AMHERST — The 1987 musical “Into the Woods,” with music by Stephen Sondheim and a plot based on selections from the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, has won a number of awards and has had several successful revivals over the years.
Now the UMass Amherst Theater Department is having a crack at the production — their first first full-fledged musical in more than five years — which director Rudy Ramirez, an MFA student in directing, says is tailor-made for our societal moment, given the collective problems we face such as climate change.
The UMass take on “Into the Woods,” which opens April 28 and runs through May 6 at the Rand Theater, notes that Act 1 seems to resolve the problems of the characters, like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, such that they’re ready to live “happily after ever,” just as they do in the original fairy tales.
But in Act 2, Ramirez explains in publicity notes, the characters realize the consequences of having “transactional relationships” when they discover their behavior has led to a dangerous giant coming into their midst.
Tickets are available through the Fine Arts Center box office at (800) 999-8677 or by visiting fac.umass.edu/Online/default.asp and following the link for “Performing Arts.”