We Review: Into the Woods @ the 5th Ave

Maybe it was the woods in Into the Woods at 5th Avenue Theatre that made us think of it as the "Schoolhouse Rock" of musicals -- they're cardboardy, blocky swirls of of branch and leaf painted a not-found-in-nature green. But the 5th Ave's show itself -- inspired by Bruno "I was wrong about everything" Bettelheim's Uses of Enchantment -- brims with '70s-childhood nostalgia, rhythmic energy, and a love of lyrical ping-pong that recalls the gleeful fun of conjunction junctions -- especially when the Baker's Wife starts her disquisition on "and" and "or." If you don't love it, you were clearly home-schooled.

A friend of ours -- and Into the Woods connoisseur -- says this is the best of the non-Broadway productions he's seen. We had never seen it before -- we like musicals fine, but for some reason we associate liking Sondheim with, you know, the fun of terrible key parties like in The Ice Storm -- and had only the faintest notion about its fractured fairytale plot: there's a Baker and his Wife who want to have kids but have been cursed by the Witch next door, Jack and mom and his magic beans, a more indecisive Cinderella than you'd expect, and a shiv-wielding Little Red Riding Hood. Having kids can be the moment you finally let go of your toys and stop looking upward for advice -- in a story like this, that means dad and mom have gotta go. In the first act, dads get left behind like nobody's business, in the second act, moms get clubbed to death.

The strong cast has some stand-outs: 10-year-old Ireland Woods stole our hearts then bitch-slapped us as Little Red Riding Hood, Leslie Law as the Baker's Wife sold us as the mature one in the relationship who still has childhood dreams of her own, and Bob De Dea, the Baker, (reminding us equally of the Irish power-schmo duo Gabriel Byrne and Stephen Rea) homered as a sadsack gotten fired up finally. The two princes (Michael Hunsaker and Logan Benedict) leapt about like stags, preened like gamecocks, and sang like self-infatuated rockstars. Billie Wildrick's Cinderella -- who finds out getting to go to the ball can really complicate things -- has a great girl-next-hut air.

Into the Woods runs through November 10. Tickets are $20 - $77.

Top photo: Little Red Ridinghood (Ireland Woods), Jack (Eric Ankrim), The Baker (Bob De Dea) and Cinderella (Billie Wildrick) point fingers in "Your Fault." Lower photo: The Baker (Bob De Dea) sings "No One is Alone" as the Baker's Wife (Leslie Law) looks on. Photos: Chris Bennion.