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Arts

ARTS Pick: Follies

Grand stage: A Stephen Sondheim and Richard Rodgers collaboration would appear to be a sure bet for any Broadway investor, yet 1965’s Do I Hear A Waltz? fell far short of critical acclaim. The redeeming factor is that it caused Sondheim to only accept projects where he could write both the music and lyrics, and led to Follies, one of the most ambitious musicals of his career. The award-winning musical evolves from the reminiscences of showgirls, and is based on a story about the reunion of some performers from the Ziegfeld Follies. It features a stylistic revival of the theatrical revue productions that defined old Broadway, and director and accomplished thespian Robert Chapel says, “I deeply admire Live Arts’ chutzpah in accepting the challenges producing this grand musical brings.”

Through Sunday, October 27. $25-30, times vary. Live Arts, 123 Water St. 977-4177.

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Arts

ARTS Pick: Into the Woods

Alternately imagined as a musical, Disney film and an opera, Into the Woods is itself a reimagining of classic Brothers Grimm stories and other fairy tales. Charlottesville Opera pulls together performers from Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic to play characters like Cinderella, the Wolf and the Witch. The lives and problems of the fairy tale figures interweave in a story that questions the nature and consequences of wishes, be they benign or evil.

Friday, July 27. $25-75, 7:30pm. The Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Downtown Mall. 979-1333.