Narrator Carlton Gronow
Cinderella Laura May Stewart
Jack Thomas Davies
The Baker David Carboni
The Baker's Wife Gillene Herbert
Stepmother Sarah Brown
Florinda Katie Tucker
Lucinda Sarah Rajeswaran
Jack's Mother Emma Trow
Red Riding Hood Akiya Henry
Witch Lucy Thatcher
Cinderella's father Matthew Hawksworht
Cinderella's mother Gugu Mbatha-Row
Mysterious man Gurpreet Singh
Wolf/Cinderella's Prince Kristopher Smith Granny/Milky white Sophia Behn
Steward Chike Okonkwo
Rapunzel's Prince Roly Darby
Rapunzel Sian Williams
Giant Kyley Cooper

Director Mark Pattenden
Music director Chris Lambert

National Youth Music Theatre


The first part of Into the woods is a tour de force of narrative
entanglement that seems to be resolved and then presents a set of insoluble
difficulties for the characters in the second part. It is somehow
depressing to watch a group of bright and talented young performers, many
of whom are probably only a couple of years past the "it's not fair" phase,
delivering the thoroughly middle-aged message "life stinks". It's a bit
like casting a nineteen-year-old Marschallin: if she can convey the sense
of loss, life has been too brutally unfair to her for her reasonably to be
wistful and philosophical about it.

It also has to be said that, also like Der Rosenkavalier, while Into the
Woods has a conveniently large range of roles, it is extremely difficult to
perform. The Donmar production a couple of years ago cast actors and fell
badly short on the singing. This cast very nearly delivered the music, and
a lot of style in the set pieces, but on the whole were mechanical with the
words and substantially missing the emotions.

A major exception was Akiya Henry as a rambustious and very funny Red
Riding Hood, appetite on little legs. Kristopher Smith was also pretty good
as a lounge-lizard wolf, and the princes got the comic measure of Agony,
perhaps because it is essentially an expression of uncomplicated laddism.
Most of the rest of the cast were impressively together but missing
something painful. I don't know whether to hope or not that they will
understand when they've lived some more.

The orchestra (not credited in the BOC Covent Garden Festival programme)
was very good.

-
H.E. Elsom
he@helsom.demon.co.uk
http://www.helsom.demon.co.uk/