‘Into the Woods’ is talent forward in every sense

Like most folks who lay claim to being a former theater kid, a solid portion of my childhood was spent watching a grainy PBS taping of “Into the Woods” on YouTube. There is at least a decade’s worth of distance between those early viewings and the current Broadway production mounted at the St. James Theatre, but Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s mythical musical remains a delight. The only difference is my interpretation of it. As a child, “Into the Woods” taught me the difference between good and evil. As an adult, it threw that same lesson away. The Witch is more complicated this go around: not a looming figure haunting the other characters’ tales, but a passionate mother with the vengeance of any woman who has been wronged. She is no longer the “bad guy” who my binary memories are tempted to paint her as. In fact, no one in the musical is.