![]() ![]() ![]() Speaking by telephone from the downtown Los Angeles hotel where he was staying while busy keeping an eye on rehearsals and previews, an obviously pleased Mr. Sondheim said, the most frequently produced of all the shows for which he has written both music and lyrics. As a result, ''Into the Woods'' is popular in professional and amateur theaters around the country. Sondheim's most accessible, even to children. A more significant reason is that the show, despite tapping into Bruno Bettelheim's Freudian analysis of fairy tales and owing a debt to the works of Jung, is one of Mr. One of the reasons for the endurance of ''Into the Woods'' is its dazzling score. ''Into the Woods'' has evolved into a Sondheim classic - perhaps not in the same league as ''Sweeney Todd,'' ''Sunday in the Park With George'' or ''Company,'' but levels above such troubled shows as ''Merrily We Roll Along'' and ''Passion.'' ''The book is as wildly overgrown as the forest,'' he wrote.īut the show's revivals over the years, its obvious audience appeal and high-profile London productions in 19 have led to a reassessment. Frank Rich, in The New York Times, said the show was a disappointment. Despite the awards, it originally received mixed reviews (opening-night notices ranged, literally, from ''great'' to ''awful''). The Los Angeles Times said the changes made by the two ''make minor improvements in what was already a masterpiece.'' Variety's reviewer said the musical had ''aged like fine wine'' and ''proves to have deeper, better blended flavors than it first seemed.''Īctually, the reputation of ''Into the Woods'' has grown and even been revised over the last decade. Reaction to the show in Los Angeles has delighted Mr. Williams, the current cast includes the veteran character actor John McMartin as the narrator, Laura Benanti as Cinderella, Gregg Edelman as a prince, Stephen DeRosa as the baker, Mary Louise Burke as Jack in the Beanstalk's mother and Pamela Myers, who sang ''Another Hundred People'' in the original cast of ''Company,'' as Cinderella's stepmother. The new version - directed, as was the original, by James Lapine, who has slightly revised his original book - opens in New York at the Broadhurst Theater on April 29, following a six-week run in Los Angeles that ends on March 24.Īside from Ms. Even by Sondheim's standards the musical drama was a risky one, fusing the familiar tales of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel and Jack and the Beanstalk with an original story about a baker and his wife unable to conceive a child. ''Into the Woods'' ran for 764 performances on Broadway, winning Tony Awards for best score and best book for a musical. ''The lyrics of one of my songs, 'Careful the things you say, children will listen,' are timeless and so relevant today.'' It was the second act of the fairy-tale fantasy, when several characters die brutally at the hands of an evil giant and cast members begin singing the plaintive ballad about shared sacrifice, ''No One Is Alone.'' ![]() AT a run-through for ''Into the Woods'' in a New York rehearsal studio, just before the new version of the 1987 Stephen Sondheim musical came here, Vanessa Williams, the star, was startled to find the audience of families and friends weeping. ![]()
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