Theater Review—

Lively Entertainment At Westport, But ‘Into The Woods’ Still Not For The Kids

By Julie Stern

WESTPORT — Twenty-five years ago, fresh off the success of their collaborative work Sundays in the Park with George, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine toyed around with the notion of creating something “different.” Their idea was to dip into Grimm’s Fairy Tales and make a pastiche of the most famous ones, and so, Into the Woods was born.

The woods represent that murky region so dear to psychoanalysts where strange and disturbing magical things happen. In this small generic community, terrorized by a giant, tormented by a witch, stalked by a wolf, and suffering from various hardships including poverty, infertility and imprisonment in a tower, Red Riding Hood sets out to bring bread to her grandmother, Jack is sent off to sell his pet cow, Milky-White, Cinderella dreams of attending the ball with her stepsisters, Rapunzel is shut up in a tower to keep her from her lover, and (the only original characters in the group), a kindly baker and his wife fret over the curse which has dogged his family and rendered them childless.

The witch who cast this spell did so to avenge an insult by the baker’s parents, who died conveniently in a baking accident years earlier. She suggests that the hex can be lifted if they bring her the four things she wants: a white cow,  a red cape,  golden hair, and a glass slipper. Putting on his hunting clothes, the baker goes into the woods to see what he can find.

In the course of various encounters, and with the help of a mysterious stranger (who was not actually killed in a baking accident), they manage to collect all the items on their scavenger list.  At the same time, Jack plants the beans that lead to the death of the giant and the capture of the golden harp, Red Riding Hood gets to wear a wolf skin instead of a cape, the prince figures out that the wicked stepsisters are not the girl he fell in love with, and he is eventually reunited with Cinderella, and his brother prince gets Rapunzel (although he gets his eyes put out by the witch until Cinderella’s magic birds repair the damage).

All this is performed to a splendid collection of Sondheim songs, and the first act ends with everyone looking forward to “happily ever after.”  BUT before you take your nursery tots to see this, be aware that the second act could well be called “reality bites.” This is where the consequences of earlier events begin to manifest themselves. 

Yes, the nasty giant was killed when Jack cut down the beanstalk, but the giant had a wife, and she’s a giant too-  and out for blood.  Yes Cinderella married the handsome prince but he’s a bit of a John Edwards wannabe. Really bad things start to happen, again to another splendid collection of Sondheim pieces. (After all, didn’t he write Assassins, a lilting musical about the various people who murdered presidents?)

The recent Westport Country Playhouse production of this work, capably directed by Artistic Director Mark Lamos, used playful sets, costumes and make-up to capture the feeling of the fairy tales, particularly as they were illustrated by the late Maurice Sendak. Even the actors — especially Erik Liberman as the Baker,  Justin Scott Brown as Jack,  Cheryl Stern as his mother,  and Danielle Ferland as the Baker’s Wife — looked like Sendak pictures come to life.

In all, this was a lively, colorful, entertaining show. Performances wrapped over Memorial Day weekend.