Into the Woods

Into the Woods is a show that will make you appreciate and love Broadway. If you have ever seen this show done by anyone else and compared it to Broadway, You have a very long critic coming your way. This magical fairy tale will be one you will always remember and is as close to perfect as you can get in a show.

"Into the Woods" never became the stuff of legend like "Hair" or "West Side Story", and it never became a commercial blockbuster like practically every Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Perhaps this is because of its length--three hours, on average--perhaps because of the fairy-tales-go-to-hell subject matter. People don't usually like to see what happens after "happily ever after," but it's one of the most cogent and powerful lessons of "Into the Woods," the best of all Broadway musicals. It's comical, serious, joyous, poignant, mystical, accessible, you name it. It's got an intricate plot, complex and sympathetic characters, and the most rich and rapturous score ever to grace the professional stage. Thank you so much, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, for this wonderful gift.

I loved every minute of it. Bernadette Peters was spectacular, of course everyone has given her a large amount of praise for her performance, but she deserves it, she was the one that stood out above the rest! The best part about Into The Woods is that you can watch it again and again, and it still doesn't get old, and you're still catching minor detales that you missed from the first viewing. This is a definate must for fans of the theatre, and for everybody else.

We owe Sondheim a debt of gratitude for allowing this stage performance of "Into the Woods" to be Filmed. It is filled with outstanding performances (Joanna Gleason won a Toni). Sondheim's words and music move us back and forth between laughter and tears. "Into the Woods" is the ultimate fractured fairy tale: traditional fairy tales are mixed together and then filtered through the lens of late 20th Century reality. Wonderful stuff

This is a movie episode of a TV series called American Playhouse, where the famous play "Into the Woods" is showcased. It is a fun, dark twist to various fairy tales combined where a childless baker and his wife cannot have a child until they follow the orders of their next-door neighbor, the Witch, to obtain a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold. This brings together famous fairytale characters like Jack, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Cinderella into the mix to help.

This TV episode version I saw was a recorded stage play, but it was well acted out with neat special visual and sound effects, especially in the Giant's footsteps and the Witch's magic spells. It is captivating to see famous scenes from each fairytale blend in together throughout the main course of events of the baker and his wife searching for the Witch's items, such as the Baker's wife running into Cinderella into the woods, who happened to trip down some steps and looses her slipper, and the Witch (who is actually Rapunzel's mother) casting a spell on Rapunzel's prince. And, this all leads to a thrilling sequence when the character must deal with the Giant from the Jack and the Beanstalk tale.

This play also take a more dramatic and in depth look at each character, including the agony of the Princes finding love to the aftermath after Cinderella marries her prince. It's brilliantly played out and the plot gives a reality check that not all stories end in happily ever after - or at least not without some sacrifices and courage.

It's a great play for the audience, but not 100 percent innocent for children; therefore, it's best to have some parental guidance for the kids if or when they watch it.

Grade A