Enchanted

'Enchanted April'Starring Josie Lawrence and Miranda Richardson.Directed by Mike Newell.Released by Miramax.Unrated.*** 1/2What would the English do without Italy? They might go ahead and get married, but they'd probably never have sex.And, in fact, Italy as incubator of the libido for the frosty bourgeois druids of the drizzly isle is a theme made most famous by E. M. Forster, but also used by lesser writers, notably Elizabeth von Arnim, who wrote her novel "Enchanted April" in 1921 in a castle overlooking the Mediterranean.

It's been a couple of growing seasons since the Enchanted Garden at Howard County's Miller Branch Library has taken root, its trees and bushes branching, perennials spreading, annuals blossoming and edibles bursting with nutrients and flavor. Developed next to the children's area of the library, its total space may consist of a mere quarter-acre, but Oasis Design Group, Live Green Landscape Associates LLC and many volunteers have managed to tuck in some 65 varieties of woody and perennial plants plus varying annuals, benches for relaxation and contemplation, a pond, a stream and even a couple of sculptures.

The staff and volunteers at Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City have rescued princesses, beanstalks, cottages and carriages from the defunct Enchanted Forest amusement park over several years. But as of last winter, there were still a few hitches in the figures' happy endings. Sleeping Beauty had no prince poised by her bedside for an awakening kiss; Jack had no Jill to help him fetch a pail of water; the castle facade lacked both dragon and damsel; and you really can't get by with two of the three little pigs.

An enchanted evening can be found by entering Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre to go "Into the Woods" — where nothing is quite what it seems, and fairy-tale characters interact in unexpected ways. This groundbreaking 1987 musical was written by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, and Annapolis Summer Garden offered a magical outdoor production in 2001. The sardonic, sophisticated tale is even better this time around for the troupe. Music is paramount in this show, and the score for "Into the Woods" is well interpreted by music director Trent Goldsmith, who leads the ensemble in a near-flawless delivery of Sondheim's challenging work.

Finding the fresh response in obvious situations has become a specialty for Amy Adams - never more so than in Enchanted, in which she plays a fairy-tale beauty named Giselle who tumbles down a well in the magic kingdom of Andalasia and ends up peering out from a manhole in Times Square. Over the phone from Manhattan, Adams says that when she read the Enchanted script she saw that "it was a different incarnation of the classic fish-out-of-water story, the way it was told." The character of Giselle revved up her comic engine.

Cinderella's pumpkin coach, which carried children through the now-defunct Enchanted Forest theme park in Ellicott City for 20 years, will soon make a final journey to a new home at a Howard County farm. The bright-orange fiberglass pumpkin on wheels deteriorated for nearly a decade after the storybook-themed park closed for good in 1994. But in May, it was refurbished by volunteers, auctioned for charity and trucked to the garage of its present owners in Middle River. Now business partners Scott Shepherd and Elby Proffitt believe they have found a better home for the coach at Clark's Elioak Farm, which offers a petting farm, pumpkin patch, hayrides and other family activities along Route 108 in Ellicott City.

Enchanted will make some enchanted evening for the dating crowd and also be a boisterous Saturday matinee for youngsters. This tale of fairy-tale characters who tumble down a well in the storybook land of Andalasia and come rocketing up a manhole in New York's Times Square has a piquant idea and enough good jokes to overcome its uneven moviemaking and uncertain tone. Best of all, it has Amy Adams as the gorgeous maiden Giselle - and she carries the film gracefully and uproariously on her creamy shoulders.

It wasn't always clear yesterday whether Cinderella's pumpkin coach was a bigger hit with the little kids poking their heads through its windows, or with their parents - flush with their own childhood memories of Howard County's vanished Enchanted Forest amusement park. The orange coach, now installed at Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City, along with Mother Goose and three teams of gigantic white mice, triggered a flood of memories among many grown-up "children" who visited yesterday as the park's artifacts began their new life at the farm.

LIFE ISN'T always glamorous. Few of us look like Brad Pitt, live in mansions like Bill Gates, dance like Michael Jackson. Instead, we do whatever it takes to get the job done. That's the story of the Baltimore Ravens, too. Hard working. Unheralded. Not the smoothest or the most talented. But this football team wins games. "Winning ugly" is the term. A grind-it-out running attack. Blocked field goals. Punts returned for touchdowns. A smothering run defense. The media glorify teams with high-scoring offenses and marquee quarterbacks.

Anne Arundel Community College's Moonlight Troupers tackle Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning South Pacific - with some success - in a run that ends Sunday at the Pascal Center for Performing Arts. The 1949 musical originally starred Mary Martin and the Metropolitan Opera's Ezio Pinza. Based on James Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, it is set on a small island during World War II where homesick servicemen wait to enter the battle against the Japanese. South Pacific features parallel love stories, both dealing with racial prejudice.

It was a fantasyland created to celebrate innocent storybook tales, yet it was integrated nearly a decade before civil rights laws demanded it. That was the unusual mix of sweetness and humanity that could be found for decades at the Enchanted Forest in Ellicott City. Their sentimental pull still powerful nearly six decades later, the Ellicott City amusement park's figures and structures, which found a second home eight years ago at Clark's Elioak Farm, will soon enjoy yet another revival in the public's consciousness.

Ever stay at a wonderful hotel and dream of replicating that style at home? Travelers often covet the fluffy bedding, chic furnishings, deep soaking tubs and fancy showerheads that are standard these days at many hotels. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, there's no better time to evoke a cozy, romantic bed-and-breakfast or a luxe hotel feel right within your own abode. "The home is a sacred place. You share it with those that you care about and love the most," says Amanda Austin, owner of the eponymous Baltimore interior design firm.

"The Nutcracker" has become a treasured entertainment tradition of the Christmas season, and again this year a most enchanting version can be found in Annapolis at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. At the Ballet Theatre of Maryland's opening performance, artistic director Dianna Cuatto briefly traced the history of this holiday favorite. Composed by Peter Tchaikovsky and choreographed by Marius Petipa, "The Nutcracker" originally received a cool reception at its Russian premiere in December 1892.

The handsomely staged production of “South Pacific” at the Hippodrome Theatre is a welcome reminder that Rodgers and Hammerstein understood the dynamics of musical theater as well as anybody. Familiar songs roll out, one after another, in a score that includes “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There is Nothin'  Like a Dame,” “I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair” and “Bali Ha'i.”  Not bad at all. This revival does an especially effective job of reinforcing this 1949 musical's thematic emphasis on the racial attitudes that still characterized American society.

Not all of the real estate from nursery rhymes and fairy tales is created equal. Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater's bright-orange abode, where he keeps his Marie Antoinette look-alike wife, is so light that one person easily rolled it into place on a recent workday at Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City. Even the Gingerbread House that Hansel and Gretel long ago discovered on a trek through the forest slid easily off a flatbed truck, with just a few pairs of hands and a two-by-four guiding it to its cozy resting spot amid the white pines.

The Columbia Figure Skating Club will present "Enchanted on Ice and Other Box Office Hits" - featuring excerpts from Twilight, A Chorus Line, Chicago, Madagascar, Camp Rock and Mamma Mia! - at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. March 28 and 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. March 29. Performances are at the Columbia Ice Rink, 5876 Thunder Hill Road. The community performance for families features more than 100 performers ages 4 to adult and includes many high-level skaters. Tickets are $10; children to age 3 get in free.

As I pass beneath the arbor and bend down to enter the stone Faerie Cottage in the Enchanted Woods, I am transported back to the games of imagination that my brother and I played as children. We had woods and a stream, but we never had a setting as filled with magical possibility as this. The thatched-roof stone Faerie Cottage looks like Beowulf's great hall on a child's scale, with an oak-leaf chandelier and marble-frame fireplace. The cottage is the centerpiece of the Enchanted Woods, the first newly created garden at Winterthur in 30 years.

Like the stunningly beautiful part of the world where it takes place, the musical South Pacific has one of Rodgers and Hammerstein's most luxurious scores. It also has one of their most hard-hitting themes - racial prejudice. With the exception of some second-act trims, the touring production at the Mechanic Theatre reverently re-creates the elements that make this show great. Still, one can't help wishing it were more than just an "Enchanted Evening." Director Scott Faris' interpretation is a decent introduction for newcomers, but while it reminds you of what a strong musical this is, it doesn't bring out any new insights, and that's especially a shame considering the timeliness of the show's message of racial tolerance in wartime.

Lerner and Loewe's Brigadoon describes a mythical village in which 18th-century folks wake up for only one day after sleeping 100 years. Reckoning in performing arts time, one might say nine years between performances in Annapolis equals a "Brigadoon" century. In February 2000, Annapolis Chorale music director J. Ernest Green brought Brigadoon to Maryland Hall's stage in what he recalls as "only the second musical in our 'Broadway in Annapolis' series." When Brigadoon debuted on Broadway in 1947, it marked musical team Lerner and Loewe's first success and was followed by blockbusters My Fair Lady in 1956 and Camelot in 1960.

The Fantasticks , off-Broadway's longest-running musical (1960-2002). Its simple boy-girl story is a twist on Romeo and Juliet, with their scheming mothers pretending to be feuding neighbors who oppose their children's having a romantic relationship to ensure that they'll actually have one. The innocent teenagers fall in love to provide a moonlit happy ending in Act 1 and find problems when the sun rises in Act 2. Instead of getting married, they go...