Gavin Creel instantly understood my obsession with a Stephen Sondheim tune that he sings each night time. It is a kind of issues, mentioned the Tony-winning actor, who performs Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods. You hear a tune many occasions and assume, Oh, I do know that. After which I used to be like, Oh, I actually do not know. There’s far more right here.
They sing Agony into the Woods each night time and really feel the enjoyment each day
Rather more was what I needed in a current interview on the Kennedy Middle with Creel and Jason Forbach, his singing associate in one of many funniest shows of lyricism within the Sondheims, the comedy Agony. What, Ive at all times questioned, makes a traditional comedian composition: What mixture of wit, showmanship, and approach ensures viewers enjoyment? How does an actor maintain the fabric contemporary, night time after night time? And may it’s as enjoyable to play as it’s to observe and hear?
I’ve liked Agony since I first heard it within the authentic Broadway manufacturing in 1987. And I used to be particularly desirous to discover it with the solid within the charming Into the Woods, which concludes a Kennedy Middle Opera Home engagement, headed quickly in Boston, Philadelphia, Charlotte and past. I suppose in analyzing the tune with them, I engaged in some self-analysis: making an attempt to know how a joyous union of lyrics and musical notes may stick to me so meaningfully, for many years.
There’s a lot riches to dive into, defined Forbach, who performs Rapunzel’s Prince, brother of the Krells’ character. It is like you can also make 100 decisions on every line.
These picks are what I needed to listen to. How songwriters can translate a plot or emotional revelation into 32 bars of music is without doubt one of the marks of musical theater greatness. And Agony is a superb instance of the surprising heights to which imaginative genius can take us.
The tune is a bunk of wit. In Act 1, the place Sondheim and ebook author James Lapine imbue fairy-tale figures with city edginess, the 2 princes meet within the woods for an exaggerated lament about their everlasting, pure-hearted mission: the admirably selfless (learn: self-deprecating) activity of rescuing women who’re in danger. And, oh, how tragic it’s to come across so many obstacles to the completion of the work!
Agony, they sing, All of the tortures they train. What’s so fascinating or half so tedious as that which is unattainable?
A lot agita and so many inside rhymes! In Act 2, they repeat the tune, this time because the husbands of two of those women, Rapunzel and Cinderella. And we be taught that they have not modified in any respect. Uninterested in the duties of marriage, they reveal their existential closure: an indomitable fairytale urge to search out different women to save lots of.
Agony, they sing now, such that princes ought to weep! All the time enthusiastic about virtually something or something dormant. The sly reference to sleep has a full comedian payoff within the repetition, because it turns into clear that the princes at the moment are longing to pursue two different characters from the story, Sleeping Magnificence and Snow White.
The tune is the one probability the princes have in Into the Woods to outline their brotherhood and rivalry. The lyrics succinctly and intricately unfold their aggressive nature. The quantity affords an enchanting portrait of how actual siblings typically behave, supporting one another one minute, competing in a sport of solitary ability the following. (Agony! Much more painful than yours, Rapunzels Prince sings at one level, noting that getting access to his beloved includes climbing her hair. When she’d go together with you, if solely there have been doorways.)
Creel has been enjoying Cinderella’s Prince (and the Wolf who devours Little Pink Driving Hood) because the revival, directed by Lear deBessonet, opened off-Broadway final 12 months at Metropolis Facilities Encores! collection, after which moved to Broadway. Forbach had calculated earlier than being promoted to Rapunzels Prince for the touring manufacturing. Their essential crowd-pleasing duet solely works if they’re tightly in sync, technically and temperamentally. So, in a approach, the quantity consists of an virtually brotherly stage of dedication.
After executing it, Forbach mentioned, the 2 cross paths backstage for a fast autopsy. It was like, oh my God, this or that labored.” And that did not work. And I am going to repair it subsequent time. And “I am sorry about that,” he mentioned. It is a enjoyable brotherly check-in to see how others are doing and what they did not land or what may very well be higher. What I actually admire about Gavin is that there is at all times a way of navigating one thing completely, such as you’re by no means on the finish of the map.
Creel famous that he carried out Agony with various actors who rotated out and in of the productions over the long run, together with Joshua Henry and Andy Karl. I had the pleasure of coping with so many various folks, he mentioned. But in addition, ultimately, my Prince is totally different with each individual I am with. As a result of it is all about relationships.
And concerning the timing. In Agonia, the princes step on one another for moments, complement one another’s ideas and compete for the sharpest joke. It is an alpha vs. alpha mind sport. Throughout the reprise, a grievance from the Cinderella Prince concerning the 100-foot-deep grove of stones that protects Sleeping Magnificence results in an enchanting musical change:
Cinderella Prince: If it wasn’t for the thicket
Rapunzels prince: A gimmickless thicket. Is it fats?
Cinderellas Prince: He’s the fattest.
Rapunzels Prince: The quickest is to select it aside with a stick.
Cinderellas Prince: Sure, however even a pinch. My difficulty is blood.
Rapunzels Prince: Nicely, it is sick!
(The subsequent line is a mockery from Prince Cinderella of the Seven Dwarfs defending Snow White, who’s being chased by Prince Rapunzel. The traces written 4 many years in the past appear now to be spoofs about dwarfism. The very best joke, in spite of everything, it is the princes arguing over how one can pronounce dwarves.)
The stress as each a verbal duel and a workforce effort is even mirrored within the numbers. I used to be interested by it final night time as a result of we had been strolling by [Potomac] the river and all these crew teams had been on the market, Forbach mentioned. The tempo that characterizes this can be a la barcarolle, which is a Venetian boatmen’s tune. So the accompaniment is that this rocking backwards and forwards. It is just like the waves, the rhythm, it takes two , the 2 oars. It would not work until we’re each in sync.
Viewers are turned off by how the princes attempt to seem to one another, however Creel has come to see the quantity as a gathering of minds, not a conflict of wills. The princes evaluating notes because the tune progresses engender mutual compassion. I by no means see it as competitors anymore, he mentioned. Oh, torture! The is torture for you! At that time, it is not no, I! It’s horrible. Of anguish.
For Forbach, trusting the emotional paths that Sondheim meticulously paves in Agony has made him higher at his job. The satan created a line, and I already know my subsequent line as a result of the rhyme is so deliciously good, he mentioned. So he taught me the toughest lesson to be taught as an actor, which is how straightforward it’s to need to management the whole lot and be over-prepared and never make a mistake, not embarrass your self in entrance of 1000’s of individuals.
However, in essence, what audiences most relate to is that this unfastened sense of aliveness, that issues can go fallacious or be great or lovely. This present taught me how one can be human, not solely on stage but additionally in actual life.
Nothing about it sounds painful.
Within the forest, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, ebook by James Lapine. Directed by: Lear deBessonet. By Sunday on the John F. Kennedy Middle for the Performing Arts. kennedy-center.org.