logblog

This is the third and final post in a series about Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. You can also read the first and second parts.

In the last section of my ponderings on Into the Woods, I thought it’d be nice to look at the recordings available of the show. The Original Broadway Cast gives a lively and entertaining (if slapstick and cartoony at times) performance on the taped version of the show available on DVD. What was going on when they recorded the cast recording? The tempos are slow as Christmas and the entire cast sounds like they have a gun to their head and are being forced to sing. Seeing the two recordings, you’d hardly think they were even the same cast. The OBCR is interesting though in the cut material it provides. We’re treated to an extended “A Very Nice Prince” that contains a section similar to the middle of “Agony.” I agree with this cut first and foremost because it’s nice, but not needed. It also makes “On the Steps of the Palace” a little redundant, in my opinion. I like that she doesn’t even really think about making a decision until that final evening. It makes the climax of the song a bigger deal for the character, and therefore more interesting for the audience. There’s also a longer version of the “Witch’s Lament,” in which there is more of a reprise of “Stay With Me,” and a few extra lines in “Any Moment.” Again, unnecessary and a happy cut. If you get the remastered print of the CD, you also get some bonus tracks, such as the “On the Steps…” precursor “Back to the Palace” and “Boom Crunch” which was eventually replaced by “Last Midnight.” Both are remarkably similar to the songs that later replaced them, and both are pretty inferior to their replacement as well. They’re still interesting to hear, though.

My favorite recording is the Original London Cast. The CD is excellently produced, the only recording to split up the Act 1 Finale into separate tracks. The orchestra sounds excellent and crisp, as do the performers. Not only do the British accents here really suit the story, there are so fantastic performances. The stand-out for me is Julia Mackenzie’s witch, which is much much better than Bernadette’s. She sounds like an old woman and a witch, and then still delivers the most terrifying rendition of “Last Midnight” I’ve ever heard. Imelda Staunton (now of Harry Potter fame, she was Prof. Umbridge) also gives an excellent performance as the Baker’s Wife, one that rivals Joanna Gleason Tony-winning turn. The narrator may not be able to sing on key in Ever After, but I find this recording to be the most satisfactory. The London production was clearly much darker than the original Broadway, and I would have loved to see it. The way they did their wolf is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen. You can watch it below, though keep in mind this performance was taped for a television show and the set they’re on is not the set that was used in full production.

I barely even want to talk about the 2002 Broadway Revival recording. That production was actually the first Broadway show I ever saw, and at the time it was really exciting. With time, I kind of realized how terrible a production it was. I’ll start with the good. The physical production was really gorgeous. I loved the added choreography. I LOVED the cow. I also liked the “Oos” they added to the title number. Laura Benanti and Kerry O’Malley were both fantastic. That being said, WHAT were they thinking changing the ending to “On the Steps…” and the lyrics to “Last Midnight.” Both HORRIBLE choices. Also, WHY did they add pigs to “Hello, Little Girl?” Terrible. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.

The moral is, get the London cast recording if you need one.

That’s all I have to say about Into the Woods, at least for now. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. If not, stop reading. If you’d like to come see my production of Into the Woods, visit the Sooner Theatre’s website for performance and ticket information. Until next time!

This is the second of a three part post on Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. To read part one, click here.

Jumping back Into the Woods, here a couple other tidbits I’ve discovered over the years you might find interesting. First, did you know that Betsy Joslyn was one of the Broadway witches?Yes, that’s right! That crazy-ass Johanna from the Sweeney Todd filmed stage production. I think she’s way over the top and terrible in Sweeney Todd, not to mention cross-eyed. Oh, and by the way, the next time you’re listening to her shrieking trills in “Green Finch,” keep this in mind: She made them transpose that song UP for her. Crazy. The strange thing is, I’ve heard a private recording of her witch, and it was actually pretty good. I don’t really know where the belt came from, or even the not-crazy-over-the-top-ness, but I don’t care. I enjoyed listening to it heartily. One more Betsy Joslyn tidbit: she was married to George Hearn while Sweeney Todd was taped. Whole other dynamic to that story.

Also, have any of you ever seen this? It’s a children’s book of the story to Into the Woods with beautiful illustrations by Hudson Talbott. I really wish someone would mount a production based on the pictures in this book, because they are quite wonderful. I especially like the stepsisters with the white faces and little red cheeks. Here’s some of Talbott’s illustrations:

Beautiful. Next week, I’ll write some about the various recordings available for the show. Thanks for reading!

While preparing and working on the music direction to Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s ‘Into the Woods,’ I’ve naturally been able to give it quite a bit of thought.

I think the score is not only fantastic, but one of Sondheim’s best. He again and again is able to express very complex and hard-to-describe things with the simplest lyrics possible–AND they rhyme. I notice this the most in what I call the “realization” songs of the show, namely “I Know Things Now,” “Giants in the Sky,” “On the Steps of the Palace,” and “Moments in the Woods.” All three are songs in which Sondheim has a character working through an experience that they almost don’t know what to do with. We get to watch as they think through them and decide what there is to be learned from what’s happened to them. I think my favorite lyric in the whole show comes at the end of Little Red’s number, when she says, “Isn’t it nice to know a lot? And a little bit not.” It’s so simple and so true, and when performed well, really packs a punch. It’s a really great score with no weak links that I can think of.

The book, for me, is another story. I get where Lapine was going with it, I really do, and it’s a good concept, but it seems to have gotten lost somewhere along the way. So we have these characters that have found happiness at the end of Act 1, most of whom who have done questionable things to achieve it. So, in Act 2, they have to deal with those questionable choices, right? Right! Everyone is being punished for the things they did. Jack stole from the Giant, and when he got mad, killed him. There’s nothing respectable about the scenario, and the Giantess coming down is the direct result. You could also argue his mother’s death as his punishment. Little Red finds glee in the torturous death of a wolf in Act 1, only to find her mother and grandmother dead in Act 2. These go on and on for each character. Why then, I have to ask, is the “happy ending” of the show the murder of the Giantess? What exactly did she do, other than be angry about her husband’s warrant-less murder? Some would argue there is no happy ending, but I would direct them to the Giantess’s death music, which I think can only be taken as happy. Others would argue they’re happy that they’re no longer in mortal danger, but that the point of the show is that no decision is just wrong or right. There’s lots of grey area but you have to make those choices for yourself and make the best of your life. That’s all well and good. The Baker’s Wife discovers just that in “Moments in the Woods,” a song that has a message I very much agree with. Why then, does she die RIGHT after singing it? I don’t think it was necessarily Lapine’s intention to imply what she says in that song is false, but dramatically it’s almost impossible to not think that that was the statement he was making. The really bad thing about that is it raises questions of why some people die and others live, which results in ranking sins, if you will. Are we to believe the Baker’s Wife’s cheating was so horrible as to be punishable by death, while others’ were not? I’ll take it a step further and tell you that in the Pre-Broadway production in Chicago back in the 80’s, the Baker’s Wife died of a poisoned apple instead of a giant’s footstep. Now, they were probably going for a Sleeping Beauty reference, but one is hard pressed to not see lines drawn to Adam and Eve and original sin. Layered with some of the other things I’ve been talking about, this plot choice begins to become downright offensive. I think it was an excellent choice to change her method of death.

What is it with Lapine and second acts? Sunday in the Park with George is the same way. It has a fantastic first act, a wonderful score–it even has a concept I completely understand and agree with. The first act by itself would not be, in my opinion, dramatically satisfactory. However, I think the concept here must be flawed because the second act is largely pointless and filler. Apart from learning that Act 2 George has a DNA connection to Act 1 Georges and also that Act 2 George is feeling lost in his work, these is NO need for anything in Act 2 until they go back to the island. I’m not suggesting this scene alone should have just been tacked on as an epilogue to act 2. In truth, I have no idea how Sunday… could be made dramatically better. I do know that the second act has major dramatic issues due to, in my opinion, a major flaw in concept. It’s remarkably similar to the issues in Into the Woods.

That being said, both are shows I love and would much rather see over 90% of the rest of musical theatre. More on woods later! Have a great day everybody.