To celebrate their 50th anniversary season, The Public Theater presents “Into The Woods,” staged at Central Park’s outdoor Delacorte Theater. The Public Theater’s open-air plays — part of their Shakespeare in the Park initiative — are a favorite New York summer tradition, and tickets are free to anybody willing to stand in line the day of the show.
“Into the Woods,” a collaboration between James Lapine and musical theater legend Stephen Sondheim, follows a witch, a modern infertile couple as they enter the forest to have their wishes granted and other well-known fairy tale characters. All goes well, and they end the first act with a celebratory number titled “Ever After.”
Though the show’s beginning is funny and buoyed by Sondheim’s lyrical genius, the real drama begins after intermission when the euphoria has faded and everyone realizes they are not as happy as they expected they would be. The characters struggle with the selfish rationalizations they have made, and the second act turns gruesome, which The Public Theater omitted from their family-friendly production staged on Aug. 22. With their fairy-tale plot lines finished, the cast feeds the narrator to a giant, and all bets are off the table.
The Public Theater’s reputation stands on its tradition of staging free plays with major actors as past shows have starred Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Denzel Washington. Amy Adams enacts a memorable Baker’s Wife, and two-time Tony Award-winner Donna Murphy is noteworthy as the Witch, whose insecurities and motherhood overshadow her role as the villain.
In an unusual but not unprecedented decision, directors Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel cast a child as the narrator. (Jack Broderick and Noah Radcliff alternate performances.) With a younger story teller, the show’s thematic focus is illuminated, and audiences are reminded that children absorb the lessons their parents unintentionally impart.
Though the narrator’s final re-entry into the plot seems slightly forced, the poignant moment in which the narrator tries to convince the adults around him that they are supposed to be living happily ever after justifies this modification. They are not convinced, of course, but audience members who like a hefty dose of moral complexity will likely be pleased with the ending.
“Into the Woods” runs through Sept. 1. Tickets are free and distributed, two per person, at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park the day of the show. The Public Theater will also offer free tickets for each performance through their Virtual Ticketing lottery, which can be accessed at shakespeareinthepark.org.
A version of this story appeared in the Aug. 26 print edition. Leora Rosenberg is a contributing writer. Email her at [email protected].