Lakeland Civic Theatre offers a tepid ‘Into the Woods’ Bob Abelman Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal Member, International Association of Theatre Critics Since the 1970s, composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim has been transforming all that is simple and predictable and harmonious in American musical theater into something that is more of an acquired taste. Some theatregoers find his creativity to be outside their comfort zone and beyond the reach of their archaic expectations for musicals. Others, like Lakeland Civic Theatre artistic director Martin Friedman, appreciate how Sondheim fills the air with a dense stream of words and images, and places a disorienting discord beneath his melodies. His stories are complex, as are the people who inhabit them. And “Into the Woods” – currently on stage at Lakeland Civic Theatre – bears all these theatrical trademarks. Friedman understands this. And yet his production is uncharacteristically tepid and, at times, bland. For more of this article, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.