SN&R Reviews Hummingbird's "Into The Woods"

Rachel Rycerz, who plays Cinderella's mother and Little Red Riding Hood's Granny, helps light the shadow puppets at the beginning of the Oct. 9 performance of 'Into the Woods' in Rancho Cordova. Photograph by Casey Rafter

Nice pictures at the link:

For the first time since their sold-out Nov. 2019 musical theatre gala, Rancho Cordova’s Hummingbird Theatre Company is mounting a production of Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical “Into the Woods” at Village Green Park, with performances continuing each Friday and Saturday evening until Oct. 23. The company’s creator and director Danielle Mercado is excited staging the show, which is Hummingbird’s first musical. Mercado noted that, traditionally, producing musicals is prohibitively expensive, though in this case the troupe applied for — and was granted — a community enhancement fund through the City of Rancho Cordova.

...Jack, of beanstalk fame, plays a central part in the story not only because of his interactions with giants, but because of his close relationship with his pet cow, Milky White. In Hummingbird’s production, local actor Andy Leggett plays the boy with the magic beans.

“It’s probably a top-ten dream role for me,” Leggit said. “People tend to play Jack straight. I think he’s supposed to be funny. One of the big choices I wanted to make is that he needs to be all over that cow throughout the whole show. He gets confused about the gender of the cow, but genders don’t matter. All that matters is his love of that cow.”

As the Baker (played by Karl Johnson) sleeps in the background, Jack (played by Andy Leggett) sings about his visit to a kingdom at the top of a beanstalk in Giants in the Sky from “Into the Woods.” Photograph by Keli Rafter In Grimm’s tale Rapunzel, the namesake maiden is kept in a tower by a sorceress. That character is more fleshed-out in “Into the Woods.” She’s named the Witch and lives next to a baker and his wife. Broadway veteran and former Miss Orange County Raquela Burt takes on this role for the Hummingbird performances. Burt, who lived and worked on stage in New York for 18 years, appeared on Broadway as Acid Queen in The Who’s “Tommy.” She’s even workshopped with Sondheim and is now returning to the stage for the first time in 14 years. Recently, she’s been a vocal instructor working from her home in Elk Grove.

“I didn’t realize how much I was going to love it,” Burt admitted. “I love teaching voice. Danielle contacted me and says, ‘Are you nuts? Are you ok? I don’t think you should spend this much time away. You need to be performing. You need to get back on stage.’ Then she mentioned ‘Into the Woods.’ That’s a dream role for me, playing The Witch. I’ve never felt better in my life. This has been very healing for me, honestly.”

...The open nature of the park leaves the sets built by Mercado and her crew vulnerable during the day. She said that factor, combined with budgeting, made some of the effects the play usually requires difficult or impractical to create. “For one thing, we don’t have a giant head that we can slam onto the ground,” Mercado went on. “We’re in an outdoor space and have to load in and out each night. It is an exhausting process. It’s 200 feet from my house. We use my garage as storage and people get changed in my living room. It’s very grassroots.”