Was Red Riding Hood’s Grandma an enraged killer? Stephen Sondheim thought so. In his musical, Into The Woods, Sondheim uses the forest as metaphor for life’s lessons and applies it to our most familiar Western fairy tales. In his hands, Cinderella isn’t so sure she wants a Prince; Jack (of Beanstalk fame) is a bit of a dolt whose best friend is a cow and Rapunzel - well, you just have to see what happens to Rapunzel and all the other fairy tale characters in Drama Dock’s production of Sondheim’s Into The Woods, July 18 to 21 and 25 to 28.
Director Charlotte Tiencken and music director Paul Swenson have worked an outstanding cast of singers and actors through this cleverly constructed musical story of stories woven around the desire of a poor baker, played by Marshall Murray and his wife, played by Stephanie Murray, to lift a witch’s curse that has left them childless.
In Act One, the characters who go ‘into the woods’ get their wishes and live ‘happily ever after.’ In Act Two, ‘happily ever after’ isn’t quite what they expected.
Into The Woods, is a family friendly romp with everything from romance to swordplay, intrigue and surprises all along the shaded path.
See it at Bethel Church: Thursday, July 18, 7:30PM (preview), Friday, July 19, 7:30PM (opening night), Saturday, July 20, 7:30PM, Sunday, July 21, 2:00PM; Thursday, July 25, 7:30PM, Friday, July 26, 7:30PM, Saturday, July 27, 7:30PM Sunday, July 28, 2:00PM.