INTO THE WOODS

1987 **** 152 mins.

It's truly a shame that I can't give this remarkable play five stars. The idea is so . . . brilliant that it should be deserving of a perfect rating. However, the second act, although a great idea, is heavilly flawed and, well, boring.

The first half of this play is a combination of different fairy tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood. All these stories are woven together magnificently with a new tale of a baker and his wife longing for a child, but whose family tree is laden with a curse against having children. To have the curse reversed, they must get: "One: the cow a white as milk, two: the cape as red as blood, three: the hair as yellow as corn, four: the slipper as pure as gold." And so, all of our characters go "Into the Woods" to achieve their respective goals, culminating in an Act One conclusion in which they all "Live happily ever after."

INTERMISSION

In act two, we find that all of our characters are suffering in their happy existences. To top it all off, the wife of the giant that Jack killed is out for revenge. So, all of our characters have to unite to kill the giant. This is where the play tends to lag a bit. While the idea of investigating what happens after "happily ever after" is a wonderful idea, I think it could have been done in a more interesting way.

Nevertheless, Into the Woods is sill a fabulous play with great music that will stay stuck in your head for a long time to come. In the performance available on video, all of the performances are worthy of Tony Awards (but only the baker's wife [Joanna Gleason] won one), and the set-up of the production is perfect.
Not rated.

• TONY AWARDS: Best Score (Stephen Sondheim), Best Book (James Lapine), and Best Actress (Joanna Gleason)