I have heard many good things about this play over the last several years, and when I saw it on the shelf at my library, I snatched it up. I may have exclaimed, too; it’s all a blur and I don’t quite remember.
The DVD is a recording of the play, done with the original Broadway cast, headed up by Bernadette Peters as the witch. Stephen Sondheim did all the music, for which he has been highly praised, and rightly so.
The premise is great. We begin with four of the major fairytales. We see Cinderella wishing to go to the ball, Jack and his mother wishing for some food, the baker and his wife wishing for a child, and Little Red Riding Hood wishing for some bread to take to Granny’s. She comes to see the baker to get the bread, and this is where the stories start to intertwine, as we realize that all these characters are contemporaries.
Suddenly the witch appears to talk to the baker, and tells him the reason he’s childless: Years ago, his father climbed into her garden and took some of her vegetables, including some magic beans, to give his pregnant wife. He kept the beans for himself, putting them in his coat pocket. When the baby was born, the baker’s little sister, the witch took her, named her Rapunzel, and trapped her in a tower. She put a curse on the baker’s house that they would never again have children, but there is a way to break that curse. If the baker brings her a cloak as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, a shoe that’s made of gold, and a cow as white as milk, she will reverse the spell. The baker and his wife set out immediately, after finding the magic beans still in the pocket of his father’s coat.
Meanwhile, Cinderella is in the woods returning from the ball, and Jack is in the woods on his way to market to sell his cow. Little Red Riding Hood is on her way to Granny’s. From here it gets more hysterical. The baker gives Jack the magic beans for the cow, who happens to be white as milk. He then saves Little Red Riding Hood from the wolf, and she gives him her cloak in exchange. The baker’s wife trades Cinderella her own shoes for the gold slippers, and finds some of Rapunzel’s golden hair. Working together, they find everything they need to break the spell, and the witch promises they will have a child. It turns out she was under a spell too, and as she drinks the milk the cow produces after eating all the magic items, she becomes beautiful again, no longer haggard and ugly.
I’m describing all this very quickly because that is the pace of the play. It goes from thing to thing to thing and you have to stay on your toes or you’ll miss something.
I must say, though, my feeling about this play are as divided as act one and act two. I loved act one. I did think the wolf should have had some pants on or at least a differently designed costume, but I really enjoyed everything up until that point. It was funny, the music was great, and I loved the way all the stories were resolved.
But then, after intermission, everything took a dark turn. The giant’s wife climbs down the beanstalk and starts destroying houses, and then she starts killing people. She wants to kill Jack as revenge for killing her husband, but to protect Jack, the other characters feed her the narrator instead. One by one, members of the cast are killed off. The baker’s wife goes off to look for help, and ends up having an affair with Cinderella’s husband, who has decided that he is in love with Sleeping Beauty instead. (His brother, married to Rapunzel, has a hankering for Snow White.) Just minutes after finishing her little romp in the woods, the baker’s wife is killed by a falling tree. Dark moments completely monopolize the second act, and I felt let down to be so built up during the first half and come crashing down during the second.
My recommendation: Rent the movie and turn it off after the first act. You’ll laugh at the humor, you’ll hum along to the score, and you will really enjoy it. Then, by turning it off at the halfway mark, you’ll miss out on all the adultery and murder at the end. Really, I was so disappointed.
Related Blogs:
Bernadette Peters: One Big Little Voice
Stephen Sondheim: Gifted, Golden Apprentice
Author Interview: Annette Lyon