Into The Political Woods

So I was looking at my copy of Into The Woods, and there's this blurb on the back from Time magazine:

It is that joyous rarity, a work of sophisticated artistic ambition and deep political purpose that affords nonstop pleasure.

And I stared at it and thought, really? It must be pretty darned deep. So I was gratified when I came across these remarks by Stephen Sondheim:

Back in 1987, I got a lot of letters from people saying, 'Oh, I see, the giant is supposed to represent AIDS.' I said no, the giant represents a giant, that's all. James and I were not trying to make a subliminal point about anything, from AIDS to politics...

An artist can be surprised to find
what a reviewer sees in his mind.