INTO THE WOODS Puts the Happy in Happily Ever After At Matilija Auditorium

What happens AFTER happily ever after? This question is gloriously answered by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's “Into the Woods.” OPAT's production opens July 26th and runs for two weekends at Matilija Auditorium.

The original production of “Into the Woods” won three Tony Awards, a Drama Desk Award, plus, snatched an Olivier Award (London's Tonys) for Best Revival. The show is a powerful presentation of Sondheim's magnificent music, accompanied by glittering costumes and ginormous props¬--what size shoe does a Giant wear? You're invited to enter this Fairy Tale land of Cinderella, Rapunzel, not one but two Princes, a Witch, Red Riding Hood, the Wolf, Jack and a beanstalk! Each character brings a wish. In most fairy tales the wishes come true and they all live happily ever after. But, in Sondheim's Woods, wishes lead to choices and choices lead to consequences and consequences lead, inevitably, to truths.

Sondheim is notorious for creating music that stretches the talents of the performers. Director Douglas Ladnier has put together a brilliant collection of voices that bring the show to life.

“I continue to be amazed by the talents of this extraordinary cast,“ Ladnier said. “And how each person perfectly and naturally exudes the exact traits of their characters. It's often said that 90% of directing is casting and that is 100% true here.”

Come with your children or come with your friends. It's a show for all ages, with a world of magic beans, magic scenes, amid forest greens…beans that take on a life of their own. In this show, the beanstalk beans talk, metaphorically, triggering one of the greatest puns in all of musical theater: “if the end is right it justifies the beans!”

You will laugh and feel awed by the music and voices, but also by the mastery of how Sondheim and book writer James Lapine encourage us to think about those stories in a unique light as they come to life. They adhere to what writer C.S. Lewis once said: some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

July 26 27, 28, August 2,3, 4 at Matilija Auditorium. For tickets to “Into the Woods,” please go to ojaitheater.org.

And, don't forget to enter a drawing to win a spectacular Ojai Valley Inn Package…three nights at the Inn, a spa package worth approximately $1,000, and four rounds of golf, with carts. Drawing tickets are $25 each, or five for $100. Entries can also be purchased at ojaitheater.org

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