Review: INTO THE WOODS at Castle Craig Players

On Sunday, July 30th, I had the pleasure of seeing yet another first-rate production put on by the Castle Craig Players at the Almira F. Stephan Memorial Playhouse in Meriden, CT, INTO THE WOODS!  This is the first time I have ever seen this show performed live, and it has given me a whole new appreciation for this James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim masterpiece!   The brilliant direction of Ian Galligan combines with the musical direction of Nick Ciasullo and choreography of Todd Santa Maria to bring out the best in this stellar cast, and in this musical itself!  It is as if the musical was written to be performed by this cast! 

Extremely talented actress Kaite Corda stars as Cinderella, a role that features both comedic and dramatic elements, both of which Kaite Corda excels in.  During a heartbreaking moment involving Cinderella’s prince, Kaite’s expressions and delivery help the audience truly connect with and feel for Cinderella.  Her powerful singing voice and strong stage presence truly bring Cinderella to life!  This is yet another phenomenal performance by Kaite Corda.

Henry Tobelman is wonderful as the baker, the central male protagonist in this musical.  He is a character who loves his wife and wants to protect her, but often underestimates how helpful she can be to him.

Angela Citrola is excellent as the baker’s wife.  The baker’s wife is confident and determined to proactively try to make things happen.  She struggles to pay mind to the wishes of her husband who loves her, yet she can be easily manipulated and seduced by a slick-talking and selfish prince.

Desi Amato dazzles the audience with the versatility of her role as the witch.  She successfully pulls off the totally villainous older witch at the start of the story, as well as the transformed to younger, yet magically deficient witch of the end of the first act and entirety of the second act. 

The central plotline of the first act is that the baker and his wife need to break a curse in order to conceive a child.  To break the curse, they need to acquire four different items in a scavenger hunt, and bring them to the witch.  Each item on the list belongs to another character.

The first item is a white cow.  Benjamin Race is excellent in the role of Jack, who with his mother convincingly performed by Dian Erikian, are the owners of the cow.  Olivia DeFilippo displays comedic genius as the holder of the cow, representing the cow.

The second item is a red cape owned by Little Red Riding Hood whose youthful essence is convincingly portrayed by Brooke Owens. 

The third item in this tangled tale is some of the hair of Rapunzel.  Having seen local and professional theater for over four decades, I have to say that actress Anna Conforti, who plays Rapunzel, gives the absolute most convincing scream I have ever heard from stage, during a moment in which the witch cuts her hair.  In addition to her amazing singing voice, Anna Conforti truly knows how to convey a believable feeling of physical agony, through her scream.

Speaking of “Agony,” that is the name of my favorite song in this musical.  Griffin Kulp and Chris Corrales are excellent in their performance of this song, its reprise, and in their comedic roles as the two princes.  Griffin Kulp and Chris Corrales’ stage chemistry with each other and stage presence truly makes these entertaining characters.

The fourth item that the baker and his wife are asked to acquire is one of Cinderella’s shoes.  (That is, what her shoes become after the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, which does not take place on stage in this musical, even though a dramatic costume change is evident.)  While she is eventually in an elegant ball gown, Cinderella is initially in raggedy clothes, living in her father’s house with her father, step-mother, and step-sisters who are magnificently performed by Bret Olson, Erin Campbell, Nicole Zolad, and Erin Aldrich, respectively.

Some other stand-out performances include Jonathan Cohen as the narrator who eventually becomes involved in the storyline, Cristin Daly as Cinderella's mother and as Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother, and Jeffrey Rizzo who in addition to excelling as the steward, also plays one of the most comedic roles as the puppeteer for the birds that converse with Cinderella.

The show is enhanced by a talented live band backstage including Jill Brunelle on keyboard, Mya Chrzanowski and Nick Ciasullo on synthesizers, and David Wilson on percussion.

So, what extremes are the baker and his wife willing to go to, to obtain these items in their scavenger hunt?  For the cow, the baker’s wife was willing to manipulate and swindle a young boy.  They were also willing to use flour to attempt to white-body a brown cow.   For the cape, the baker was willing to seek out a girl in the middle of the woods and physically rip off an article of her clothing, against her will.  For the hair, the baker’s wife was willing to physically yank some out of Rapunzel’s head, against Rapunzel’s will.  It makes the attempt to just do some old-fashioned theft of Cinderella’s shoe seem rather tame in comparison.  All this was done to gather items a witch requested.  It makes you stop and wonder, are the baker and his wife really the type of couple who you want to see raising a child?

Act 2 takes on a second main plot.  The scavenger hunt has ended.  In Act 1, Jack received beans in exchange for his cow.  The beanstalk grew.  There was a giant up top.  Jack had killed the giant.  Now, the giant’s wife wants revenge, as the body count starts to rise.  Who will be killed?  Who will survive?  Come to the show to find out!

I highly recommend INTO THE WOODS, which is scheduled to continue to run through August 12, 2023.  While all performances are currently sold out, there is a standby list that you can enter, in case there are any cancelations.  You can get on it from the website at https://castlecraigplayers.org/.

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