Pre-Performance Company - Into the Woods (Full Version)

Theatre Raleigh ACT brings Into the Woods to the Theatre Raleigh stage on Thursday, November 19. It's the full-length version of the musical, with book and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine.

If you've only ever seen the movie or a condensed version, this is the complete show. It's the story most of us know from the fairy tales—the Baker and his wife, Cinderella, Jack and his beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood—all tangled up in the same woods, chasing their wishes and dealing with the consequences once they get them. The full version lets the story breathe, from the first wish in the first act through to the second act, where the characters have to figure out what to do after the 'happily ever after' doesn't quite hold up.

It's a Sondheim score, so the music is as much a part of the storytelling as the dialogue. The songs don't just pause the action; they drive it forward, weaving together the different fairy-tale threads until the whole thing becomes one big, complicated knot. The full production keeps all that in place, from the early, hopeful numbers to the more complicated territory the show moves into later on.

This is a production of the Theatre Raleigh ACT Pre-Performance Company, and it runs on Thursday, November 19, at the Theatre Raleigh in Raleigh.