Word: beanstalks
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Into the Woods tells the fairy tale of a Baker and his Wife who must go on a scavenger hunt to appease the witch next door. Along the way they meet Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and Jack of beanstalk fame, to name just a few. The title of the musical refers to the journey that each of these characters must make in order to fulfill their dreams. In the Act One finale they declare themselves "happy now and happy then, happy ever after," but the second act finds each of them just a little discontent. Their second trip "into...
...Slavic accents he brings to a Russian folktale called The Fool and the Flying Ship. Or a more touching turn by Sigourney Weaver than her reading of the pensive Japanese story Peachboy. Or a sprightlier showcase for Michael Palin's Pythonesque versatility than his rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk...
...point of being in the theater is to try one idea after another, maybe realize your first was the best, but be able to know -- which just about no other art form can allow." For Woods -- a sort of Fractured Fairy Tales in which Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack of Beanstalk fame and other beloved characters all meet in the same forest at the same time and blunder into one another's stories -- Sondheim and Director-Librettist James Lapine started sketching ideas soon after the premiere of their first collaboration, Sunday in the Park. Through three workshop productions, a regional tryout...
Into the Woods is a musical fairy tale in which Jack, of beanstalk fame; Little Red Ridinghood; Cinderella, Rapunzel and their respective princes; Sleeping Beauty; Snow White -- and, of course, a wicked witch and a menacing giant -- are living out their stories in the same forest at the same time, bumping into each other and entangling one another's narratives. As funny as Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, as musical as his A Little Night Music, as morally inflamed as his Sweeney Todd, yet more forgiving and affirmative than anything he has written...
...show's first image is a curtain imprinted with pages from three fables about magical keys to happiness: Cinderella, which in this interpretation concerns the illusory promises of perfect love; Jack and the Beanstalk, in which Sondheim and Lapine see a quest for the fool's gold of material conquest; and an invented tale called The Baker and His Wife, about a couple who long to escape the curse of childlessness inflicted by the "witch next door." Inasmuch as the holy grails that will lift the witch's spell are Jack's beloved white cow, Little Red Ridinghood's crimson...