Queen’s Musical Theatre’s (QMT) Into the Woods challenges the idea of a simple happy ending.
Traditional Brothers Grimm fairytale stories, such as Little Red Riding Hood and Jack in the Beanstalk, are turned on their head in QMT’s 84th performance, Into the Woods, directed by Karen Lear, ArtSci ’26, and produced by Eiliyah Esmail, ArtSci ’27. The show is running at Baby Grand Theatre, Kingston Grand Theatre, from Jan. 10 to 25.
Into the Woods is an adaptation of the 1986 Broadway musical by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim. The show was the second collaboration between musical and playwright geniuses Lapine and Sondheim after the success of their debut musical Sunday in the Park with George, which QMT also performed in early 2025.
READ MORE: Queen’s Musical Theatre’s ‘Sunday in the Park with George’ is an absolute must see
The show’s director, Lear, has always been drawn to Sondheim’s work, leading to her interest in Into the Woods.
“My first [acting] role was in Into the Woods—it holds a very near and dear place to my heart. But in general with Sondheim’s work and the ambiguity of his lyrics, there’s so many different ways that his plays can be interpreted. As an artist, it’s very fulfilling to perform his work, because I can feel the nuance in it while I perform it,” Lear said in an interview with The Journal.
Humour is at the heart of the play, which wouldn’t be possible without the wit and charm that the actors exuded, while cracking jokes with the audience and cleverly breaking the fourth wall. It’s hard to choose a stand-out performance when it comes to comedy, because every single actor brought their own personality and hilarity.
However, Garrett Fuller, HealthSci ’29, and Justin Skinner, ArtSci’26, delivered fabulously ridiculous performances as Cinderella and Rapunzel’s respective princes, with their live performance of the goofy ballad, “Agony,” as the cherry on top.
As well, the quips of the narrator, Olivia Buchanan, ConEd ’26, brought another amusing layer to the play’s dynamics, as they joked around with the crowd, occasionally breaking the fourth wall in a fashion that caused ripples of laughter throughout the engaged crowd.
By running the show in the intimate Baby Grand Theatre only added to the closeness that audience members felt with the characters.
Despite how utterly fun and slightly silly the play was, it was nuanced, not at all ignorant to life’s complexities. No character was given a traditional happy ending, typical of traditional fairytales. Instead, the play explored how the human experience comes with dreams, wishes, and desires that won’t always be fulfilled in a way one might expect.
Adding to this depth was a showstopping performance by Michaela Tassone, ConEd ’27, who played Cinderella. Her soft, ethereal voice managed to capture the pain and conflict that her character felt as she grappled with her desires, torn between what she truly wanted and what she believed she should want.
“No one is perfect. We’re all going through life for the first time. Just like in the show, you don’t really know what your choices are, things just happen to you, until you realize you’re actually able to make your own choices and you’re able to decide what you want to do,” Esmail said in an interview with The Journal. “Sometimes, we don’t realize we’re actually able to make our own choices, whether we know the result or not.”
Ultimately, Into the Woods was a spectacular experience—a pleasure for the eyes, ears, minds, and hearts of the audience. Regardless of the humour, my heart still ached slightly at the end of the play when realizing how much each character changed and grew through their journey through the woods.
Looking around during the standing ovation to see friends and family whooping and hollering for their loved ones, carrying bouquets, reminded me that this dynamic journey through the woods wasn’t only fictional, but was impressively carried out and experienced by the actors in front of me. Once again, QMT reminds us of the utter magic of live theatre.
Tags
Art, Drama, Into the Woods, live theatre, musical, Queen's Musical Theatre, Theatre
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