This past Saturday, I got to see Penn State’s Centre Stage production of Into The Woods at the Playhouse Theater here on campus, and it was incredible. The acting, singing, scenic design, costumes, and live orchestra surpassed my expectations to say the least. I was not familiar with the plot and only remembered a couple songs from the show from seeing the movie in 2014, but by the end I could tell that this production did justice to Sondheim and Lapine’s original vision.

It is likely that the PSU theater department chose to put on this show this season because there was a recent revival of Into The Woods playing on Broadway from July 2022 to January 2023.  The last time the show played on Broadway was its first revival in 2002, and before that was its debut in 1987. Featuring music by Stephen Sondheim with a book by James Lapine, Into The Woods is a pastiche of several Brothers Grimm fairytales. In Act I, the show cleverly intertwines the stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Jack and the Beanstalk, leading to a happy fairytale ending. In Act II, however, a giant has climbed down from the sky to avenge her husband (the continuation of a subplot from the first act) and the show takes a dark turn as multiple characters face a grim demise. Two characters tie all the stories together: a baker and his wife, who are tasked by the Witch (from Rapunzel’s story) to find “a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold” to lift a curse on their family.

My main takeaway from the show was the theme of growing up. I admire Sondheim and Lapine for not only combining a bunch of fairytales, but recognizing the audience and mixing the dark tones of the original Brothers Grimm stories with the societal notion that fairytales (as we know them from Disney movies) are childish. The show appeals to children but doesn’t infantilize its audience. First, the theme appears in Little Red Riding Hood’s story. After her encounter with the wolf in the woods, she sings the song “I Know Things Now.” The character sings, “I know things now, many valuable things, that I hadn’t known before,” and “Isn’t it nice to know a lot, and a little bit not.” These lines reflect the experience of growing up, as the character is learning more about the dangers of the world and that not everything is a stereotypical fairytale. Another song that continues this theme is “Giants in the Sky” sung by Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. He sings, “And you know things now that you never knew before,” repeating the line from Little Red Riding Hood’s song. Jack and Little Red Riding Hood act as stand-in characters for the children in the audience since they are children in their stories.  Later in the show, the two young characters are consoled in “No One Is Alone” after they lose their families. Cinderella and the Baker sing, “Sometimes people leave you, halfway through the wood. Others may deceive you, you decide what’s good” to them. It is as if the fairytales are sticking up for the children and showing them that they can take their time growing up and that they have the agency to make their own choices.

Overall, Into The Woods is an excellent show with themes for both children and adults, and I highly recommend seeing future Centre Stage productions, especially since there is a student discount on tickets!