Into the woods and out of the woods and on Broadway before fall?" That might be the words the Ahmanson Theatre is singing in 2002 when the Los Angeles theatre hosts a Broadway-bound revival of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods Feb. 1-March 24. The all-new production will be directed by the musical's original director and bookwriter, James Lapine.

The revival, produced by Dodger Theatricals in association with the Center Theatre Group, is targeting Broadway in Spring 2002.

Billed as a family show, Into the Woods twists popular fairy tales, infusing them with an adult sense of what happens after the "Happily Ever After." Jack's murder of the giant (of beanstalk fame) provokes the wrath of his giant wife, Cinderella's prince is a hopeless philanderer, the witch is not wicked but overprotective, and a slightly psychotic Little Red Riding Hood proudly wears the grey skin of the wolf she cut up from the inside out. The score is one of Sondheim's most popular, with the comic and manic "Into the Woods," "Agony" and "On the Steps of the Palace" contrasting with the dramatic and wondering "Children Will Listen" and "Giants in the Sky."

At the May 16 Tony Awards nominations brunch at New York City's Marriott Marquis, Dodgers producer Michael David confirmed that Woods would be targeting Broadway after the Ahmanson. He also mentioned that Sondheim and Lapine would do some revisions the show's book. "When the original show toured, it already had changes in the second act from what was on Broadway," David told Playbill On-Line, "so Stephen and James are definitely taking a look at it again and seeing what they'll do with it."

The Dodgers, producers of this season's 42nd Street are also in preliminary stages of developing Dirty Dancing and Frank Wildorn's Dracula The Musical for Broadway. Their Off-Broadway production of Urinetown: The Musical, running at the American Theatre of Actors space through June 30, will move to Henry Miller's Theatre, former home of Cabaret.