now I can say that I owe my proper introduction to Sondheim to the wonderful Lorna Lopez, who gave dramashit, morethanfiction, tristantrakand, and me good seats to the opening night of New Voice Company's Into the Woods. I can't thank her enough!

Before Happily N'Ever After or Enchanted came along, Sondheim's Into the Woods was already messing around with the supposedly "happily ever after" endings in fairy tales. And what a mess it was, combining the stories of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel and making up a new one that wraps up the four quite nicely. But, screwed up stories—even those whose endings you thought you knew—are bound to get more screwed.



Unlike most fairy tales, though, Into the Woods is not about good versus evil. I had no idea whom to root for while I was watching because most of the characters were quite ambivalent. Sure, there's the witch who is always the evil one, but in the end, all she wants is to protect Rapunzel from the outside world. The Baker and his wife have always wanted a child, but will have to trick some people to lift the curse set upon them. There's the typical Prince Charming, who's supposed to be everything a prince is but actually isn’t, so boohoo for Cinderella for marrying a cad. More than anything, Into the Woods questions the "what's next" after someone finally gets what he's always wanted, which, well, has happened to me already, career-wise (okay, let's stop there. There's such a thing as too much information).

Come to think of it, though, there's not much spice in happily ever after. I mean, hello--domesticity isn't all it's cracked up to be, which must be why the Prince can't stay put in the palace. So it's all about risks as well.

One thing for sure about this musical: Sondheim made it so tough to sing. It's easy to tell how the musical patterns would go for some shows, but because Into the Woods follows a syncopated speech pattern, it's difficult to guess where the stress of the notes would be. So that already gives props to the cast, especially Michael Williams as the Baker, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo as the Baker's Wife, and Lynn Sherman as the Witch, whose songs were the toughest to perform. Listening to Menchu and Michael duet with perfect timing in "It Takes Two" was a pleasure. Lynn was very stunning in the finale. But it was Menchu's take of "Moments in the Woods" that really got to me. It was the song that got stuck in my mind because of its brilliant playfulness ("Just remembering you've had an "and"/ When you're back to "or"/ Makes the "or" mean more/ Than it did before") and the way that Menchu delivered it—she had me right at the first line. Though of course, I was also laughing at the princes' "Agony" and the reprise: "Always ten steps behind-/ Always ten feet below-/And she's just out of reach./ Agony that can cut like a knife!/ I must have her to wife."

All in all, it was entertaining, but I'm not sure if I'd take my younger cousins or tukmol niece and nephew to see it (It's a bit dark, and two, I can't count on them to understand what's going on). A fun ride back to childhood, too. Only there was darkness which I've pretty much shoved at the back of my mind all this time, thinking that that time of my life should be left unmarked, as it is. Well, that goes to show how some things just can't stay unblemished, even the most innocent of memories. How's that for agony? Well, maybe not--so let's just say things aren't quite as memorable if they're too pure.



[mood| Restless]