Culver City Observer -

Kentwood Players presents the Tony Award-winning musical "Into the Woods" with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine, from Friday, November 14 to Saturday, December 20.

There will be performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm, with two Thursday night performances at 8 pm on December 11 and 18 at the Westchester Playhouse, 8301 Hindry Avenue, Westchester.

The production is directed by Shawn K. Summerer with musical direction by Catherine Rahm, produced by Lori Marple-Pereslete and Tony Pereslete by special arrangement with Music Theatre International.

The original Broadway production won the 1988 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, and the original cast recording won a Grammy Award. The show was nominated for 10Tony Awards, and won three: Best Score (Stephen Sondheim), Best Book (James Lapine) and Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason).

"Into the Woods" is tied together by an original story involving a childless baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family, their dealings with a Witch who has placed a curse on them, and their interaction with other storybook characters during their journey.

Join Cinderella, Little Red Ridinghood, Rapunzel, Jack the Giant Slayer, and many other famous storybook characters as they each venture into the foreboding woods in search of magical items, love, money, or simply a purpose in life.

To purchase tickets, please call (310) 645-5156 during box office hours, Wednesday through Saturday from 4 pm to 7. You may also purchase tickets online at http://www.kentwoodplayers.org.

For group ticket sales call Lori Marple-Pereslete at (310) 216-9094 or the box office. The show is appropriate for all ages. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult in the theater.

During the run of "Into the Woods" Kentwood Players will hold its second annual Kentwood Kares Coat Drive, collecting new and gently used coats, jackets and sweaters to be donated to the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles on San Pedro Street, a group that provides emergency and long term services to men, women and children trying to escape living on Skid Row.