Into The Woods

            On November 5th, 1987, James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods opened for the first time (imagi-nation). Into The Woods, fairytale like in design, was a mix of, or a more appropriate term would be, a uniting of characters from Cinderella, Little Red Ridinghood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. Throughout this musical there are many underlined themes, but perhaps the biggest theme of all is that there is never truly a "Happily Ever After." Unlike most fairy tales you will see done by, say, Disney for example, Into The Woods focuses on the darker side of the story showing the consequences to actions, and that choices are not easy (Miler 111). .
             Much like the musical The Fantasticks, the first half of the show tells a story that ends in a "happily ever after" type of feeling. In the second half, however, it goes from that happy feeling to a dark one telling of Cinderella's prince having an affair with the Bakers Wife, and the Giant's wife coming bake to avenge her husbands" death. It really gets into detail about the hard decisions the characters are forced to make throughout the rest of the musical, and it does make us ponder the question, "Is there ever really a happily ever after?".
             After asking myself this question, I had to look into this a little harder to see if I could answer this question. Among many other things, Into The Woods really points out that there must be consequences to ones actions. In reality, life does not end once a person gets their wish. Like in the classic story The Little Mermaid, it does not end like in most of the cartoons of it. It ends with her killing herself in the end. It does not stop at the happy part of the story. Another example is in Rapunzel when the prince is blinded, which is also left out most of the time. .
             Looking further into it I found that most movies today that end with the "Happily ever after," theme also come as a result of someone dieing.