“Into the Woods,” the Sondheim masterpiece, happens to be in San Francisco for a brief run. And the gods being on my side, our side, we just happened to get two seats. The thing sold out almost instantly. But three months ago, I stared at the website, spotted a vacancy in the wheelchair row of the Curran Theater, and the rest is personal history.

Hard to say what’s so exciting about really good live theater. I think it’s the inventiveness. The sense of human imagination flung free and wide. This production dances at the end of an improbable string. Originally a concert version, sans set, with minimal action…the thing jumped from New York’s City Center to Broadway. Then to San Francisco, thank God.

I found the whole experience so stimulating, that it literally interfered with my sleep. Why? Because here the sense of invention is driven by something considerably deeper. Deep loss of innocence may be the theme of the evening. And there’s something about having Grimms’ fairytales (and others) interwoven and finding their own energy and direction…well, in this production it just gets to everyone. Theater audiences tend to be sedate. But this one was roaring, cheering, practically jumping up and down throughout.

It’s an adult show. And by this I mean that there are some very convincing character shifts. Little Red Riding Hood acquires enough life experience to become rather scary by show’s end. And the Baker’s wife, having had an unexpected kiss by a prince, experiences an unexpected and wholly convincing orgasm…which only briefly stops the action, near the evening’s end. And of course the score. I’m not sure the music has ever sounded better.

Jane and I boarded the BART subway for a ride home and bumped into one of Jane’s former parishioners. She had a violin strapped to her back. And yes, we had just heard her play. The show’s orchestra was also superb. And being an evolved concert version, the orchestra is actually on stage. I won’t go into detail. It all works. And it all works on the psyche, which explains my excitement and inability to sleep.

It also explains why we moved to San Francisco and continue our enjoyable stay here. And much like the play’s script, things are not uncomplicated. The Sondheim/Lapine play famously has a happy ending at the end of act one, then complicates into real life in act two. I don’t know what act of the San Francisco drama we are into. But I assume act one is over. There is misery everywhere.

But there is misery everywhere in the United States of America these days. A small contingent of congressional Republicans, yes, I kid you not, Republicans…is openly questioning the free market nonsense that is currently killing the nation. This is heresy. And mind you, quite a few Democrats go along with the same pernicious nonsense. So, there is hope. Not much, but hope is hope.

So on that pleasant note, no pun intended, I am going to go do something else. Whatever I do, it will be serenaded by the evening’s lyrics. I particularly love the glib subtlety of Rapunzel, as described by a passing prince. “High in a tower, she sits by the hour, maintaining her hair.”