iTunes Exclusive Episode Into The Woods

Stay safe Reading Empire member and door members, if you can hear the sound of my voice right now, means the following conditions have been met, at least once in your life you have listed in the clubhouse podcast, your one-stop shop for all things pop culture, live every Sunday night 70's from 4 Pacific, but it also means you subscribe on your favorite podcast app because it is time for another to exclusive to 89 is the number, so close. We may hit 300 for the end of the season, you don't know, but we'll find out together. Welcome, my name is Rob, I'm the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and for the first time in a long time, I get to be the interviewer because I really don't know much about what we're about to talk about.

But I am not alone as I rarely ever am on this show, joining me across the desk is my co-host, and a man who believes in fairy tales. Because we all should. He is Chad.

Absolutely, sir. The sound we say young. Normally, we would have done what this done is otherwise engaged this evening, so Chad and I are going to be talking about a musical that is here on our fair burger, the AT&T Performing Arts Center at the Wind Spear Opera House.

You may know it as into the woods and before we get rolling, we want to thank everybody at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, Cindy and the whole crew over there. They're so great to us, they take such good care of us so that we can review this stuff for you. All right, sir, if I'm not mistaken, because I have read your written review that is actually located at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.

That is our website. This is, it's an original story with not original character, true, yes. Are any of the characters to this original, are they all taken from different fairy tales and things of its ilk?

They're, I mean, maybe some of the lesser ancillary characters aren't like instantly recognizable. You've got like, the staff that work at the palace and stuff like that they really have a name but your principles, Cindy's actually in this, Cindy is in this. The big bad wolf is in this, little ryder, he's in it, Rapunzel's in it a couple of Prince Charming's, or just, there's a Prince for Cinderella, there's a Prince for Rapunzel.

You've got the the stepsisters in the stepmother for Cinderella. The only ones that are really truly ambiguous that are main characters are the Baker and the Baker's wife. Then not the butcher or the candlestick maker.

I'm assuming that's who the Baker is. But the other two aren't in this. Right.

Yeah. Baker's flying soda with his wife. All right.

So let me just see if I can get this right. In the story, the Baker and his wife, they're, of course, married, because that's what wife would have moved to. You're a sharp one.

Yeah, yeah. I'm on fire today, sir. They don't have any children.

Right. And they're not exactly sure why until one day they find out that they are under the curse of a witch that lives next door. So they have to go on an adventure to put together the ingredients for basically an antidote that will lift this curse.

Yes, exactly. All right. I'm with you.

Specifically, they are told to get a blood-red cloak. Right. Uh, a white cow.

Okay. A cow is white as snow. But not chicken.

Not chicken. Uh, hair is gold. Is yellow is corn.

And it's in the alley. And, no. Oh, Rapunzel.

Uh, and a golden slipper, Cinderella. Cinderella. Okay.

When were the golden slipper? Not the glass slipper. So do they form it like a Voltron thing?

Or is it? That's kind of what you were expecting for the say to become like a mighty sword. It's actually awesome.

Then how does the cow work into the mix? But, you know, the cow wears everything. Well, see, I have a plan.

Well, leading up to it, it didn't make sense. And then when it happens, the cow is very integral in the mix. Okay.

So have you seen the Disney film from about three years ago? Because I haven't seen it. So I don't know what to compare it to.

I saw about maybe 20, 30 minutes of it and it just couldn't hold my attention. And, well, I'm that's a great jumping off point, because I'm sure that with that knowledge going into this, you might have been a little apprehensive, maybe. I, I was given that you could stick with the Disney production and, you know, the general rule is if Disney can't get it done for you, you know.

But from what I read in your review, pleasantly, that's not the case here. Right. I mean, in Disney's defense, they did well.

The film did well, but for some reason, and I liked everybody involved for the most part with that with the, and as we know, in accordance with California State law, Oscar nominee, Merrill Streep. Uh-huh. I mean, she did get a knot, which I believe that was where that speech came from when Jared Lotto said it was for that film.

I believe so. I believe so. Um, as Merrill, she laughed and he went and think, God, that would well.

So how did that, I mean, did it, from what you saw of the film, did it stick to that, or was it kind of its own entity? Well, I mean, the story is what the story is. Right.

You know, it's going to play it's about regardless of what medium you're playing it out in. Fair enough. They, the cast was very, very thin.

I'll put it that way, because you had actress playing multiple roles at any given time. Sometimes, literally, a, a, a slight costume change during the scene, you're watching, and they transform from one character to another. We had, we dealt with that, but we saw it then.

Uh-huh. And I always think, takes me back to, I went to celebration too, and they did Star worth trilogy in 30 minutes, the same guy played Vader and Chewie, and he would just reverse his cape. Uh-huh.

And one side was back, and then the side was brown. So kind of something like that, because I know you said, in this particular performance that you saw, uh, the young lady that plays Red Riding Hood, slash Rapunzel, or Rapunzel is an understudy, and not the main person. Right.

And all she did was she just put on like a, when she was in Rapunzel mode, she would just put on this long knit cap looking wig thing. Now, was it, was it one of those things where it's like tongue firmly implanted in cheek, or was it a genuine effort to separate the characters? Uh-huh.

I guess I would have to say there was an effort to separate some characters, but maybe not all of them. Okay, that's fair. In her case, I would say yes, definitely there was an effort to separate the characters.

We'll get to the main guy here, I guess what we're wrapping it up as far as, as far as blurring the lines between characters that they were fair enough, fair enough. Uh, but the, the way this thing is, is staged, there's very few moving parts involved. In comparison, like some of the other ones where you see where you have a lot of transition from scene to scene.

So you're saying this is a little bit more simple in that category. Right. If I could compare to anything that you would be familiar with, the stage set itself was very reminiscent of what we saw in Lady Miz at the Wiley.

Okay. Where the, the pricinium left and right stage left and stage right, we're literally the framework of pianos just cascading from the ceiling. Okay.

And then framing the outer edges of the stage, pricinium arch were the keys, because the bulk of it was mostly played by one guy on a piano the whole time. Oh, so like a old school back to basic style musical. Yeah, there was no orchestra pit, everybody every performer was on stage and every musician was also an actor.

It's kind of like we saw with once, like a couple of years, like like a, uh, Cinderella played the bassoon for God's sakes. That's tough instrument. Uh, double read.

Yeah. Uh, your, your, your guy that played, um, milky white Florenda and Rapunzel's Prince. He was the guitarist.

Okay. And once it once worked the same way. Yeah.

Or any number of players would, would pick up like a triangle or something simple. Yeah. Did that distract from it for you?

Not at all. Okay. So it's still kind of blended itself in well enough that it didn't, it wasn't like, oh, yeah.

Now that did's finally guitar. Yeah. I mean, it literally took you a couple of minutes to notice, oh, well, that's where they went.

You know, like, they just kind of fade off into the background and then they just sit down and pick up their instrument and do their thing. Okay. So kind of old school, but not enough to make you go, ooh, you can probably do more with this.

Or, well, there's a part of me. And I mean, I know that this, this, this particular production has been presented in several different ways on stage. And this is more of a kind of a black box take on it.

Okay. Yeah. It's about as minimalist as it gets.

How does that work in a room like the size of the white of the, I'm sorry, the windspirit? That's kind of what threw me off of, like, you've got all this space and they occupy the majority of it with just stuff that doesn't really get utilized during the bulk of the production as it's going on. But does it work?

It works to an extent, but there are times where I'm like, I really wish they would have filled out the emptiness a little bit. Fair enough. You know, it's a little bit better blocking as the kids like to say.

Well, and I really can't even say that, it's just that they had, they had all this real estate and I just don't really feel like it was utilized very well. Okay. And you know, and I know that it's probably going completely against what this particular theater company, the fiasco theater production of this is all about.

I'm sure that this is probably what they do and why they do it, that you know, they try to make a whole lot of something out of very little. But in that respect, it only allows your performances to really shine because there's not a lot of props involved. Like, like, for instance, the actor that played the other wicked steps that are Lucinda, as well as the wolf and Cinderella's prince, when he takes on the guise of the wolf, he is literally, he is literally holding a mounted head of a wolf, like a taxidermist mounted and he's just talking behind it.

Fair enough. You know, and he goes to like, he does all the body language correctly. But I mean, that's really all you see as him as a wolf and you know, he completely stole the scene he was in.

It's like, you know, they, they may not get a lot to do with one particular character that they've got. But they just go ramp it with a couple of the other ones that they do have that they are just able to just run wild with Anthony Chapman, really made his role shine as Cinderella's prince because he, he really healed it up when he needed to without the steel chair, without the steel chair. Anybody else that stood out for you?

Oh, gosh. The fact that Alanna Saunders, as we mentioned earlier, was the under study for red riding going to Rapunzel, I can only imagine what the principal actress Lisa Helmicho Hanson must be like on stage. I don't know why she was not present at the performance we were at because Alanna Saunders was absolutely captivating, had a stunning voice, had great stage presence.

She was just this little ball of energy that even when she was downplaying it, you could still see this, this, I don't know what you would just boiling, cauldron, not trying to make a, a cheesy, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a little in trouble. Yeah, I'm not trying to work that in there for any, for any stretch of the imagination, but she's, she's incredibly talented, very gifted and just commands every ounce of energy that's, that's directed towards her, she, she deserves every bit of it that she gets. Um, but the, uh, the one true standout for me and I know I can probably speak from most people that were present for this, uh, performance was, and I hope I'm saying his name right, Derek Pied, who played, um, Rapunzel's Prince Florinda, the Wicked Steps Sister, and most importantly, Jack from Jack and the Beanstalks Cow, Milky White, wasn't that, uh, a character on boardwalk empire.

I don't know. That was chalky white. That was your show.

Milky White, uh, Derek Pied was in Milky White mode more than he was any other character that he played. The cow's name is Milky White, yes. And all, of course, right, all that Milky White ever says is move is move.

But it's. I am move. It is how it's, he's kind of like, I am move very, very, very, very like, I mean, I am move.

And he, he owned that stage every time he was on it. And if he wasn't saying anything, just his body language, his facial expressions, this guy is really, really talented at what he does. He's really great at what he does.

He, you know, he and Anthony Chapman really got to hand him it up together because they were both wicked step sisters and they were both princes to their perspective, you know. Okay, fair enough. Made.

Fair enough. There was one scene that I will never forget this, where he was staying, whenever there in the wicked step sister, evil step sister, whatever you want to call them mode, they literally just hold up like a coat rack with some curtains on it and they just stand behind them as their dresses. Literally in mid scene, he has to transition from his wicked step sister to the cow, like in the blink of an eye.

And they just pull the curtain rod over and then he's got to, got the cow bella around his neck. And he just got to stay with you. And he does it.

Fair enough. And he does it flawlessly. You know, and you never, for one second, don't believe this guy's a cow.

And even Jack is getting the gender wrong and like he's my best friend and his mother's like, you do realize this cow's a girl, right? That's a girl. But, you know, he's, he's immensely talented.

I know that every time he did anything on stage, everybody was cracking up. The guy's really good at what he does. Anything else you want to talk about before we get to the final analysis?

It's, it's going to be kind of a tough sell for some of the younger kids in the audience, because they're going to expect, I think, a little bit more spectacle than they're going to get, which it's, it's not necessarily a bad thing because it allows them to see what can happen when you let your, just let your imagination run wild and don't rely so heavily on props and, and over the top stage production, when it's just a few moving parts and a bunch of very well trained, very gifted, very talented performers. That's fair. All right.

Shall we get to the final analysis then? Sure. All right.

Do we do the final analysis on this show? We're not going to give you a thumbs up thumbs down. We're not going to give you a letter grades, numbers.

We're not going to give you like, number of books or whatever. We're going to ask two questions. Question number one is, would you see this again?

If the answer is no, then we're done here. But if the answer is yes, then since this is a stage production, the second question gets a little different. If the answer is yes, then what I'm going to ask is where you're willing to sit to see it again, because, of course, the closer you sit, the higher the ticket cost.

Well, I can't judge because I wasn't there. Unfortunately, I had a previous engagement myself, so I'm relying on you. We do have Don's written review up at www.theclubhousepodcast.com.

Again, that's our website. And you can find out what he thought there. But Chad, would you see this again?

I believe I would. Where you willing to sit to do so? This is a tough call, all right?

I mean, I did enjoy this production to go and don't get me wrong, but I can't really count it amongst my favorites that I've seen over the course of the last couple years. I was fair. It was fun.

It was enjoyable, but I don't know if I would go full, full bore for this thing. Although the closer you sit, the better you can catch the facial expressions of the cow. So, there's that.

There is a dichotomy there. You know, I would say, you know, I would like a good centrally placed eyeliner, like maybe on like the very kind of like where we normally sit, kind of behind the balcony right up above it. So, the balcony or just the backside of the floor, yeah, the backside of the floor of the balcony.

Okay, fair enough. It is from the AT&T performing arts, and I want to thank everybody over there again for having us out. I apologize.

I couldn't make it on this one. I was very upset. But we're looking forward to the next time we can all get together.

Thank you everybody out there for giving us the opportunities that you do. It is into the woods. Go check it out.

Let's do the plugs. Visit our website. We mentioned it a couple of times now, www.theclubhousepodcast.com.

Find out everything you need to know in some stuff. You don't. You can follow us on social media.

On Twitter, it's clubhouse show. Everything else is the clubhouse podcast. All three words in that order, or you will wind up somewhere else.

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That Rob Irvin, that is spelled ERV. IN. I am at chat in PG69 on Twitter.

The official fact checker of this show is Don Ford. You can find him at fondongo. Email him for information on how we can come to a live show for you.

We love doing live remote shows and hanging out with the Empire. He's Don at theclubhousepodcast.com. You can email me.

Questions, comments, concerns, tell me the old pound sand. I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com. I am Chad at theclubhousepodcast.com.

Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest because we are more obligated to say that. And what did you just want me to think? You just want me to not attend.

Oh, okay. Fair enough. Well, then she thinks that she might want to see it down.

Our normal show every Sunday night, 7 Eastern, 4 Pacific is your one-stop shop for all things, pop culture. Or you just keep subscribe it on your favorite podcast app and you get everything. So until next time for Chad and the Empire, I'm Rob.

Clubhouse is closed with my luck, Brittany Palmer would have actually shown up at this one because I didn't get to make it. But I still want to see this thing.