Into The Woods

They Say...

Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

With Into the Woods, songwriter Stephen Sondheim and librettist/director James Lapine retold a group of children's stories in an intricate, moving way that worked on many levels. In the show, which opened on Broadway on November 5, 1987, and ran 764 performances before closing on September 3, 1989 (making it Sondheim's most popular work in 25 years), Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and other familiar fairy tale characters, joined by a few newly invented ones, engage in interrelated adventures. Sondheim and Lapine's interpretation is informed by child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim's book The Uses of Enchantment, and they not only retain some of the gorier aspects of the original tales, but also add adult complexities. Sondheim's score for Into the Woods is one of his most tuneful, and slyly acknowledges the melodic simplicity of the Disney movie versions of some of these fairy tales, but his lyrics are typically witty and, not infrequently, employ tongue twisters. Song highlights include Cinderella's "On the Steps of the Palace"; the two versions of "Agony," sung by two princes; and "Hello, Little Girl," sung to Little Red Riding Hood by the Wolf. An ensemble cast led by Bernadette Peters (as a witch) navigates those words well. Particularly impressive are Danielle Ferland as Little Red Riding Hood; Robert Westenberg, who plays both the Wolf and Cinderella's Prince; and Tony winner Joanna Gleason. Into the Woods succeeded in enchanting children (some of whom, it must be admitted, probably could have left after the deceptive "happy ending" that closed the first act) along with adults who understood the grown-up references. Recorded at a time when the advent of CDs was expanding the previous length limitations of albums, the original Broadway cast recording used its 69-minute running time to give a good sense of the show as a whole rather than being just a collection of musical highlights. The 2007 reissue adds another seven minutes in the form of three tracks recorded as demos in 1991 for a proposed children's adaptation of the show for home video. Those who find Sondheim's lyrics intricate and multi-layered may be interested in hearing him simplify them here in altered versions of "Giants in the Sky," "On the Steps of the Palace" (as "Back to the Palace," sung by original Cinderella Kim Crosby), and "Boom Crunch" (a dumbed-down "Last Midnight"). He's still clever, even with a couple of layers of meaning stripped off. [This version of the album contains three bonus tracks.]