INTRODUCTION
Shortly after their successful collaboration in Sunday in the Park with George, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine started another project: put together a musical theatre piece based on a series of fairy-tales. They finally developed a show based on a combination of characters they had invented, as well as including classic fairy-tale characters, mostly drawn from the Brothers Grimm fairy-tales, incorporating at the same time some modern psychoanalytical theories. Into the woods opened in New York in 1988, to great critical acclaim. In 1989 it won three Tony Awards.
(Source: freely adapted from the theatre programme)
THE STORY
When a Baker and his Wife learn they've been cursed with childlessness by the Witch next door, they embark on a quest for the special objects (a cow as white as milk... a cape as red as blood... hair as yellow as corn... a slipper as pure as gold... ) required to break the spell, swindling, lying to and stealing from Cinderella (with the slipper as pure as gold) Little Red Ridinghood (with a cape as red as blood) Rapunzel (with the hair as yellow as corn) and Jack (the one who climbed the beanstalk - with the cow as white as milk).
Everyone's wish is granted at the end of Act One but the consequences of their actions return to haunt them later, with disastrous results. A Giant (A female Giant, that is) steps down from the heavens and straight upon some beloved characters. It takes a few lives before the survivors realize that they have to act altogether in order to succeed. Thus, what begins a lively irreverent fantasy becomes a moving lesson about community responsibility and the stories we tell our children.
Click HERE for a more detailed synopsis (from Musical Heaven)
MUSICAL NUMBERS
ACT ONE
Prologue: Into the Woods - Company
Hello, Little Girl - Wolf, Little Red Ridinghood
I Guess This is Goodbye - Jack
Maybe They're Magic - Baker's Wife
Our Little World - Witch, Rapunzel
I Know Things Now - Little Red Ridinghood
A Very Nice Prince - Baker's Wife, Cinderella
Giants in the Sky - Jack
Agony - Cinderella's Prince, Rapunzel's Prince
It Takes Two - Baker, Baker's Wife
Stay With Me - Witch
On the Steps of the Palace - Cinderella
Ever After - Narrator, Company
ACT TWO
Prologue: So Happy - Company
Agony - Cinderella's Prince, Rapunzel's Prince
Lament - Witch
Any Moment - Cinderella's Prince, Baker's Wife
Moments in the Woods - Baker's Wife
Your Fault - Jack, Baker, Witch, Cinderella, Little Red Ridinghood
Last Midnight - Witch
No More - Baker, Mysterious Old Man
No one is Alone - Cinderella, Little Red Ridinghood, Baker, Jack
Finale: Children will Listen - Company
Big thanks to Diane for graciously providing the production's programme. |
In 1994 the STC production of Into the Woods scooped 5 Mo Awards:
- Musical Theatre Production of the Year;
- Male Musical Theatrical Performer & "Kevin Jacobsen" Theatrical Performer: Philip Quast;
- Female Musical Theatrical Performer: Judi Connelli;
- Supporting Musical Theatrical Performer: Sharon Millerchip. |
One of the many things that Into the Woods and its creators do is invite us, the audience to journey into the woods and out of the woods, on a continuing basis, to gain a modicum of meaning in our existence.
Frederick Shaw, STC programme |
| In 1991 Philip Quast was offered the dual role of the Wolf and Cinderella's Prince on the West End production of the musical, but declined because he did not want to tackle another Sondheim so soon after Sunday in the Park with George. |
If we are going to do musicals, then we should produce the shows that commercial producers are reluctant to pick up... We also should do these works because of the challenges they offer to our musical-theatre performers. Most of them could do High Society on their heads, whereas Into the Woods stretches them to the limit of their abilities.
Wayne Harrison, former Artistic Director of the STC
|
When I first saw the STC's cartoon version of Stephen Sondheim's fairytale musical, Into the Woods, I was charmed as much by Sharon Millerchip's performance of Little Red Riding Hood as I was by the two handsome princes played with such joie de vivre by Philip Quast and D. J. Foster.
Bob Evans, Sydney Morning Herald
|
|
INTO THE WOODS
Full Cast & Crew
