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Into the Woods explores parent-children relationships

necessity to connect with each other and work together if we are to avoid our own Armageddon. It is not out of deference to Cinderella that the authors warn: "It's nearly midnight." Yet all admonishments are offered with compassion and humanity, especially in such songs as "No More" and "No One Is Alone."

"The subject matter of this show is the most primal and basic Sondheim's written," claims Chip Zien, "and the music reflects it. The first time he sang and played 'No More' for the cast, we all stood around and cried. I couldn't even rehearse it for a while, because I couldn't get through it. I'm married, and I have two kids, and to me the song is about protecting my children. It's about reconciling my feelings with my dad and growing up and learning that nobody can run from their responsibilities. And in a larger sense, it's about facing huge, cosmic issues. Sondheim's saying, 'Come on, folks. Do something before it's too late.' It's incredibly powerful and moving."

Into the Woods has been an emotional journey for many of those involved. "I have a small son," offers Joanna Gleason, "and the show says so much to me in very personal ways. It just resonates through every part of me. It's thrilling to do, and at the end it's just a wipe out. I have to rely on technique to get through it."

There is a sweetness and simplicity which colors Lapine's book and Sondheim's score from start to finish. The title song, which recurs throughout the show, is a bouncy, Disneyesque ditty, which serves as a constant reminder that the characters are storybook figures.

"There is a kind of Disney thought-pattern to much of the show," asserts musical director Paul Gemignani, "and I mean that in the best sense. For instance, when someone dies, you hear a little sad music. The witch has specific chords. The underscoring points out certain things. The subject matter lends itself to all of this. But it's deceptively simple. There are all kinds of colors in the score, and a complex rhythmic intensity. It's written as a chamber music piece, and the challenge is to make the sound crystalline."

Both the lyrics and the libretto have a spare, stylized quality which the collaborators felt was necessary for this kind of material. "Even though fairy tales use flowery language, they are essentially underwritten in terms of plot," explains Lapine. "So we thought it was best to keep it sounding light and simple. Steve and I both enjoy creating certain resonances throughout a show, in terms of language and themes. And we try to reinforce it in each other's work."

According to Zien and Gleason, they've succeeded admirably. "One of the great things about this piece is that it has an unusually fine, clearly conceived book on which to hang the music," asserts Zien. "And the stylistic connection between the music and the scenes is particularly good." The result, says Gleason, is that the actors "get to sing the scenes and act the songs. At first the score was very daunting to me. There are a lot of notes and a lot of words to sing. But because you can act the songs, they became easier and easier. Now they're a joy to perform."

The authors went to work on Into the Woods more than three years ago, just after Sunday in the Park opened on Broadway. Lapine was on the verge of becoming a father, an event which undoubtedly influenced his writing. "Obviously it was something I was thinking about," he concedes. "But one of the things I want to get across in the show is that it's also okay not to have kids. That line always gets a big laugh, but the truth is you have to take responsibility for your own sake, not just for your children."

His first idea was to write an original fairy tale, a project which he started but never finished. "There were already so many existing stories, that I didn't see the point," he recalls. "So then I decided to use some of those stories and mix them

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