March Forth with Maevy

We saw it as USN - and then you wrote your 1st review.

Smart, funny, a little bit mean - you might be a writer...I think you should think seriously about starting a substack, becoming a critique, or having your own column. :)

Into The Woods at USN, Nov 20-23 2025

Notes- Little Red, Cinderella, and Jack's mom were understudies.

Overall Review-

ITW should never be done at a high school and this show confirmed it for me. It is a very difficult show to do and it is hard to find 7 strong leads in one high school. USN did the best they could.

NOTES PER CHARACTER-

Narrator/Cinderella's Mother - It was confusing that she was wearing a red jacket, it took away from Little Red's character. I was not used to the narrator moving around the stage but I thought it left room for more acting from that actress, whether or not she did act. I was open to a split between the narrator and mysterious man but it didn't make sense once we got to the end of the second act because there is no audience connection to the character without the plot of the mysterious man. I wasn't very impressed by the actress but she wasn't particularly bad. She did not, however, have the voice for Cinderella's mother though, and I think that could have been a role for someone else (although I'm not sure that the ensemble had anyone who would be able to sing that).
Baker - NOT BAD !!! I think he did the best could with what he was working with (himself). I thought Maybe They're Magic reprise was memorable and I had no notes. There were a few times in the second act where his character is very yearnful, Caden's acting was appropriate but I wished that he could act through his singing better because there wasn't a continuous tone throughout some scenes. He was able to continue doing his role when his cast members messed up during No One Is Alone which was helpful for them and the audience. Overall, very good performances, but there are some specifics I would fine tune. I did want to be him sometimes and just do it slightly better on stage, particularly in his scenes with Little Red in the first act.
Baker's Wife - Millie is such an amazing actress and I really appreciate her acting compared to others she's on stage with. I noticed a couple missed lines but I don't think it impacted the show too much. I liked her version of Maybe They're Magic (I think she took more inspo from the 2022 broadway version than 1988 version). Her acting on the side during agony was really enjoyable and clever. She and Caden worked well together.
Cinderella - I know I saw the understudy for Zazou, so I can't properly compare the two, but based on what I've seen from Zazou her understudy did 100% more acting than she would've. I didn't love some of her choices, or just lack of acting possibly, but I appreciated that she tried. Her singing was rough sometimes, but I've seen worse (I think?). I think she should've known all of her lines and lyrics, especially because she had a planned performance. I saw her watching Caden during No One Is Alone, which I thought was interesting because that's one of the biggest songs from Into The Woods I thought. I HATED her outfits but that's not her fault but they were weird and awkwardly fit the high school theme. I hope it was Bakari who blocked "On The Steps of The Palace" and not her own choices because I think that might have been the dumbest version of that song I have seen. She walked on stage with only one shoe on and didn't stop moving ever to represent the tar on the stairs that is the reason she is telling the story she is in the song. None of the acting or staging made sense visually and confused the audience because there was no visual representation. Bonus: I think she should've waited an extra second before her finale I wish (but that's just my personal preference).
Witch - I appreciated getting to see Addi showcased in a role because she has never been given any real representation in the past things I've seen her in, but this role was not the role for her. She can't really act and she didn't have a consistent voice or character throughout the musical. There was no depth to her character because she didn't show any real emotions or desires in the witch. Her singing was only really good for high or extended notes, but there is so much more to every song than the melody and words. Totally inconsistency throughout, which was frustrating.
Jack - Jack is a strange role to play because it is large, but not usually seen as important as it actually is. The way Sadie worked with Milky-White was memorable and funny and brought those characters to levels I haven't seen anyone else bring them to. I didn't notice any slip ups with words or lyrics and was pretty impressed with Giants in the Sky, that one is surprisingly difficult for the other high school performances I've seen and I thought it was really solid.
Little Red - I was happily surprised with her! There were definitely more struggles later in the show, but I don't think they were too bad. I enjoyed her energy and her effort to do the best acting she could. I didn't love either of her cloaks just for efficiency and style reasons, but they weren't too distracting. I think she was not prepared a bunch for how much time on stage she would have because I noticed once her character didn't have any thoughts except for "oooh I have a knife!".
Rapunzel - It is a shame that they couldn't just steal some soprano 1s from a choir because this girl basically has that one melody line and that was not in her range. For her minimal lines she wasn't acting, just saying them. I wish Bakari could've done something more elaborate about her hair because it wasn't connected and was strange to see. Also the weird thing they used for the tower was unimaginative and kinda took me out of the story because it still didn't feel like it belonged in a high school.
Rapunzel's Prince - I'm gonna be so for real, I could not tell which was which unless I was looking at both and one was singing about being either below or behind their princess. I think he was the one on the left and that is who I am going to review. He sang the song and said the lines and did the blocking. That kid is not an actor and didn't know what to do or how to fake it. I don't know if he needed to be told that he could do whatever he wanted or be told exactly what to do but I was bored either way. I laughed at agony because the song is funny and they weren't unfunny, but that song could have been sooo much funnier and I wish it was. Don't even get me started on Agony reprise. Some might argue that the reprise is funnier than the original because of its quicker rhyming and parallels to the first one, I think this version might have been the worst version I've seen just because they missed out on so much potentially and it was glossed over and not given the attention it could have been. When Rapunzel's tears brought vision back to her prince and this actor jumped to the floor to lay down it was so awkward and everyone could see the rehearsals they had done to get that awkward blocking right, more of a flaw on Bakari's fault but he could've fixed it if he really wanted to.
Cinderella's Prince/Wolf - Again, I'm gonna hope that this one was the prince on the audience right and the wolf because I have no idea why the costumer wouldn't have given them different colored shirts or something, the slightly different pants don't help at all. I know that the Wolf is a creepy character and can be uncomfortable to play but I think you should either really play into it or make fun of it and he didn't really do anything. I think overall really this actor didn't actually act. Especially in the second act, I saw none of the actual character's thoughts or purpose through his face or actions which I think misrepresented his character to the audience. Also, the sound of his talking voice is so different from the sound of his singing voice that it kinda threw me off and seemed inconsistent. I think with some training he could find a better match or flow between the two but it was just awkward transitioning. Also, because of his pretty tenor singing voice it didn't have the effect for Agony that it was meant to.
Jack's Mother - I'm going to be so honest here-there was not a single moment that she was on that stage that I wanted her to be there. Her singing was hard to listen to, her acting was not accurate to the character she was attempting to portray, she was awkward and uncomfortable to watch. I don't mean anything bad to the actress herself and I hope she is a great person, but it was hard to sit through any scene she was in.
Cinderella's Step-mother - I think Beth was right about her making bold choices, and I definitely can appreciate that she could act and make those choices. I would love to see what she could've done with a role with more of a character arc. I think her presence livened the stage without overpowering the story. She did cut off both toes of her daughters... shame shame shame.
Cinderella's Father - Role sucks already, Bakari's choice to have him on his phone didn't help, I don't know if that kid knew his two lines.
Lucinda + Fluorinda - I thought they were cute!! They weren't spectacular but they also weren't noticeably bad also. I don't love how they did their part with Cinderella in the prologue but I don't think that's all their fault.
Mysterious Man - I talked earlier about how I still think the Narrator should be joint with this character but I don't think the actor for this role should've played either of them. He was awkward and on stage much more than any other MM I've seen, I think his character is not to be seen by the rest of the leads as a real person and more of a reappearing-almost ghostly-presence. His verses during No More made me cringe so hard my mom and I both had to cover our faces and look down. I understand the idea of having him in a janitor's outfit but with the silly wig it was distracting, the opposite of the main purpose of the character.
Prince's Steward - Didn't love it but I don't actually care that much. Small enough role that I didn't care about any mistakes or awkwardness.
Milky-White - I didn't mine the actress and I appreciated the choices she made. I am usually against the human milky white idea but this worked for me (mostly). The large cow head and overall mascot costume was distracting and frustrating. Not the actress' fault.

BAKARI'S DIRECTING AND OTHER CHOICES-

I didn't hate the choreography, especially for the one part at the beginning and end and during It Takes Two. Honestly, It Takes Two can be boring sometimes and I think the choreography livened it up and added some whimsy and silliness.

The narrator made no sense in every way.

Why were there umbrellas. That was so distracting and annoying and Mysterious Man's tiny little sparkly umbrella was weird.

Either go all in or all out on the high school theme because it wasn't small enough to ignore and wasn't big enough to add meaning or value to the production. I understand the idea but because it wasn't fully fleshed out (like in Your Fault with the phones) it became visually confusing. Speaking of,

I did not like the style of Your Fault. It didn't make sense because we hadn't seen any of those characters with a phone any other time. The Witch and Jack's awkward phone sharing was unnecessary. They stopped using them halfway through the song and most of the actors weren't even using them they just held them. The words and graphics projected looked cheap and distracting (!!!) and still didn't tell a full story of what the point of the phones.

The marching band ensemble did nothing but block the views of the main cast. If there is no reason for an ensemble, I don't understand why you would put them in there.

I didn't hate the hen girl but she felt a little out of place and didn't match the vibe of Milky White but I think if she had more stage time I could've liked her more.

I don't know who decided to cut half of the live players from the band but it was rough. I loveee a live band but most of the players played noticeably bad.

It is such a confusing show and I think that having clear parts of the stage designated for each story like other well known versions. Mostly just a lot of staging that convoluted the story more.

One thing that I see a lot during the finale and prologue of ITW is the 3 groups of cast members ("though it's fearful... you can't just act you have to listen...") moving along and switching the spotlight so I understand why Bakari did that, I personally love the words that each group is saying though and wished that it wasn't covered up because they aren't in the spot.

I'm pretty sure it's written to have the female cast sing "The chances look small" and the male cast sing "The choices look big" but because of the really uneven balance between the two in this cast it was really unequal and I think some lower female voices could have sang the lower part.

Additional Notes-

I really do think most everyone in the cast tried their best, I don't think anyone was perfect in any role and am very impressed with what everyone accomplished. A lot of my notes, like a connected singing to acting voice and conscious acting choices, can be applied to most everyone in the cast and I mostly noted the important ones.

I do not like Zazou.

I really liked Millie's scarf in the second act and I want it.

Into The Woods is such a great musical.

Directing (only applicable if I've seen the show before):

Original or equal value 10

Best that could be done with new choices 9

Some poor choices, none taking away from plot 8

Some poor choices that changed the plot 7

What directing? 6

Actively bad directions 5

Stage and costume design:

Well done and meaningful 10