Tonight we went to a wonderful production of “Into The Woods” at the Ethel Barber Theater on the campus of Northwestern University. It’s one of my favorite musicals… so quick, so witty. The lyrics are brilliant thanks to the wordsmithing of Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim. Live theater is always more fun than the movie!

One of the most inventive parts of this production was the set & staging. The set design was based on books, bookcases, shelves and layers of boxes that served as platforms for the actors to work on. At first I was concerned… no trees? no forest? no woods??? But as the show went on, they completely won me over. As the story begins with “Once upon a time…” and is basically a fairy tale come to life… this production has a lot of book, pages & paper themes. The birds who help Cinderella with the lentils are books “flying” with the help of actors. The “leaves” on the tree are actually pages from books. When the Giant wreaks havoc on the village, pages come flying down from the rafters. Even the wigs of the characters are made completely of paper!!! So much fun… and the individual performances were spot-on as well. I LOVE Little Red Riding Hood!!!