TheLittleSongbird Into the Woods is funny, clever, complex, poignant, enchanting and also deliciously dark, it is so cleverly constructed as a musical and if you love Stephen Sondheim you will not be disappointed here. Because the music is just wonderful, The Last Midnight, Agony, Children Will Listen and No One is Alone stand out. For performances, you'd be hard pressed to find a better performance than this one, one of the best productions of any musicals seen personally in recent weeks. The costumes and sets give off this enchanting fairy-tale-like atmosphere and then they match the darker mood of the second act(which understandably may feel a little too heavy for some) beautifully as well. The production is very well photographed with excellent video directing, live performances of musicals and operas as well are not always successful in this department, but that is not the case with Into the Woods.The songs lose none of their impact, the orchestra play in sweeping style, the tempos are very well-judged and they are beautifully staged as well. The fist act enchants and the darker second act is suitably macabre in places and just as smartly done. You just have to love Cinderella's birds, the baker's wife being grabbed by the handle of her top and the horse that moves backwards. The stepmother cutting off her daughter's heel shows some fidelity to the spirit of the original fairy tale(which is darker than you think it is), and The Last Midnight is deliciously macabre. The Last Midnight is also the song that says the most about any of the characters, Sondheim reveals so much about the Witch through this song and especially the lyrics.With the dialogue, it is also smart and witty, and everybody seems to be having a ball delivering it(lines like "some of us don't like the way you've been telling it", "slotted spoons don't hold much soup" and "I was raised to be charming, not sincere" amongst others are gems). Amongst the fun and endless charm, "Sometimes people leave you halfway through the woods" leading into Children will Listen is also hugely affecting. With the story, it is really fun to spot the fairy-tale stories and characters- Cinderella, Rapunzel, Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk to name a few- and it is unfolded in a way that is always entertaining, magical and clever. The narration is as wittily written as the rest of the dialogue, and always serves a purpose when needed, never does it feel too much and it does a great job making things a little more understandable for first-time viewers.You can't go wrong with the performances either. Bernadette Peters is phenomenal in every way as the Witch, to find somebody better than her in this role would be highly unlikely. Her beautiful voice is in powerhouse form, she commands the stage in sassy and menacing fashion and her dainty, doll-like look is put to good use when the production calls for it. Joanna Gleeson shows why she deserved her Tony win, she sings very strongly and her acting is beyond excellent. In fact all the performances are great, with a deliciously sarcastic Red Riding Hood in Danielle Ferland, a wonderfully frustrating and later easy to love Baker in Chip Zien, a lovely Cinderella in Kim Crosby, a very funny Prince/menacing yet amusing Wolf in Robert Westenberg(his musical interlude with Red Riding Hood is a comic highlight with a somewhat sexual element) and a charming Jack in Ben Wright(his Giants in the Sky is very winning).Overall, a brilliant production of a really well-done Sondheim musical show. A very easy 10/10. Bethany Cox

Sylvie LaRouge This has to be, hands down, the most wonderful musical I have ever seen! The cast was not to be outdone! The story line is fantastic! The writing was outstanding! And when you put it all together with the music, you end up with a tale that is familiar but at the same time new, seen from perspectives you never imagined before... charming... hilarious... and even a little sad. It is so special to find something that can evoke so many emotions, and the production quality was amazing. I have seen this and listened to it so many times, and it never gets old! Bernadette Peters made the production! But you will love the entire cast! Not a dud in the bunch!

natewillsheets This was the first show I have seen written by Sondheim, and I was amazed not only at his work, but also of the casts, the crew, and the quality of the tape. First of all, live shows are usually not taped very well---this version of INTO THE WOODS is an exception---it is the best live taping I have EVER seen of a musical. Different angles, cues, etc help make it the best experience you could have.It may seem as if Sondheim wrote a simple, annoying musical, but this is far from the case. The music is quite complicated, with musical themes throughout--very impressive score. The voice parts are equally complicated and detailed.This is a great, family show, and with the exception of one innuendo, totally appropriate. Some may also have a problem with their children seeing the wolf's costume (it is very, uh, detailed) but truth be told I didn't notice it until I had seen it twice.

Will_Scarlet One of the great Stephen Sondheim's last great musicals combines four favorite fairy tales to make one classical epic: "Cinderella," "Jack & The Beanstalk," "Little Red Riding-Hood," and "Rapunzel." A fifth story is, of course, needed to bind them together, which comes here in the story of a poor baker and his wife who wish for a child, and to get it, strike a bargain with a witch to fetch the ingredients for a potion: "The cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slippers as pure as gold." The baker rescuesRed Riding-Hood from the wolf and is rewarded with her cloak, and then sellsthe beans to Jack for his cow, while his wife plucks a hair from Rapunzel in her tower, and relieves Cinderella of her last shoe, since she is having troubleescaping in one high-heeled slipper. Over the first act, we see the stories unfold just as we know them from our childhood, ending with "Happily ever after." In the second act, however, the characters' continuing stories are shown as not ashappy as we thought. Cinderella and Rapunzel's princes have lost their hearts' desires in the having of them, and start chasing after Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. Red Riding-Hood has become obsessed with killing wolves, anddefending herself. Rapunzel, simultaneously missing her Witch-mother andhating her, has moments of hysteria. As for the Baker, he feels insecure as a father, and his wife wishes their house were bigger. And the Giant's wife comes down another beanstalk to get revenge on Jack for murdering her husband.Disaster strikes when, in desparation, the characters sacrifice the Narrator to the Giant, and thus destroy the person keeping the stories in order. Chaos ensues as the black and white so well divided before flow together. Heroes lie, Witches are right, Giants are good, heroes die. But still, the characters are able to stay together and defeat the giant and resolve their stories on their own. The moral of the story is simple: Learn from the stories, but don't live by them, as sung by the legendary Bernadette Peters as the Witch. She proves amazingly good atplaying the hideous old crone, and later becomes more of a Gothic beauty,more suited to her beautiful voice and fantastic acting skills (Last Midnight, who would have thought a waltz could be so chilling?) The rest of the originalBroadway cast is also fabulous. Danielle Ferland is delightful as Red Riding- Hood, a Shirley Temple with a delightful mean streak. Robert Westenbergmakes the Prince funny and sad, and as the Wolf, brings out the lustfulundertones of the character, and Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason evokememories of Desi and Lucy as the married couple, while Kim Crosby is asurprisingly independent Cinderella. All the cast sings one of Sondheim'sstrongest scores, and brings the musical into the range of 10/10.