You can make a production as pretty as you’d like and Theater West End has done a handsome job with the musical “Dogfight” but it can’t hide the fact there’s a lot of ugly business going on.
Powerful as that theme may be, DOGFIGHT as written isn't fully the righteous proposition it hopes to be. At its core are some deeply troublesome male figures who engage in truly horrendous behavior, and while theatre is always welcome to put unseemly or complicated characters on the stage, DOGFIGHT never entirely deals with their deeds, which include among other things attempted rape. Playwright Peter Duchan clearly understands his character to be problematic, but their brisk redemption by way of jaunty music and degrees of forgiveness from the women on stage can at times feel like unearned absolution.
With the passing of Sondheim in November, listening to his words on choices and aging and surviving our own journeys in the woods takes on a special poignancy. With flair, Theater West End has captured much of the best of a true theatrical masterwork, “Into the Woods.”
Those who haven't encountered INTO THE WOODS before won't miss anything at Theater West End. It's still the story of Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Jack the giant chaser, and a baker and his wife and the witch that cursed them all heading into the same woods at the same time for very different reasons. Their journeys intersect in song and scandal as Sondheim spins the yarn of didactic fantasy into the gold of complex moral quandry. The result is a work as nuanced and astute in its reflection on the human condition as any that music theatre has ever had to offer.
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