The last Rapscallions of the Periphery play I saw, View of the Dome, 
was superbly done, and I got really excited when I heard that Into 
The Woods would be their next play.  Unfortunately, Into The Woods 
doesn't live up to the standards set by VOTD.  That in itself is no 
crime, but this production of ITW just had too much of an amateurish 
feel to it.  Which is not to say the play didn't have its high points, because 
it did; but most of those came from some outstanding individual 
performances.

ITW is a musical that opens with a Narrator (played by Carlton 
Kirkpatrick) telling us about the lives of some familiar fairy tale 
characters, including Cinderella (played by Gayle Vidal), Jack of the 
rock band Beanstalk (played by Jiimy Keaton) and his beloved cow 
Milky White (played by the most comically bad piece of American 
Tourister paper maiche you have ever seen in your life), and a baker 
and his wife (played by Michael Huey and Jennifer Doody, 
respectively) from that fairy tale that had the baker in it.  There's 
also Red Riding Hood (played by Dot Hutchison, unless last night was 
understudy night and no one told me) and the Big Bad-Ass Wolf (played 
by someone so important they forgot to put his name in the credits.  
It could've been me, for all I know.)  Plus, you've got your standard 
Princes, wicked stepsisters, and supermodel-turned-witch that all 
good convoluted fairy-tale conglomeration stories need.

The opening song (which lasts approximately hour) sets the story and 
ends with all the characters heading off into the woods, which I'm 
assuming is how the play got its name ("Cats").  Cinderella sets off 
to find her prince, only to find out he's gone and changed his name 
to a silly unpronouncable symbol for no apparent reason.  Jack leaves 
at the behest of his mother to sell his beloved cow at the 
market.....although I'm still not sure why the "market" would be in the 
middle of a forest.  Red Riding Hood is ostensibly going to visit her 
grandmother, but really just wants to be alone so she can scarf down a 
whole truckload of Cinna-Buns.  The Baker journeys forth in search of 
some specific items to appease the witch, whose apperance on stage 
usually indicates it's time for some gratuitous crotch-grabbing by 
the Baker.

At the end of the first act, the main characters have pretty much 
gotten what they wanted (or at least what they *thought* they 
wanted), and the witch has been transformed into a sexy, sexy runway 
model (which is what *I* wanted).  Since it's been close to two hours 
and there seems to be a happy ending, you might think the play would 
end now.  But that is why you are a worthless nobody, while the 
play's author Stephen Sondheim is.....I don't know, dead or 
something.

And so after the intermission, during which you are given the 
opportunity to purchase "refreshments" in the form of--I swear to God 
(played by Alanis Morrisette) this is true--individual packages of Frito-Lay 
chips, we get to Act 2.  Act 2 (II) begins with the characters whining about 
how much better their lives could still be, which is the signal for 
Loki the Angel of Death (played by Matt Damon) to come down in the 
form of an invisible female giant and start slaying the ungrateful 
whiners.  (The original script called for a giant Stay-Puft 
Marshmallow Man, but they apparently spent all their 'food budget' on 
Frito-Lay chips.)  And so pretty much everybody dies, and the ones 
that live decide to move in together and start their own sitcom.  
Then the dead rise from the grave and join the living for one last 
song finale that inexplicably involves square dancing.


As I said in the beginning, there are some definite high points in 
this play, and chief among them is:

Cathy Jean as the Witch.  There are a very few people out there that 
I could just close my eyes and listen to them sing forever, and this 
girl is at the top of the list.  She combines that singing with an 
absolutely top-notch acting ability and inevitably does an incredible 
job as the witch.  And when she does the runway model portion of the 
show, she looks like that's what she was born to do.

Jimmy Keaton does a very good job as Jack, despite being forced to 
wear a silly 1970's glam-rock wig.  I believe this is his last 
performance in Gainesville before he heads down to South America to 
hunt wild boar in the Brazilian rain forest (or whatever), so you may 
want to catch him in this show before he's gone.

Gayla Vidal as Cinderella was a very pleasant surprise.  I'd never 
seen her before, but she did a wonderful job as Cinderella, with a 
very nice singing vioce.  Definitely a keeper.

Chris Terpening as Cinderella's Prince was another nice surprise. 
Sort of a tongue-in-cheek performance, but you could tell there was a lot 
of talent behind it.

Michael Huey and Jennifer Doody as the Baker and his Wife both give 
very solid performances.  Not outstanding, but certainly very good.  
Michael seems to be on stage more frequently than most of the other 
characters, and he does a good job of binding the show together.


As I also said in the beginning, I had several problems with this 
play as well.  The first and one of the most obvious was:

-IT STILL COSTS TOO MUCH TO GET IN.  If you're a new acting company 
with no theatre of your own and no real regular patrons yet, you 
can't expect to charge the same amount for a play as GCP and get away 
with it...especially if you put on shows with lower production 
values, because you're going to end up with a high-school type 
situation where the only people who show up to watch the play are 
friends and relatives of the people in it.

-WHAT'S UP WITH THAT COW?  I'm sure the person(s) who made the cow 
worked very hard.....and I'm sorry, but that thing looks like an art 
project made by an overly ambitious 5th-grader.  Plus, the last time 
I checked, regular milk-giving female cows DON'T HAVE HORNS.  Maybe 
that's why it WON'T GIVE ANY MILK.  Kinda makes you wonder exactly 
what Jack and his mother had been drinking up to now.....

-WHAT'S UP WITH THE 'ORCHESTRA PEN'?  I understand that 
traditionally, the orchestra is located in a recessed area in front 
of the stage.  But that usually happens in theatres larger than 
church gymnasiums, and the key word is RECESSED.  Having the entire 
orchestra, with their lights plus the conductor's hands waving 
everywhere, within your field of view throughout the whole play tends 
to get a bit annoying.  And the music tended to drown out the 
singing, particularly when the singers were farther back on stage.
Also, the guy on synthesizer looks eerily look Frank the Luvmaster 
when viewed in profile.  Eerily.

-FRITO-LAY CHIPS????  Nuff said.


Overall, I'd give this play 2 stars out of 4.  The technical aspects 
were below average, as was some of the acting.  Although I did see it 
pretty early in the run of the show, so it could potentially get 
better as it goes along.  But the good individual performances were 
very good....I think Cathy Jean herself is worth an extra half-star at 
least.  It's worth sitting through once just for her and Jimmy.
My advice: Go see it, but don't feel guilty about lying that you're a 
student so you can get in for $7.

-john