It’s surprising to realize Stephen Sondheim’s kitschy-smart fairy tale musical Into the Woods is nearly 30 years old now. It’s a charming show with Sondheim’s most hummable score and a winking script. No doubt about it: It’s a good show. Yet solid as it may be, the current production from Lyric Stage falls flat.
The cast is filled with reliable and ingratiating actors, including Christopher Deaton and Anthony Fortino, pictured, as the shallow-arrogant princes, Andy Baldwin as the Baker and Catherine Cox as the Witch. But director Harry Parker hasn’t stumbled upon the right pacing (it’s over three hours!) or whimsical tone. It’s missing what every successful fairy tale needs: An ineffable sense of magic.
Irving Arts Center
2222 N. MacArthur Blvd.
Through Sunday.
LyricStage.org.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 11, 2015.
