“Into the Woods”

Stephen Sondheim (Music & Lyrics); James Lapine (Book)

Continuing its 85^th Anniversary, touted the “Toniest Season Ever,” Palo Alto Players ventures into a forest previously much traveled by many of its sister Bay Area stages.  What more can possibly be squeezed out of what happens after “happily ever after” in the Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book), multi-Tony-winning (1988 and 2002) Into the Woods?  While steering away from some of the darker, more sensuous productions of late, Palo Alto Players has instead found that a good measure of tongue-in-cheek, a little camp here and there, beautifully imaginative staging, and a cast full of superb voices in fact are the right combination to warrant bringing this much-beloved, fractured, fairy tale, musical once again to a local stage. 

Rating: 4 E

Into the Woods continues through May 8, 2016 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.  Tickets are available at http://www.paplayers.org or by calling 650-329-0891.