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      ‘Into the Woods’ Review: Some Enchanted Evening

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      Sara Bareilles and Neil Patrick Harris lead a starry Encores! revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s sweet-sour musical.For nearly three decades, the Encores! concert series at New York City Center has upheld a specific mission — excavating the hidden gems of American musical theater, burnishing them to a fully orchestrated shine. Which makes the fractured fairy tales of “Into the Woods,” Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s sweet-sour 1986 musical, a peculiar choice. (Let’s just say that when Rob Marshall has directed a star-crammed film version of a show within the last decade, it is no longer a hidden gem.)But that mission has expanded, unearthing something as glorious as Lear deBessonet’s revival. Her “Into the Woods” runs through May 15; only a few tickets remain. So if you know a spell to charm the secondary market, cast it now.The show, as ever, collides characters drawn from a half-dozen tales in the European folk tradition — Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack the Giant Killer, a prince or two. At its whirling center are a humble baker (Neil Patrick Harris, with down-to-the-millisecond comic timing) and his wife (the Grammy-winning singer and songwriter and recent Broadway baby Sara Bareilles, no slouch). Desperate for a child, they heed the witch next door (Heather Headley, a diva in a frowzy wig and claws) and head into the forest — here, a bare stage ornamented with the set designer David Rockwell’s elegant birch trunks. Within three nights they must obtain a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold.This color-blocked quest overlaps with those of Little Red (Julia Lester, pert and twinkling), waylaid by a seductive wolf (Gavin Creel, sleazy and flawless), and the moony Jack (Cole Thompson, sweet and dreamy), forced by his mother (the comic genius Ann Harada) to sell the cow that he loves too much. Separated in the woods, the baker and his wife have other encounters. The baker meets a mysterious man (the downtown stalwart David Patrick Kelly, who doubles as the narrator). His wife befriends Cinderella (Denée Benton, luminous, with a crystalline soprano), on the run from a pursuing prince (Creel again).From left, Gavin Creel, David Turner, Ann Harada, Bareilles and Harris in Lear deBessonet’s revival of the Sondheim-Lapine musical.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWhen tales have circulated since the premodern era, it’s no spoiler to say that they all end happily. Cinderella gets her prince. Rapunzel (Shereen Pimentel, mellow in an underwritten role) gets hers (Jason Forbach, in for Jordan Donica). Little Red and her grandmother (Annie Golden) are released from the wolf’s stomach. Jack, now rich, reunites with his cow (expertly puppeteered by Kennedy Kanagawa). But that only brings us to intermission. And unease already glimmers, firefly-like, among the trees.In “Maybe They’re Magic,” the baker’s wife interrogates the ethics of ambition. Characters weigh personal desire against the needs of the greater community. And as in Sondheim shows like “Merrily We Roll Along,” “Gypsy” and “Sweeney Todd,” they wrestle with the question of whether getting what you want is actually good for you. What if you get what you wish and you still want more? What if the wish come true isn’t really worth what it cost you?The second act darkens and destabilizes these tales. It’s a truism that a happy ending depends on stopping a story at just the right moment. “Into the Woods” insists on continuing straight past happily ever after, exploring the repercussions of those Act I choices and offering new and somewhat more abstract conflicts. The priority shifts from the individual to the collective as characters band together to save the kingdom and themselves. That should feel at least as propulsive as gathering potion ingredients. Instead it feels theoretical, a filigreed representation of the classic trolley problem. Should the characters deliberately sacrifice one person — Jack — or do nothing and allow many others to die?This more philosophical turn has bothered many critics. If I’m honest, it bothers me. But I can still remember myself 30 years ago, wearing out the VHS tape of the original Broadway version, which PBS aired as part of its “American Playhouse” series. The conflicts didn’t feel abstract to me then. Keying into the emotional force underlying them — the wanting, the regret — I understood the musical’s questions of right and wrong, and the very murky moral territory in between, the way children do: intuitively and very personally.From left, Heather Headley, Julia Lester, Cole Thompson, Denée Benton and Harris in the show’s second act, which darkens and destabilizes the fairy tales.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesNow I understand them differently: as conjectures and hypotheticals. But that doesn’t make them any less urgent. The last two years, maybe the last six years, maybe more, have emphasized the stark divisions in American life, isolating us in our individual experiences of suffering and perceived injustice. But these same years have offered galvanizing examples of mutual care and aid, a mode echoed in the ballad “No One Is Alone,” which argues for support and understanding despite differences.If I were a betting woman, I would hazard that’s the aspect of “Into the Woods” that appealed to deBessonet, the artistic director of Encores! and an artist with a long history of community engagement and activism. Unlike the other Encores! shows of the season — “The Tap Dance Kid” and “The Life,” both of which received contested updates — “Into the Woods” arrives largely unchanged. And no longueur or flubbed cue breaks the spell of her compassionate, witty production. She has cast wonderful comedians, many of whom are also wonderful singers, and has encouraged them to deliver rich and very human performances, accented by Lorin Lattaro’s friendly, organic choreography and Rob Berman’s splendid music direction.The show ends with a musical combo punch — “No One Is Alone,” “Children Will Listen” — an absolute T.K.O. to anyone who argues that Sondheim’s pleasures are intellectual alone. (It’s a deeper cut, but the preceding song, “No More,” an existential body blow, prepares the way, too.) For “Children Will Listen,” led by Headley, with superb, sinuous phrasing, deBessonet suddenly swells the cast with 70 or so supernumeraries, children and seniors singing along.The night I saw it, not all of that singing was precisely on key, and the child nearest me overacted wretchedly. But I found myself crying without really knowing why. For the child I was, I suppose. And the child I am. And the mother now, also. I listened. I am still listening. You should, too.Into the WoodsThrough May 15 at New York City Center, Manhattan; nycitycenter.org. Running time: 2 hours 45 minutes. More

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      Jennifer Nettles Had Sung ‘She Used to Be Mine.’ But Not While Crying.

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      The country singer and musical-theater fan was grateful to play the intense title role in “Waitress” not long after her Broadway-themed album came out.Sara Bareilles and Jennifer Nettles have been friends for over a decade, and Nettles had long been itching to step into Bareilles’s musical “Waitress.”“For years we kept trying to make it happen but it never worked on the logistics side,” she said in a recent video call.Everything finally fell into place this fall, and on Wednesday Nettles, who is most famous as half of the Grammy-winning country duo Sugarland, wrapped up a five-week run playing Jenna, a pie-making wiz dealing with an unexpected pregnancy, in the show, as it returned along with Broadway itself.“It’s a beautiful, sacred space, and Broadway is such a community,” Nettles, 47, said of finally getting to tie on Jenna’s apron. “It was very poignant to be in this show for this reopening.”Bareilles was happy to see Nettles connect with her show as well, and with the song “She Used to Be Mine.”“Jennifer so clearly knows who Jenna really is,” she said by email. “I watch my friend disappear onstage and I see only Jenna’s complexity. Her final moments in ‘She Used to Be Mine’ are some of my favorite of all time. She digs down deep and does not come up for air, connecting the musical phrases as her character finds her strength.”Nettles in her dressing room, preparing for her final performance in “Waitress.”Karsten Moran for The New York TimesSeeing Nettles thrive on Broadway may surprise those who only know the singer-songwriter from Sugarland or her thriving solo career. But “Waitress” wasn’t Nettles’s first show-tune rodeo. She played Roxie Hart in “Chicago” in 2015 and Donna Sheridan in “Mamma Mia!” at the Hollywood Bowl two years later. In June she released a collection of musical-theater numbers titled “Always Like New.”She also has a burgeoning screen career with roles in the movie “Harriet” and as the matriarch of a televangelist family in the HBO comedy “The Righteous Gemstones.”The effervescent Nettles spoke about becoming a mom, sensible shoes and, er, poison from her dressing room at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, shortly before one of her last performances in “Waitress.” These are edited excerpts from the conversation.You’ve loved musicals since you were a kid. Why did you end up choosing country music?All the way through high school and college I was able to do both because there were programs and community theater. I started having traction in music in college and had that fork-in-the-road moment, and I thought, “Music has some momentum, I’m going to go over here.” But I always longed to be able to do both, and I was just one person [laughs].“I wish it could have been longer but in some ways it’s just the right-size bite, you know?” said Nettles (signing programs and photographs for fans) of the five-week run.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesWhen did you start planting the seeds for a turn to musical theater?Around 12 years ago, I was going to do Elphaba in “Wicked” on tour and then make my way to Broadway. But I was dealing with a ton of acid reflux at the time, before we really knew that was such a thing for singers. I was really, really stressed and I pulled out because I didn’t know what was going on with my instrument. The right thing always happens at the right time, you know, and in 2015 I was able to enjoy going right to the Broadway stage in “Chicago.”Between the new album and Broadway reopening, did it feel like musical-theater serendipity for you?I had been recording “Always Like New” over the course of 2019 and we recorded the last note of the last song on March 12, 2020. I walked out of the vocal booth and our phones started lighting up, saying Broadway was closing. I put the record out in June and that felt sort of like waving this flag of, “OK, we’re coming back,” because we knew of the plans of hopeful September reopening. So to move from an album I’ve always wanted to make to stepping on to the very stages that inspired it — artistically that felt like this is how it’s supposed to be.What’s your take on Jenna?The journey of motherhood, for me as it is for some women, was such a confluence — I have jokingly called it a bludgeoning of identity. I was never one of those women who thought she always wanted to have kids. I was open to it and I love children, but I already had another purpose. The loss that happens to everybody but specifically to mothers who have a pre-existing job purpose outside of family — the loss was extreme. The gains were beautiful, too, don’t get me wrong, but both of your hands are full in motherhood: There is sacrifice and loss and death, and there is birth and beauty and fullness. I relate to Jenna as a woman, as being Southern, but that transformation where she’s just like, “Wow, what is happening to my life? Who am I? What do I want?” is so accessible to me.You have done Jenna’s showstopper, “She Used to Be Mine,” in concert. What was it like singing it in the show?It’s so different. In concert you’re just doing it as a piece of music. To do it within the character and within the arc, and that being her 11 o’clock moment. Performing while crying is its own animal.Did you look forward to the number or did you dread it?Once I figured out how to sing it and act it and cry it and scream it all at the same time, I actually did look forward to it. So much tension has been building for her this whole time that to allow for that release is very cathartic every time I do it.Fellow cast members surround Nettles at the final curtain call.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesAt least you got to do it in sensible shoes.Thank you, Lord! I’m glad she is a waitress and able to wear those shoes, that’s for sure.What’s going through your mind as you are wrapping up with the show?I wish it could have been longer but in some ways it’s just the right-size bite, you know? I would rather leave still a little bit hungry than over-full and like, “Get me out of here!”You’re writing the score for a new musical inspired by Giulia Tofana. What can you tell us about her?She was a slow poisoner in the 17th century. She’s attributed with what they call the first Italian divorce, where she helped women get out of their marriages by killing their husbands [laughs]. Which just makes it fun.It’s definitely a different career path from pie or country music.And to be able to tell a story of a woman who isn’t this 20-year-old ingénue! I have gone into way darker transformative caves as a woman in my 40s than I ever did in my 20s. The stakes are higher. This isn’t some budding hero’s journey — this is a blossoming warrior’s journey. Very different. It is also a warning that we still have very far to go where women are concerned. Sexism has been so delicately woven in that, oftentimes, we don’t see it and we think, like, “Oh, we’ve come so far.” Have we? So I am excited to tell this story — to celebrate her, to offer conversation, provocation. More

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      Musicals Return to Broadway With ‘Waitress’ and ‘Hadestown’

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      The song-and-dance shows that are Broadway’s bread and butter began a staggered return to the stage Thursday. For audiences, vaccinations and masks were mandatory.Sara Bareilles stepped onto the stage of the Ethel Barrymore Theater a few minutes after 7 p.m. Thursday, a white apron over her blue uniform, as a looped recording of her voice began to intone pie ingredients. “Sugar. Sugar. Sugar, butter. Sugar, butter. Sugar, butter, flour.” And then, with a single note from a keyboard, a high piano chord and a whoosh from a cymbal, she launched into a song about baking.One hour later and one block north, André De Shields slowly walked across the stage of the Walter Kerr Theater in a silver suit with iridescent silver boots, and, after a long arresting pause, asked the cast, and then the audience, and then the trombonist, a short question: “Aight?” The actors assented; the audience applauded, and the trombonist, Brian Drye, began to vamp.And just like that, Broadway musicals are back on Broadway.Well, to be more precise, two musicals are back on Broadway: “Waitress,” about a gifted baker in an abusive marriage, and “Hadestown,” a contemporary retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.With a note from a keyboard, a piano chord and the whoosh of a cymbal, “Waitress” brought musical theater back to Broadway. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesEven on this first night, there was a reminder of the challenges involved: An actress in “Waitress,” who had been fully vaccinated, tested positive for the coronavirus, and couldn’t perform. The rest of the cast was tested, the actress who tested positive was replaced by an understudy, and the show went on.The return of musical theater — the financial backbone of Broadway — marks another milestone as the theater business, and the theater community, seek to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, which forced all 41 Broadway theaters to close on March 12, 2020. On Sept. 14, four of the industry’s tentpole shows — “The Lion King,” “Wicked,” “Hamilton” and “Chicago” — will reopen, with many more musicals planning to start or restart performances throughout the fall.Audiences were extremely enthusiastic after months away. Both of the reopening musicals sold out on Thursday. At “Waitress,” there was even a standing ovation for a recorded preshow announcement reminding people to keep their masks on.“We want everything to come back,” said Valerie Tuarez, 21, who said she had fallen in love with “Waitress” through the cast recording and was now seeing it for the first time.Some “Hadestown” fans arrived with the show’s signature red flower. Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet for The New York TimesAt “Hadestown,” Joey Casali, 18, was wearing the show’s signature bloom — a red ranunculus — behind his right ear. He said he had seen the show five times before the pandemic and was ready for his long-delayed sixth visit. But he was also mindful of the bigger picture.“This signifies Broadway coming back,” he said. “All eyes are on New York tonight.”Among those celebrating the “Waitress” reopening was Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, who had worked to secure aid to help live entertainment businesses and cultural organizations recover from the pandemic. He told the cast before the show that the theater industry was not only beloved, but essential.“Without Broadway,” he said, “New York would never come back economically.” More

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      Sara Bareilles on the Lessons of Pema Chodron and the Joy of 10-Mile Walks

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      The 41-year-old singer-songwriter is back on Broadway in September for her fourth starring turn in “Waitress.”Sara Bareilles is not finding her return to “Waitress” as easy as pie.Yes, this is her fourth time starring in the show on Broadway. Yes, she still has many of the lines memorized. Yes, she’s mastered the singing-while-sifting-flour drill.“But I realized how little I was doing over the past year and a half,” the 41-year-old singer-songwriter, who wrote the book and lyrics for “Waitress,” said in a phone conversation from an upstairs rehearsal room at New 42 Studios on a recent Friday morning. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.”Her return to the show in the starring role of Jenna Hunterson — a baker and waitress trapped in an abusive relationship who sees a pie-making contest as a way out — for a six-week run that begins Sept. 2 will be especially poignant, she said, after the loss of Nick Cordero, an original Broadway cast member who died in July 2020 after a monthslong battle with the coronavirus.“Coming back to this was intense in ways I hadn’t anticipated,” she said. “The story is so rooted in resilience and community, and the discovery of self-worth and self-love, and those are also themes in the real world right now.”In a phone conversation, she discussed how she prioritized her mental health during the pandemic, revealed her favorite spots in New York City for long walks and spoke about a place she considers a wonder of the world. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1. “When Things Fall Apart”The first time I read it, I was going through a bad breakup. Pema Chodron is one of my favorite spiritual leaders, and I’ve read many of her books and listened to many of her lectures and done retreats. It’s really just about simplicity and acceptance, because the more we resist what’s in front of us, the more we create our own suffering. Right now, for instance, I’m tired; I’m exhausted. I wish I was in better shape — but the question is how I can adjust to support myself in the truth of what is rather than spending energy on blaming myself and punishing myself for it not being different.2. Ten Percent Happier AppI’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was in my early 20s — and probably, if I’m honest with myself, before that. I’ve been in weekly talk therapy for many years, and meditation is one of the things that I do as just a bare-bones maintenance of my mental health. I’ve been a meditator on and off for around six years, but I’ve been meditating every day for about a year now, so I give the app credit for making it easier to become more consistent. I love the teachers, the teachings, the layout, the whole interface. The great takeaway from my meditation practice is that you can be happy in a day and then sad in a day, in an hour, in a minute — our experience as humans shifts and changes incessantly.3. Good News Movement Instagram PageWhen you take in so much of the news cycle and what we’ve all been going through, to shine a light on people just spending energy being kind to each other makes me happy. It reminds me that while we might be careening off a cliff collectively, there’s some good people. And it’s a contrast to the rest of social media, which breeds narcissism. It’s probably turning us all into zombies, but I’m going to watch cute dog videos, I guess, as I morph.4. “Free to Be … You and Me”“Free to Be … You and Me” came into my life as a child, and it’s still one of the great radical accomplishments of a community of artists. The stories they were telling to young children in these very fun and subversive ways were avant-garde and progressive. They were talking about gender and stereotypes and emotions and things that weren’t traditionally fed to the child psyche. It rocked my world, and I listened to it over and over and over again. And then I got to revisit it just last year and sing the theme song for a benefit I did with Seth Rudetsky. There was a song called “It’s Alright to Cry,” and I am a self-proclaimed crier. I have a friend who said, “There are two kinds of people in this world: There are wet people and there are dry people,” and I am very much a wet person, so I really loved that song.5. “Waitress”The arts have been told for the last year and a half that we’re not essential, and I’ve seen how devastating that has been to the community and how many people have left the industry completely. But I’ve also now witnessed how the last year and a half has galvanized the community to be more intentional and to come back to work with a deeper commitment to taking care of our members, and it feels like it’s a space where you can actually see tactile change. Getting to step back into “Waitress” is a way for me to process what has happened with people that I love so much.6. Big SurIt’s been a place I’ve gone to over the years for respite, for connection, to get to stand among the redwood trees on rocky beach cliffs. Big Sur, for me, is one of the seven wonders of the world, so it’s devastating to now see it threatened by wildfires. Sadly, I think we’re only at the tip of the iceberg of watching things in places that we love change because of our actions. It’s time to wake up and do something about it.7. “Where Should We Begin? With Esther Perel” PodcastEsther Perel is one of my spiritual teachers, although she probably wouldn’t call herself that — she’s a psychotherapist. She’s a brilliant mind who walks through difficult spaces and does a lot of couples therapy, and now she has a new podcast about workplace dynamics and relationships. The “Where Should We Begin?” podcast is something I’ve found so much solace in. The instability and concentrated time brought a lot to the surface that needed to be dealt with. She has some helpful reframing tools that have really opened up spaces for me.8. Antique StoresWhenever my boyfriend, Joe Tippett, and I are on a road trip or in a new place, we always gravitate toward the antique stores. I love imagining the stories of all these items that have had previous lives. I’ve been thinking a lot about not buying as many new things as an act of love for our planet — reduce, reuse, recycle. I’m trying to populate my life with things that have already been made.9. Nina Simone’s “Little Girl Blue”This is a desert island album for me. It was Nina Simone’s first record, and knowing where she was headed in her life as an artist and activist, there’s something so resonant and intimate about the simplicity of this record. You feel her youth, but no insecurity; she’s such a powerful performer, even at such a young age. It’s a newer discovery, within the last 10 years — I attach it in my mind to when I moved to New York.10. 10-Mile WalksIf I could choose to do one thing on a day off, it would be a super long walk in Manhattan. During lockdown, I would take these 10-mile walks because there was nothing else to do. I would just walk the length of the island — I’d go up and down West Side Highway or Riverside Park or through Central Park or on the east side, all the way down to the Seaport and Battery Park. And then as people started creeping back out, I got to see the best parts of the city: the resilience, the scrappiness, people making those pop-up places with outdoor seating that cropped up everywhere. I just love that spirit of New York City. More

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      ‘Waitress’ Is Returning to Broadway. So Is Sara Bareilles.

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      The popular musical secured a limited engagement at the Ethel Barrymore Theater this fall. The singer and songwriter will reprise her role for six weeks.She used to be Broadway’s. Now she’s back.The singer and songwriter Sara Bareilles — who wrote the music and lyrics for the musical “Waitress” — will return as the protagonist, Jenna Hunterson, from Sept. 2 through Oct. 17.The show will continue to run after that, at the Ethel Barrymore Theater, through Jan. 9, 2022. After a wildly successful debut at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in April 2016, the show spent four years on Broadway, closing in January 2020.Over the course of the show’s run, Bareilles has periodically played the starring role of Jenna, a baker and waitress stuck in an abusive relationship who sees a pie-baking contest as a way out. In a statement, she drew parallels between the hope and resilience within the show and that of the theater community during the pandemic.“With this change comes powerful motivation to bring what we have learned and experienced this past year to make something even more beautiful and more intentional,” Bareilles said. “Broadway is grit and grace, magic and mayhem, and I can’t wait to feel the electricity that pulses through all of us as the curtains rise once again.”“Waitress” was the first Broadway musical to feature four women in the top four creative spots, Bareilles added. (Its book was by Jessie Nelson, choreography by Lorin Latarro and direction by Diane Paulus.)“Broadway is returning as the engine that drives New York City’s recovery, drawing audiences from around the world to be wowed, to celebrate, to cry and to laugh again,” Barry and Fran Weissler, who are among the show’s producers, said in a statement. More