"The light is getting dimmer / I think I see a glimmer," observes Stephen Sondheim in a Samuel Beckettian moment of his musical Into the Woods. The lauded songwriter, known for his examinations of ambiguity, teamed with playwright-director James Lapine in 1987 to use traditional fairy tales to examine the hope and despair inherent in the human condition. In the resulting tapioca pudding of a tuner, they enlisted Cinderella and her step-family, Jack of the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, Little Red Ridinghood, a couple of Prince Charmings, a wicked witch, a baker and his wife to literalize psychological dilemmas and impart a few helpful lessons.

Slightly revised and with an additional song ("Our [...]