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style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia>Stripped-down ‘Into the Woods’ makes Sondheim accessible <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN></B> </P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Bob Abelman</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning
Journal</FONT></SPAN></I><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
face=Georgia>Member, International Association of Theatre
Critics</FONT></SPAN><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'></SPAN></P>
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align=center><SPAN
style='FONT-FAMILY: ; COLOR: ; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"'><FONT
face="Times New Roman"></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">It seems as if most
theatergoers either have a love or hate relationship with composer and
</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en">lyricist</SPAN><SPAN
lang=EN style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">Stephen Sondheim.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT face=Georgia>Since the
1970s, Sondheim has taken all that is simple, predictable and harmonious in the
American musical and transformed it into something quite the opposite.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His creations blur the line between
lyric and dialogue, fill the air with a dense and steady stream of discordant
sounds and images, and offer stories that are as complex as the people who
populate them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some get it; some
don’t care to.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia>Regardless, patrons approach productions of Sondheim and librettist
James Lapine’s “Into the Woods,” which first opened on Broadway in 1987 and was
recently turned into a star-studded film, as if it were children’s theater.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT face=Georgia>Because
the Tony Award-winning “Into the Woods” intertwines the familiar plots of
several well-known Brothers Grimm fairy tale characters – including Little Red
Riding Hood, Jack (of beanstalk fame), Rapunzel and Cinderella – parents often
bring their wide-eyed tikes to the theater, who arrive expecting a coddling
bedtime story but leave tearful, traumatized and by intermission.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face=Georgia><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">The show may revolve around
</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en">a <A
title=Baker style='href: "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker"'><SPAN
style="COLOR: "><FONT color=#000000><FONT
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none">Baker</FONT></FONT></SPAN></A> and his wife
venturing into the woods in an effort to reverse the magic spell that has kept
them childless, but it bears all the foreboding </SPAN><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial">theatrical trademarks typical
of Sondheim musicals.</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Put Sweeney Todd in lederhosen and
brightly colored socks and he is still the demon barber of Fleet
Street.</SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN lang=EN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-ansi-language: en"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT face=Georgia>But the
significantly stripped-down Fiasco Theater version of “Into the Woods,” which
originated at the McCarter Theater in New Jersey in 2013, had an Off-Broadway
run, and is currently on national tour and at Playhouse Square, is different.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: ; mso-bidi-font-family: arial"><FONT
face=Georgia></FONT></SPAN> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT
face=Georgia><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>For
more of this review, go to </SPAN></I><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'><FONT
color=#0000ff>www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/</FONT></SPAN></I><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN
style='BORDER-TOP: windowtext 1pt; FONT-FAMILY: ; BORDER-RIGHT: windowtext 1pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt; COLOR: ; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; PADDING-TOP: 0in; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; BORDER-LEFT: windowtext 1pt; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; mso-bidi-font-family: arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in'>.</SPAN></I></FONT></P></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>