George Harris Kansas City Star Reader Adivsory Panel 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we have a winner: Into the Woods at the Kansas City Repertory Theater (or is it Theatre? I can never remember.)

OK OK, it won a bunch of Tony awards when it premiered on Broadway in 1987, but the story is a melding of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, so what's another 20 years to get to Kansas City.

And anyway I didn't see it on Broadway, so it's all new to me. As it will be to your ten year old kid, so skip the junk at the movies and take the family to the Rep. This production is fun.

Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.

I always have trouble understanding all the words in songs and think I have must have some diagnosable disorder, but even I got enough of the lyrics to really enjoy this production. (In the interest of full disclosure here, I hardly ever dislike productions at the Rep, so take my review with that in mind. On the other hand, if you don't like this production, there's no hope for you! Any disagreement with my review will fall on deaf ears...but you already know that.)

The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales: Little Red Ridinghood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella. They're tied together by a story involving a baker and his wife and their mission to begin a family.

There are witches, giants, great thunderous sound effects, characters popping out of the floor and disappearing into the floor, a lecherous wolf, infidelities, a huge eyeball removed from its owner, and jokes subtle enough for a second trip to the show for the slow of wit, like me.

Stop reading this boring review now. Go get some tickets.