Broadway in Orlando: A wondrous journey back ‘Into the Woods’ that no theater fan should miss

Patrons of the Dr. Phillips Center’s Broadway series have come to expect that, although traveling productions may re-create the script and staging originally seen in New York, there’s often a big drop-off in talent between Times Square and the touring versions we see here. That’s not the case, however, with the current limited tour of Into the Woods, which sets a new gold standard for Broadway tours that truly deserve the name.

Orlando is one of only 10 cities lucky enough to receive this magnificent resurrection of Stephen Sondheim & James Lapine’s magical masterpiece direct from the Great White Way, which is up for six Tony Awards (including Best Revival) on June 11. Of course, this isn’t the entire opening-night cast from 2022, which included living legends like Sara Bareilles, Brian d'Arcy James and Phillipa Soo. However, 97% of the company — including 17 of the 18 on-stage actors and nearly all of the crew — came directly from Manhattan’s St. James stage, where the show shuttered barely six months ago.

For the 1987 Tony winner’s second major revival (20 years after the last remount), director Lear deBessonet crafted a smart hybrid of a concert reading and a full production, emphasizing clarity of story and score. Every one of Sondheim’s countless slippery syllables is delivered with delicious, diamond-cut diction.

The presentational staging feels like a pop-up storybook for grownups, weaving together the Grimm pre-Disney legends of Cinderella (Diane Phelan; pitch-perfect understudy Ellie Fishman on media night), Little Red Riding Hood (a gutsy Katy Geraghty), Rapunzel (Alysia Velez) and others. David Rockwell’s stripped-down set of hollow trees relies on imagination (and Tyler Micoleau’s lush lighting) to supply the special effects, instead placing music director John Bell and his sumptuous 16-piece orchestra at upstage center, leaving just enough room for choreographer Lorin Latarro’s clever pedestrian patterns.

With such a wealth of world-class talent, it’s difficult to single out standouts among this enchanted ensemble. Every great fairy tale thrives on its antagonist, and Montego Glover gives a powerhouse interpretation of the not-entirely-wicked Witch whose spiteful curse sets the plot in motion. I was initially distracted by how much costumer Andrea Hood makes Glover look like Yogurt from Spaceballs, but once her inner diva is unleashed she gives Bernadette Peters and Vanessa Williams a run for their money on her iconic “Last Midnight” aria. Gavin Creel’s Prince is a comically callow Ken doll, while David Patrick Kelly (of Twin Peaks fame) makes the oft-reinvented role of Narrator/Mysterious Man feel essential once again.

But this production’s best assets are a pair of powerhouse performing couples. The Baker and his Wife, played by real-life spouses Sebastian Arcelus and Stephanie J. Block (aka the ur-Elphaba), make these hopeful parents into the play’s protagonists with their tangible chemistry and vocal prowess, which transforms a filler tune like “It Takes Two” into a showstopper. Their bond is only bested by the one between the giant-slaying Jack (an ebullient Cole Thompson, who plays the beanstalk-climber as sweetly on the spectrum, rather than annoyingly obtuse) and his scene-stealing cow Milky White, whose puppeteer, Kennedy Kanagawa, earns a royal crown as the hands-down audience favorite.

DeBessonet’s direction leans heavily into the script’s laugh lines throughout the lighthearted first act, and also deep into the darker second half. As a result, this production feels far fleeter — despite containing the uncut score, minus London’s “Our Little World” — than Rob Marshall’s handsome but flawed 2014 film version. The winking tone did dull the emotional impact of Act Two’s tragedies for me, but by the “Children Will Listen” fourth wall-breaking finale, there wasn’t a dry eye in the building. As Little Red might say, some shows are nice — which is different than good — but few are quite as wondrous as this welcome journey back Into the Woods, which no true  theater fan will want to miss.