(3 of 3)
Some audiences may resent the shifts in tone, others may find the authors a bit preachy. Lapine's book, at times self-consciously literary and deconstructionist, does not play fair. He encourages audiences to laugh at violence visited on unpopular characters in the first act, then chides them for doing so during the second. Sondheim refuses to sketch easily likable characters, and his intricate scores and filigree lyrics yield their richest rewards only upon repeated hearings. Although Sondheim is accounted a reviewers' favorite -- a record six of his shows have been named best musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle -- most of his work has opened to skepticism and only gradually won esteem. Something of the same seems to be the initial fate of Into the Woods. Opening night notices ranged literally from "great" to "awful," although a $2.3 million advance sale cushioned the more nettlesome views. Most musicals take on easy targets like the Nazis (Cabaret) or slavery (Big River) or avoid a moral dimension altogether. Into the Woods aspires to nothing less than explaining the nature of growing up and taking responsibility. If its execution is in small ways imperfect, its vision is as big as the giantess's 40-league boots.