“Best to take the moment present/As a present for the moment”
― Stephen Sondheim, Into the Woods
The richly metaphorical and metaphorically rich ‘Into the Woods’ musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine will forever be considered a bold classic for its intertwining of tropes from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales. In the hands of Sondheim and Lapine, the dreams that tie Jack to his beanstalk, Rapunzel to her tresses and Cinderella to her glass slipper – among others – are portrayed in an oddly realist fashion, as if to remind us that life has sequences and dreams have counterbalanced realties.
Famous for its first run at Broadway in 1987 and accompanying Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book, its 2022-2023 revival opened the door for an ‘Into the Woods’ tour that hits the Kimmel Cultural Campus’ Miller Theater, from April 4-9, with Ta’Nika Gibson, Brooke Ishibashi, Montego Glover, Gavin Creel, Stephanie J. Block and Sebastian Arcelus.
Ta’Nika Gibson (Lucinda) and Brooke Ishibashi (Florinda) spoke excitedly about stage careers where they work on contemporarily-composed Broadway musicals and post-Golden Age productions such as those branded by the late, great Sondheim.
“With his passing, we are paying homage, not only to him, but all that Stephen Sondheim represented,” said Gibson. “It’s an honor to be in a production of Sondheim’s such as this.”
In Sondheim and Lapine’s ‘Into the Woods’, their Cinderella has, “agency, has choice,” noted Gibson. “She makes up HER mind to leave that shoe.”
Ishibashi at this point yells out, “Feminist Cinderella.”
Piggybacking off Gibson, Ishibashii shares she has rarely felt represented on the Broadway and Off-Broadway stage, be it in her personal or professional life.
“To be honest, we grew up seeing shows such as ‘Into the Woods’ with faces that didn’t look like ours,” she said.
Now, that has all changed.
“I have never witnessed a show at the level of a Sondheim that looks the way that ours looks in its diversity of body sizes, color, race, age and ability. If I had had seen a show such as ours when I was a kid, I would have been a complete game changer for me – so our mix… allows audiences to see themselves. They are the heroes of these fairy tales.”
Both actor-singers grew up with the PBS public television version of ‘Into the Woods’, and could not imagine tackling its happily twisted storylines and memorable musical moments.
“And working with our fellow cast members is like working with The Avengers of Broadway musical theater, the Olympics,” said Gibson.
“We just brought our truth and our experience,” added Ishibashi.
Gibson goes on to question how, when she got the role of the evil stepsister to the Cinderella chapter of ‘Into the Woods’, who would be the Florinda to her Lucinda. Luckily, it wound up being “my sister from another mister, Brooke,” with a loving, friendly relationship that has lasted since the start of 2022’s new Broadway run. “We worked with everyone from Neil Patrick Harris, Heather Headley and Sara Barielles to Montego Glover and Gavin Creel. It’s an embarrassment of riches.”
Along with finding – in Ishibashi’s words – “the humanity behind the evil of Cinderella’s stepsisters” due to the economic conditions of a patriarchy at work (“what were our options? Marrying the prince was our only way to survive”), both “sisters” recalled Sondheim’s words on the revivals of ‘Into the Woods’.
Created and originally staged at the dawn of the AIDS/HIV crisis, this newest iteration of ‘Into the Woods’ came out after the pandemic and the social justice reckoning of Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo Movement, crises through which we all are living collectively.
“How do we contend with the crises right outside our door? How do we process trauma? We get this show when we most need it,” said Ishibashi, reconnecting Sondheim’s initial thoughts on the universality of these fairy tales, and how ‘Into the Woods’ open us up to the joy of experience and inclusivity.
‘Into the Woods’ will be on stage at Kimmel Cultural Campus’ Miller Theater from April 4-9. For information and tickets, visit kimmelculturalcampus.org
