Performance: Into the Woods at CenterStage in Baltimore

 

Into the Woods

by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine

directed by Mark Lamos

Mar 7–Apr 15, 2012 at CenterStage in Baltimore

"What happens after Happily Ever After, after all? In Sondheim and Lapine’s beloved musical retelling of the Grimm classics, a parade of familiar folktale figures find their way “Into the Woods” and try to get home before dark—under the guidance of Mark Lamos, who dazzled us with A Little Night Music in 2008."

The Big Picture and the Close Up wrote a lovely review of the show and the nature of fairy tales:

"Into the Woods (in revival at Center Stage in a co-production with Connecticut’s Westport Country Playhouse) is one of that handful of musicals that can truly be called profound.  And small surprise, because its subject, the folklore passed on from parents to children under the deceptively superficial name of fairy tales, is equally profound.  Fairy tales are timeless because the kitchen drudge who yearns to become a princess, the little girl vanquishing a wolf encountered on the way to grandmother’s house, the simpleton who sells the family cow for a handful of magic beans, and their kindred, are archetypes of each of us, at various moments in the trajectories of our lives.  As such, there is actually nothing superficial about them.  By mashing up these stories, composer/lyricist Stephen Sondheim and book author James Lapine demonstrate the common dynamics in these tales that enable them to speak so powerfully to us." (Full Review)

Watch the beautiful trailer:

 

This will always be one of my favorite musicals, though I am often confused as to what they are trying to say at the end. I will do a full review of the Bernadette Peters version in due course, but I wanted to post this in case anyone in the Baltimore area was hankering for some live fairy tales!