One of the most notable elements of the “Spectaculathon” was its audience engagement. Specifically, I thought the audience yelling “dun dun dun,” “don’t go in there,” and “ooo,” at designated times struck a great balance of keeping people involved without necessitating too much effort on their part. Seeding the audience with stage members was also smart: sophomore James LaCount’s bellows for the actors to “LOOK BEHIND YOU! HE’S RIGHT THERE!” and rushing up to the stage to behead the wolf — “FINALLY, IT’S MY TURN!” — were extremely entertaining.

In fact, you could hardly ask for a stronger cast. Several prominent figures from “Les Misérables” made triumphant returns on opening night, including sophomore Kolton Sidhu, junior Sasha Rotton and senior Mia Reid. Sidhu played The Actor, an under-appreciated extra who’s thrown into the spotlight when some spoiled meat incapacitates the rest of the actors. Sidhu performs the singularly difficult feat of taking on the roles of Cinderella, her two sisters, her stepmother, a not-so-bright prince, a flock of birds and a Scottish bouncer simultaneously. Her horrified dismay when Narrator 2 describes increasingly complicated scenes is obvious even from the back of the theater, and her frantic scrambling around the stage while portraying the original story is both hilarious and impressive.

The narrators, juniors Yuri Sternberg and Rotton, established a great rapport from the start of the play and kept it going throughout. Their contrasting personalities kept things interesting, and their addressing the audience combined with their casual breaking of the fourth wall was refreshingly unorthodox and generally successful at eliciting chuckles. Lastly, junior Micheal John did a fantastic job, especially given that it was his first performance. He was one of the most expressive actors, and his intentionally excessive reactions suited the play perfectly.

In terms of crew, it seemed like everything went off without a hitch. Lights and audio were solid, and did a great job of conveying both mood and humor. Makeup also had a strong showing, with the devil’s red eyeshadow, horns and jet-black lipstick rendering them suitably demonic. Also, the canine makeup of the wolf, played by senior Nyx Roman, complemented the furry ears, tail and paws nicely. Speaking of which, costumes had their work cut out for them: from witches to princes(ses) to crab people to dwarves, there were more costumes than anyone but STAGE would know what to do with. Happily, they seem to have handled it like professionals: the sheer variety and rapid, often transformative, costume changes were highlights.

However, while the set was sufficient, it was hardly breathtaking. A blocky castle or two, a bed, some trees and tables and a 2D “furnace” was about as much variety as was needed for the scenes, but at times it felt restrictive. Hansel and Gretel “eating the house” consisted of picking a few pieces of candy off a table — not exactly immersive. I don’t expect STAGE to construct an entire fake candy house, but a sheet of painted wood attached to the furnace with candy taped or velcroed to it would have been a step up. Nevertheless, the set pieces were well-designed and colorful, and I really enjoyed the use of the pit. The fishing scene, Hansel’s ill-fated flight, and the raven’s mysterious appearance were all great additions. It’s also worth noting that they had a few weeks less to prepare than in past years.

To summarize, the cast and crew themselves were fabulous. They had clearly put a lot of effort into the play, and its juxtaposition of humor and social critiques was an interesting combination that I hadn’t seen in many STAGE plays before. While I still think another play would have been stronger, STAGE’s passion and effort its members have put in shone through, and I would encourage readers to give it a shot.

Saturday’s show opened with the two narrators introducing themselves and the concept of the play. One energetic and expressive, the other cold and calculated: a chaotic start to a chaotic play.

Many cast members played two characters in the play, switching seamlessly between the different roles in between stories. One of the most notable examples was senior Mia Reid who played both Rapunzel and Red Riding Hood. Reid did a great job encapsulating the attitude of an angry teenager who was forced into terrible circumstances. Her interactions with the Prince, played by junior Mason Lee, gave much-needed comedic relief to what would have been awkward and repetitive scenes.

Reid also played Red Riding Hood, which was honestly my favorite story of the play. She was introduced as an innocent girl named Little Red Cap who was on her way to her grandmother’s house to bring her snacks. On the way, she encounters the Big Bad Wolf, played by senior Nyx Roman. In contrast to the original Grimm fairytale, Red takes action and defends herself from the Wolf. At that point, the narrator establishes that although her name is Red Cap, she’s from the hood, adding on to the absurdity of the play.

Another notable actor was sophomore James Ayirebi-Richardson, who played the Frog Prince in the Princess and the Frog act. During this act, audio experienced some technical difficulties, specifically that Richardson’s mic wasn’t turning on. However, I honestly didn’t notice until we were far into the story. Richardson projected his voice so well that it reached me in the back of the auditorium — it was my speech coach’s dream.

Richardson’s counterpart, senior Beatriz Cardoso Amaral Lapa, perfectly encapsulated what would be the normal reaction if someone encountered a talking frog. She played the princess going through a mental breakdown in such a ridiculous manner the audience couldn’t help but chuckle when she sat down, hugged her knees and rocked herself. Cardoso also killed it during the next act, where she played Cinderella. She played the entitled actress role well, frequently breaking the fourth wall to talk to the narrators.

Speaking of narrators, junior Benjamin Kish and senior Mia Halper really held the play together. They provided important information the audience needed to know in order to understand what was going on while interacting with the characters to establish how weird certain parts of the fairy tales are. Halper played Narrator 1 and killed the scattered 30-second recaps of the previously acted scenes. Despite speaking rapidly, almost to the tempo of “Rap God,” Halper had little to no errors and spoke clearly enough for the audience to understand. Kish’s spiel about “The Mouse” had me chuckling, and his attempts to get Lee and Reid to fall in love in the Rapunzel story were a highlight.

On my day, there were two notable cast changes. Sophomore Naama Goldberg and junior Michael John lost their voices, rendering Goldberg unable to perform and forcing John to only play the King role instead of that and the Devil. In their places, freshmen Hazel Opila and Sophia Daniel went on and performed remarkably well. I didn’t even realize they were understudies.

The lights and sound were on point during this performance as well. The colors alternated between red when someone died and blue, which was used in serious situations to highlight a soliloquy. My favorite part was when Snow White and her evil stepmother competed in a fashion show to determine “who is the fairest of them all.” The lights flashed all colors of the rainbow, complemented by a disco ball. The audio was also reliably good and the wacky sound effects, for example, a loud splat when Hanzel jumped into the pit, definitely made things more entertaining.

While the show wasn’t my favorite, it wasn’t anything WJ STAGE couldn’t pull off. The talented cast and crew really held it together and made what would have been a dreadful experience an enjoyable one.