No Square Theater goes ‘Into the Woods’

Tom Titus

Laguna Beach’s No Square Theater will be taking audiences “Into the

Woods” next weekend and, thanks to a grant from local business

leaders, it’ll be a round trip and not just one way.

The community theater group has traditionally presented a

vocal-only concert as its winter production. But this season, with

the support from a grant from the Cultural Arts Funding -- Business

Improvement District of Laguna, the Stephen Sondheim musical will be

presented as a fully staged musical with sets and costumes in the

Laguna Beach High School Artists’ Theater.

“We were honored to receive a BID grant last year to apply toward

our winter concert,” said Holland Carney, vice president of No Square

Theater. “This show will have broad appeal to both tourists and

Laguna residents with its terrific score -- and now sets and costumes

as well.

“It is a Broadway award winner, and we are so fortunate to have a

director with Broadway accolades of her own to bring it to life for

us,” Carney declared.

That would be Marguerite MacIntyre, whose credits from the Great

White Way include “City Of Angels,” “No Way to Treat a Lady” and

“Annie Warbucks.” In the 2000-01 season’s Broadway play about another

famous orphan, “Jane Eyre,” she played a “wraithlike, avenging figure

of Rochester’s murderous, deranged first wife,” according to the Wall

Street Journal.

In her Laguna production, No Square artistic director Steve

Josephson will take the role of the Baker with Vandy Scoates playing

his wife -- the role which won Joanna Gleason a Tony Award in the

original 1988 production. Laurel Boyd is cast as the Witch whose

spell on the family sets the strange scavenger hunt in motion.

“Into the Woods” is populated by some familiar characters from

children’s fairy tales -- Cinderella (Pam Plummer), Prince Charming

(Rufino Cabang) Jack of Beanstalk fame (Jasper Kump) and Little Red

Riding Hood (Karen Rymer). But Sondheim’s version of these characters

is a bit different from the popular conception.

“They lie, steal, cheat and manipulate their way through Faustian

conflicts and highly topical ethical entanglements,” Josephson noted.

Others in the No Square cast include Gregg Barnette (narrator),

Kelly Bixby (Snow White), Jim Bragg (Cinderella’s father), Greg

Engelking (Rapunzel’s Prince), Cecily Gish (Speeping Beauty) Michelle

Johnson (Rapunzel), Gary Krantz (steward) Patti Lee (Granny), Debbie

Meeker (stepmother), Lisa Morrice (Jack’s mother), Carol Robinson

(stepsister), Barbara Wordes (giant) and Rich Wordes (mysterious

man).

“Into the Woods is a two-time Tony award winner for best musical

-- the show was honored in its original production in 1988 and it won

again in 2002 for best musical revival. Adam Hemming is musical

director for the Laguna production.

Performances of “Into the Woods” will be given at 8 p.m. Feb. 6

and 2 and 8 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Laguna Beach High School theater.

The show then will be transported to the Clubhouse 3 Auditorium at

Leisure World in Laguna Woods for additional performances 7 p.m. Feb.

11 and 12.

Ticket information is available from the No Square Theater box

office at (949) 497-1950.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Coastline Pilot.