They sing ‘Agony’ in ‘Into the Woods’ nightly, and feel the joy daily

The “so much more” was what I was after in a recent interview at the Kennedy Center with Creel and Jason Forbach, his song partner in one of Sondheim’s funniest demonstrations of lyrical wordplay, the comedy number “Agony.” What, I’ve always wondered, goes into nailing a classic comic composition: What mix of wit, showmanship and technique guarantees audience delight? How does an actor keep the material fresh, night after night? And can it possibly be as much fun to perform as it is to watch and listen to?

I’ve loved “Agony” ever since I first heard it, in the original Broadway production, in 1987. And I was especially eager to explore it with actors in the charming “Into the Woods” that is wrapping up a Kennedy Center Opera House engagement, heading soon to Boston, Philadelphia, Charlotte and beyond. I suppose that in dissecting the song with them, I was indulging in some self-analysis: trying to understand how a happy union of lyrics and musical notes could stay with me so meaningfully, for decades.

“There’s so much richness for you to dive into,” explained Forbach, who plays Rapunzel’s Prince, brother to Creel’s character. “It’s like you can make 100 choices in every line.”

Those choices are what I wanted to hear about. How songwriters can translate a plot point or an emotional revelation into 32 bars of music is one of the signatures of musical-theater greatness. And “Agony” is a fine example of the unexpected heights to which imaginative genius can take us.

The song is a double-decker of cleverness. In Act 1, where Sondheim and book writer James Lapine imbue fairy-tale figures with urbane neuroses, the two princes meet in the woods for a hyperbolic lament about their eternal, pure-hearted mission: the admirably selfless (read: self-aggrandizing) task of rescuing damsels in distress. And, oh how tragic it is, to encounter so many obstacles to completing the job!

“Agony,” they sing, “All the torture they teach. What’s as intriguing — or half so fatiguing — as what’s out of reach?”

So much agita, and so many interior rhymes! In Act 2, they reprise the song, this time as the husbands of two of those damsels, Rapunzel and Cinderella. And we learn that they’ve not changed at all. Weighted down by the responsibilities of matrimony, they reveal their existential hang-up: an indomitable fairy-tale urge to find other damsels to save.

“Agony,” they sing now, “such that princes must weep! Always in thrall most to anything — almost — or something asleep.” The sly reference to sleep has a full-blown comic payoff in the reprise, as it becomes clear that the princes are now yearning to pursue two other storybook characters, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

The song is the only opportunity the princes get in “Into the Woods” to define their sibling relationship — and rivalry. The lyrics succinctly and intricately unfold their competitive natures; the number offers a compelling portrait of how real brothers often behave, supportive of each other one minute, contestants in a game of one-upmanship the next. (“Agony! Far more painful than yours,” Rapunzel’s Prince sings at one point, noting that gaining access to his beloved involves climbing her hair. “When you know she would go with you, if there only were doors.”)

Creel has been playing Cinderella’s Prince (and the Wolf who devours Little Red Riding Hood) since the revival, directed by Lear deBessonet, started last year off-Broadway in City Center’s Encores! series, and then moved to Broadway. Forbach had been understudying before being promoted to Rapunzel’s Prince for the touring production. Their crucial crowd-pleasing duet only works if they are rigorously in sync, technically and temperamentally. So in some ways, the number involves a quasi-fraternal level of commitment.

After performing it, Forbach said, the two cross paths backstage for an instant postmortem. “We’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this or that worked.’ And ‘that didn’t work.’ And ‘I’ll fix that next time.’ And ‘I’m sorry about that,’” he said. “It’s a fun little actually brotherly check-in to see how the other one’s doing and what didn’t land or what could be better. What I really admire about Gavin is that there’s always the sense of navigating something thoroughly, like you’re never at the end of the map.”

Creel noted that he’s performed “Agony” with a succession of actors who’ve rotated in and out of the production’s long run, including Joshua Henry and Andy Karl. “I’ve had the pleasure of getting to deal with so many different people,” he said. “But also, ultimately, my Prince is different with each person I’m opposite. Because it’s all about relationships.”

And about timing. In “Agony,” the princes step on each other’s “moments,” complete each other’s thoughts and compete for the sharpest quip. It’s a brain-teasing game of alpha vs. alpha. During the reprise, a complaint by Cinderella’s Prince about the “thicket of briar, 100 feet deep” protecting Sleeping Beauty leads to a tongue-twisting musical exchange:

Cinderella’s Prince: If it were not for the thicket …

Rapunzel’s Prince: A thicket’s no trick. Is it thick?

Cinderella’s Prince: It’s the thickest.

Rapunzel’s Prince: The quickest is pick it apart with a stick.

Cinderella’s Prince: Yes, but even one prick. It’s my thing about blood.

Rapunzel’s Prince: Well, it’s sick!

(The next line is a taunt by Cinderella’s Prince about the Seven Dwarfs protecting Snow White, whom Rapunzel’s Prince is after. The lines written four decades ago now come across as flippant about dwarfism; the better joke, anyway, is the princes’ squabble about how to pronounce “dwarves.”)

“Agony” as both a verbal duel and a team effort is even reflected in the number’s tempos. “I was thinking about this last night because we were walking by the [Potomac] river and all these crew teams were out there,” Forbach said. “The tempo marking on this is ‘a la barcarolle,’ which is a Venetian boatman’s song. So the accompaniment is this rocking back and forth. It’s like the waves, the rhythm, it takes two — you know, the two oars. It doesn’t function unless the two of us are in sync.”

Audiences get a kick out of the way the princes try to show each other up, but Creel has come to see the number as a meeting of minds, not a clash of wills. The princes’ comparing of notes as the song evolves engenders mutual compassion. “I never see that as competition anymore,” he said. “Oh, ‘torture’! It is torture for you! At that point, it’s not ‘No, me!’ It’s terrible. It’s agony.”

For Forbach, trusting the emotional pathways Sondheim meticulously paves in “Agony” has made him better at his job. “He’ll set up a line, and I already know my next line because the rhyme is so deliciously perfect,” he said. “So it has taught me the hardest lesson I had to learn as an actor, which is it’s so easy to want to control everything and be hyper-prepared and to not make a mistake, not to embarrass yourself in front of thousands of people.

“But, in essence, what audiences relate to the most is this loose sense of aliveness, that things can go wrong or be brilliant or beautiful. This show has taught me how to be human, not only onstage but in real life.”

Nothing about that sounds agonizing.

Into the Woods, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine. Directed by Lear deBessonet. Through Sunday at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. kennedy-center.org.