Strange and wonderful things happen in forests. In Stephen Sondheim’s more-than-30-year-old “Into the Woods,” fairytale figures Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack of beanstalk fame, and friends, with contributions from Rapunzel, meet up in the woods and team up against a common enemy. And in Douglas Carter Beane’s merry new mélange of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, and Peter Pan characters mixed in, fills the stage at Greenwich House, 27 Barrow Street, with intrigue and laughter, and with music by Beane’s husband Lewis Flinn. Names of Dame Judy Dench, disreputable producer Scott Rudin, and Hayley Mills are dropped, and pollution of the waters, a timely topic, is mentioned. And the enchanted and enchanting starry cast speaks mostly in pure poetry. Performers take two or three roles and it may take a moment to figure out which persona they’re giving at a particular time.
How do you make “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and its fairyland-scape even gayer—and classically campy? The premise is this: four fairies, Peaseblossum (actor, dulcet singer, and guitarist Kristolyn Lloyd), Moth (Jackie Hoffman—give her something to qvetch about), Cobweb (non-binary performer Z Infante, also Sleeping Beauty), and Mustardseed (stalwart Ann Harada, also a singing mermaid-in-distress), daughters of Oberon (Arnie Burton, also pirate Dirk Deadeye) and Titania (frequent Charles Busch collaborator Julie Halston, also Queen Elizabeth I), are going about their fairy errands, singing their recurring fairy song, when they learn from the goddess Aurora (singer Kuhoo Verma, also Cinderella) that, if their bickering parents divorce, they are doomed.
Stir in a hunky Puck (Chris Myers) and a horny Cupid (Jason Tam), not to mention that Indian Prince (James Nanthakumar) that Oberon and Titania are competing for, and you’ve got a slumber scene, not with four Athenians under a spell, but all the mortals plus Pinocchio (Sabatino Cruz), and there’s plenty of waking up to infatuation with an unexpected love objects, including a narcissist, who needs no pairing, and a gay couple, where there wasn’t one before. NPR’s Mo Rocca, as a sincere Geppetto and one of Cinderella’s catty stepsisters, completes the cast. Beane himself directed, Ellenore Scott is the choreographer and associate director, and designs are by Shoko Kambara and Adam Crinson (sets), Gregory Gale (costumes), Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (lighting), Andrew Diaz (props), Bobbie Zlotnik (hair), and Andrew Sotomayor (make-up).
“FAIRYCAKES,” which opened on October 24, is set for a 14-week run. Visit www.fairycakestheplay.com/tickets to get your admission to fairyland. Proof of vaccination and masking throughout the play are required.