THEATER REVIEW : ‘Into the Woods’ Makes for a Potent Revival

You know the adage: Beware of what you wish for because you may get it. It’s the kind of thinking that drives the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine 1987 musical, “Into the Woods,” a strong revival of which opened during the weekend at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach.

In this wonderful muddle of Grimm fairy tales, all of Act One is spent wishing for things and making them come true, and all of Act Two is spent watching the results disintegrate into disasters.

Obviously, there’s no such thing as happily ever after. Not that one had any real delusions about this, but Lapine, who dreamed up the book, and especially Sondheim, who wrote the extraordinary lyrics and music, are not only subtle about it but enormously complex.

They populate their woodsy world with snappy, dark or dysfunctional characters: a sharp-tongued Little Red Ridinghood, her grandma and her wolf; a dimwitted Jack, his beanstalk, his nagging mother and his cow; Cinderella, her father, mother, stepmother, stepsisters and two princes--one of whom is after a deeply depressed Rapunzel; a baker and his wife (invented not by Grimm, but by Lapine), and an unneighborly all-purpose witch who is the ultimate possessive parent.

There are enough characters and tangled catastrophes here to pack a psychiatrist’s waiting-room. But the remarkable thing about this wise and woolly musical is the way it remains philosophically clear. And certainly this latest edition, presented by Long Beach Civic Light Opera and lucidly directed by Glenn Casale, is among the clearest: lush, muscular, well sung and graced by the bewitching presence of Leslie Uggams as the generic, imperfect Witch.

Lapine and Sondheim are as interested in getting their message across as they are in doing it through these complicated people. The message is one of compassion in a menacing world. The people they’ve created are not smart or nice. They blame, they whine, they bully--but they also deserve a break from stalking giants, adulterous mates, suffocating, neglectful or absent parents and their own inarticulate needs.

The woods of “Into the Woods” are the thickets of our own soul, and we see, as we push through them, that everyone has a flash point and a breaking point.

The philandering prince’s “I was raised to be charming, not sincere,” evokes a gasp of recognition nearly every time out. It’s a testament to Sondheim’s ability to codify emotions in a few startling words, frequently locked in a complex rhyme. It is not just the expression of his view of the world that is so exceptional--that detached observer’s view essential to the recording of history, as the Narrator tells us in “Into the Woods”--but his uncanny grasp of how it works or doesn’t.

Casale, who also choreographed, has a stalwart company. Uggams as the Witch has the show’s showiest role, but “Into the Woods” is no star vehicle. It is driven by everyone in it, not least by Robert Yacko’s Baker and Sarah Tattersall’s Baker’s Wife, Tracy Katz’s quacking Red Ridinghood or Nick Cavarra’s lovable, bumbling Jack.

Kevin Cooney makes a graceful and sobering Narrator and Cori McCormick brings an edge of borderline hysteria to Rapunzel’s despair. The production opts for a live person in costume to play Jack’s cow, Milky White, which adds a dimension to the role a wooden cow can’t match. And those two dashing princes darting about the woods are played with consummate egotism by Kevin Blair and Gordon Goodman (who also makes a pretty stylish Wolf).

Above all, scenic designer Paul Wenkos’ woods are at once magical and scary. The twisted bark and the layer upon layer of overhanging vines part to make a clearing or knit densely together, with each changing image looking like a glorious illustration in a children’s book. John McDaniel’s musical direction is top notch as usual and enhanced by Jon Gottlieb’s and Philip G. Allen’s sound design. The latter have battled the Terrace’s daunting acoustics--and won.

If one needed any more signs of Sondheim’s greatness, surely one lies in the way his musicals grow on one at each viewing. Aside from being the repository of such remarkable songs as “It Takes Two,” “On the Steps of the Palace,” “Last Midnight” “No One Is Alone” and the profound “Children Will Listen,” “Into the Woods” is a darkly human tale of adversity that is deeply sobering.

How many musicals are there that end with one witch disappeared, two giants, one wolf and five people dead, and still make you feel restored, amazed and gasping for air?

* “Into the Woods,” Terrace Theatre, Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends March 21. $12-$34; (310) 432-7926, (714) 826-9371, (213) 365-3500. Running time: 3 hours.

Kevin Cooney: Narrator/Mysterious Man Marguerite Lowell: Cinderella Nick Cavarra: Jack Liz Sheridan: Jack’s Mother Robert Yacko: Baker Sarah Tattersall: Baker’s Wife Peggy Hewett: Cinderella’s Stepmother Patty Tiffany: Florinda Tracy Strand: Lucinda Steven Benson: Cinderella’s Father Tracy Katz: Little Red Ridinghood Leslie Uggams: Witch Susan Watson: Cinderella’s Mother Gordon Goodman: Wolf/Cinderella’s Prince Susan Watson: Granny/Giant Cori McCormick: Rapunzel Kevin Blair: Rapunzel’s Prince Jamie Snyder: Steward Crystal Guth: Snow White Rebecca Dennis: Sleeping Beauty

A Long Beach Civic Light Opera production. Producer Barry Brown. Director/choreographer Glenn Casale. Book James Lapine. Music and Lyrics Stephen Sondheim. Sets and costumes Paul Wonsek. Lights Kim Killingsworth. Hair and makeup Elena Breckenridge. Sound Jon Gottlieb, Philip G., Allen. Composer. Musical director John McDaniel. Production manager Don Hill. Production stage manager John M. Galo. Stage manager Scott T. Stevens.