Into the Woods
Into the Woods is a 1987 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.
This article is about the musical play. For other uses, see Into the Woods (disambiguation).Into the Woods
Stephen Sondheim
The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from "Little Red Riding Hood" (spelled "Ridinghood" in the published vocal score), "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Rapunzel", "Cinderella", and several others. The musical is tied together by a story involving a childless baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family (the original beginning of the Grimm Brothers' "Rapunzel"), their interaction with a witch who has placed a curse on them, and their interaction with other storybook characters during their journey.
The second collaboration between Sondheim and Lapine after Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Into the Woods debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986 and premiered on Broadway on November 5, 1987, where it won three major Tony Awards (Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical for Joanna Gleason), in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera. The musical has since been produced many times, with a 1988 U.S. national tour, a 1990 West End production, a 1997 10th-anniversary concert, a 2002 Broadway revival, a 2010 outdoor Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production in London,[1] which transferred to a Shakespeare in the Park production in New York City, and a 2022 Broadway revival.
A Disney film adaptation, directed by Rob Marshall, was released in 2014. The film grossed over $213 million worldwide,[2] and received three nominations at both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
Synopsis[edit]
Act 1[edit]
The narrator introduces four groups of characters: Cinderella, who wishes to attend the king's festival; Jack, who wishes his cow, Milky White, would give milk; a baker and his wife, who wish to have a child; and Little Red Ridinghood,[3] who wishes for bread that she can bring to her grandmother.
The baker's neighbor, an ugly and aging witch, reveals the couple is infertile because she cursed his father for stealing her vegetables, including magic beans, which prompted the witch's own mother to punish her with the curse of age and ugliness. The witch took the baker's father's child, Rapunzel. She explains the curse will be lifted if she is brought four ingredients—"the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold"—within three days. If they fail to do so for any reason, they will forever be barren. All begin the journey into the woods: Jack to sell his beloved cow; Cinderella to her mother's grave; Little Red to her grandmother's house; and the baker, refusing his wife's help, to find the ingredients ("Prologue").
Cinderella receives a gown and golden slippers from her mother's spirit ("Cinderella at the Grave"). A mysterious man mocks Jack for valuing his cow more than a "sack of beans". Little Red meets a hungry wolf, who persuades her, with ulterior motives, to take a longer path and admire the beauty of the woods ("Hello, Little Girl"). The baker, followed by his wife, meets Jack. They convince him that the beans in the baker's father's jacket are magic and trade them for the cow; Jack bids Milky White a tearful farewell ("I Guess This Is Goodbye"). The baker has qualms about their deceit, but his wife reassures him ("Maybe They're Magic").
The witch has raised Rapunzel in a tall tower accessible only by climbing Rapunzel's long, golden hair ("Our Little World"); a prince spies Rapunzel. The baker, in pursuit of Little Red's cape ("Maybe They're Magic" Reprise), slays the wolf and rescues Little Red and her grandmother. Little Red rewards him with her cape, and reflects on her experiences ("I Know Things Now"). Jack's mother tosses aside his beans, which grow into an enormous stalk. Cinderella flees the festival, pursued by another prince, and the baker's wife hides her; asked about the ball, Cinderella is unimpressed ("A Very Nice Prince"). Spotting Cinderella's gold slippers, the baker's wife chases her and loses Milky White. The characters recite morals as the day ends ("First Midnight").
Jack describes his adventure climbing the beanstalk ("Giants in the Sky"). He gives the baker gold he stole from the giants to buy back his cow, and returns up the beanstalk to find more; the mysterious man steals the money. Cinderella's prince and Rapunzel's prince, who are brothers, compare their unobtainable amours ("Agony"). The baker's wife overhears their talk of a girl with golden hair. She fools Rapunzel and takes a piece of her hair. The mysterious man returns Milky White to the baker.
The baker's wife again fails to seize Cinderella's slippers. The baker admits they must work together ("It Takes Two"). Jack arrives with a hen that lays golden eggs, but Milky White keels over dead as midnight chimes ("Second Midnight"). The Witch discovers the prince's visits and demands Rapunzel stay sheltered from the world ("Stay with Me"). Rapunzel refuses, and the witch cuts off Rapunzel's hair and banishes her. The mysterious man gives the baker money for another cow. Jack meets Little Red, now sporting a wolfskin cape and knife. She goads him into returning to the giants' home to retrieve a golden harp.
Torn between staying with her prince and escaping, Cinderella leaves him a slipper as a clue ("On the Steps of the Palace") and trades shoes with the baker's wife. The baker arrives with another cow; they now have all four items. A great crash sounds, and Jack's mother reports a dead giant in her backyard. Jack returns with the harp. The witch discovers the new cow is useless, and resurrects Milky White, who is fed the ingredients but fails to give milk. The witch explains that Rapunzel's hair will not work because she touched it, and the mysterious man offers corn silk instead; Milky White produces the potion. The witch reveals the mysterious man is the baker's father, and drinks the potion. The mysterious man falls dead, the curse is broken, and the witch regains her youth and beauty.
Cinderella's prince seeks the girl who fits the slipper; Cinderella's desperate stepsisters mutilate their feet ("Careful My Toe"). Cinderella succeeds and becomes his bride. Rapunzel bears twins and is found by her prince. The witch finds her, and attempts to claim her back, but the witch's powers have been lost in exchange for her youth and beauty. At Cinderella's wedding, birds blind her stepsisters, and the baker's wife, now very pregnant, thanks Cinderella for her help ("So Happy" Prelude). Congratulating themselves on living "happily ever after", the characters fail to notice another beanstalk growing ("Ever After").
Act 2[edit]
The narrator continues, "Once upon a time... later." Everyone still has wishes—the baker and his wife face new frustrations with their infant son, newly rich Jack misses the kingdom in the sky, Cinderella is bored with life in the palace ("So Happy")—but is relatively content.
With a tremendous crash, a giant's foot destroys the witch's garden and damages the baker's home. The baker travels to the palace, but his warning is ignored by the prince's steward and by Jack's mother. Returning home, he finds Little Red on her way to her grandmother's; he and his wife escort her. Jack decides to slay the new giant and Cinderella investigates her mother's disturbed grave. Everyone returns to the woods, but notices that the weather is more ominous ("Into the Woods" Reprise).
Rapunzel, driven mad, also flees to the woods. Her prince follows and meets his brother; they confess their lust for two new women, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty ("Agony" Reprise).
The baker, his wife, and Little Red find Cinderella's family and the steward, who reveal that the giant set upon the castle. The witch brings news that the giant destroyed the village and the baker's house. The giantess—widow of the giant Jack killed—appears, seeking revenge. As a sacrifice, the group offer up the narrator, who is killed. Jack's mother defends her son, angering the giantess, and the steward silences Jack's mother, inadvertently killing her. As the giantess leaves in search of Jack, Rapunzel is trampled to death leaving the distraught Witch to mourn ("Witch's Lament").
The royal family flee despite the baker's pleas to stay and fight. The witch vows to find Jack and give him to the giantess, and the baker and his wife split up to find him first. Cinderella's prince seduces the baker's wife ("Any Moment"). The baker finds Cinderella and convinces her to join their group. The baker's wife reflects on her adventure and tryst with the prince ("Moments in the Woods"), but stumbles into the giantess's path and is killed.
The baker, Little Red, and Cinderella await the return of the baker's wife when the witch arrives holding Jack hostage, who is found weeping over the baker's wife's body. The baker turns against Jack, and the two, along with Cinderella and Little Red, blame each other for the situation before the four turn on the witch for cursing the father in the first place ("Your Fault"). Chastising their inability to accept their actions' consequences, the witch pelts them her remaining beans, and is struck by a curse for losing the magic beans again, killing herself in the process by turning into a pit of tar ("Last Midnight").
Grief-stricken, the baker flees, but is convinced by his father's spirit to face his responsibilities ("No More"). He returns and forms a plan to kill the giantess. Cinderella stays behind with the baker's child and confronts her prince over his infidelity. He explains his feelings of unfulfillment and that he wasn't raised to be sincere, and she asks him to leave.
Little Red discovers the giantess has killed her grandmother, as the baker tells Jack that his mother is dead. Jack vows to kill the steward but the baker dissuades him, while Cinderella comforts Little Red. The baker and Cinderella explain that choices have consequences, and everyone is connected ("No One Is Alone").
The four together slay the giantess by using the tar pit to trap her with, and the other characters—including the royal family, who have starved to death, and the princes and their new paramours—return to share one last set of morals. The survivors band together to hail the quartet as their heroes, and the spirit of the baker's wife comforts her mourning husband, encouraging him to tell their child their story. The baker begins to tell his son the tale, while the witch's spirit appears and warns the audience: "Careful the things you say, children will listen". All join in on a last reprise of the title song, surmising that we all must venture into the woods while remembering the choices we've made and learning from each endeavour we come across ("Finale: Children Will Listen"). As the characters conclude the song singing, "Into the woods, then out of the woods and happily ever after", Cinderella closes the show with one last "I wish..."
Productions[edit]
Pre-Broadway San Diego production[edit]
Into the Woods premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California, on December 4, 1986, and ran for 50 performances, under the direction of James Lapine.[4] Many of the performers from that production appeared in the Broadway cast, except for John Cunningham as the Narrator/Wolf/Steward, George Coe as the Mysterious Man/Cinderella's Father, Kenneth Marshall as Cinderella's Prince, LuAnne Ponce as Little Red, and Ellen Foley as the Witch. Kay McClelland, who played Rapunzel and Florinda, went with the cast to Broadway but only played Florinda.
The show evolved, the most notable change being the addition of the song "No One Is Alone" in the middle of the run. Because of this, the finale was also altered. It was originally "Midnight/Ever After (reprise)/It Takes Two (reprise)/Into the Woods (reprise 2)" but evolved into its present form. Another notable change was that, originally, the baker and Cinderella became a couple during the finale and kissed before singing the reprise of "It Takes Two".[5]
Original Broadway production[edit]
Into the Woods opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on November 5, 1987, and closed on September 3, 1989, after 765 performances. It starred Bernadette Peters as the Witch, Joanna Gleason as the Baker's Wife, Chip Zien as the Baker, Robert Westenberg as the Wolf/Cinderella's Prince, Tom Aldredge as the Narrator/Mysterious Man, Kim Crosby as Cinderella, Danielle Ferland as Little Red Ridinghood, Ben Wright as Jack, Chuck Wagner as Rapunzel's Prince, Barbara Bryne as Jack's Mother, Pamela Winslow as Rapunzel, Merle Louise as Cinderella's Mother/Granny/Giant's Wife, Edmund Lyndeck as Cinderella's Father, Joy Franz as Cinderella's Stepmother, Philip Hoffman as the Steward, Lauren Mitchell as Lucinda, Kay McClelland as Florinda, Jean Kelly as Snow White, and Maureen Davis as Sleeping Beauty. It was directed by Lapine, with musical staging by Lar Lubovitch, settings by Tony Straiges, lighting by Richard Nelson, costumes by Ann Hould-Ward (based on original concepts by Patricia Zipprodt and Ann Hould-Ward), and makeup by Jeff Raum. The original production won the 1988 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, and the original cast recording won a Grammy Award. The show was nominated for ten Tony Awards, and won three: Best Score (Sondheim), Best Book (Lapine) and Best Actress in a Musical (Gleason).
Peters left the show after almost five months due to a prior commitment to film the movie Slaves of New York.[6] The Witch was then played by Betsy Joslyn (from March 30, 1988);[7] Phylicia Rashad (from April 14, 1988); Betsy Joslyn (from July 5, 1988); Nancy Dussault (from December 13, 1988);[8] and Ellen Foley (from August 1, 1989, until the closing).[9] Understudies for the part included Joslyn, Marin Mazzie, Lauren Vélez, Suzzanne Douglas, and Joy Franz.
Other cast replacements included Dick Cavett as the Narrator (as of July 19, 1988, as a temporary engagement after which Aldredge returned), Edmund Lyndeck as the Mysterious Man, Patricia Ben Peterson as Cinderella, LuAnne Ponce returning as Little Red, Jeff Blumenkrantz as Jack, Marin Mazzie as Rapunzel (as of March 7, 1989), Dean Butler and Don Goodspeed as Rapunzel's Prince, Susan Gordon Clark as Florinda, Teresa Burrell as Lucinda, Adam Grupper as the Steward, Cindy Robinson and Heather Shulman as Snow White, and Kay McClelland, Lauren Mitchell, Cynthia Sikes, and Mary Gordon Murray as the Baker's Wife.[9]
In 1989, from May 23 to May 25 the full original cast (with the exception of Cindy Robinson as Snow White instead of Jean Kelly) reunited for three performances to tape the show in its entirety for the Season 10 premiere episode of PBS's American Playhouse, which first aired on March 15, 1991. The show was filmed professionally with seven cameras on the set of the Martin Beck Theatre in front of an audience, with certain elements slightly changed for the recording in order to better fit the screen, such as the lighting and minor costume differences. There were also pick-up shots not filmed in front of an audience for various purposes. This video has since been released on VHS and DVD and, on occasion, remastered and rereleased.[10]
Tenth Anniversary benefit performances were held on November 9, 1997, at the Broadway Theatre (New York), with most of the original cast.[11] Original cast understudies Chuck Wagner and Jeff Blumenkrantz played the Wolf/Cinderella's Prince and the Steward in place of Robert Westenberg and Philip Hoffmann, while Jonathan Dokuchitz (who joined the Broadway production as an understudy in 1989) played Rapunzel's Prince in place of Wagner. This concert featured the duet "Our Little World", written for the first London production of the show.
On November 9, 2014, most of the original cast reunited for two reunion concerts and discussion in Costa Mesa, California. Mo Rocca hosted the reunion and interviewed Sondheim, Lapine, and each cast member. Appearing were Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Danielle Ferland, Ben Wright and husband and wife Robert Westenberg and Kim Crosby.[12] The same group presented this discussion/concert on June 21, 2015, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City.[13]
1988 US tour production[edit]
A U.S. tour started performances on November 22, 1988. The cast included Cleo Laine as the Witch, Rex Robbins as the Narrator and Mysterious Man, Ray Gill and Mary Gordon Murray as the Baker and his Wife, Kathleen Rowe McAllen as Cinderella, Chuck Wagner as the Wolf/Cinderella's Prince, Douglas Sills as Rapunzel's Prince, Robert Duncan McNeill and Charlotte Rae as Jack and his Mother, Marcus Olson as the Steward, and Susan Gordon Clark reprising her role as Florinda from the Broadway production. The set was almost completely reconstructed, and there were certain changes to the script, changing certain story elements.
Cast replacements included Betsy Joslyn as the Witch, Peter Walker as the Narrator/Mysterious Man, James Weatherstone as the Wolf/Cinderella's Prince, Jonathan Hadley as Rapunzel's Prince, Marcus Olson as the Baker, later replaced by Adam Grupper (who understudied the role on Broadway), Judy McLane as the Baker's Wife, Nora Mae Lyng as Jack's Mother, later replaced by Frances Ford, Stuart Zagnit as the Steward, Jill Geddes as Cinderella, later replaced by Patricia Ben Peterson, and Kevin R. Wright as Jack.
The tour[14] played cities around the country, such as Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.[15][16] The tour ran at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from June to July 16, 1989, with The Washington Post's reviewer writing: "his lovely score—poised between melody and dissonance—is the perfect measure of our tenuous condition. The songs invariably follow the characters' thinking patterns, as they weigh their options and digest their experience. Needless to say, that doesn't make for traditional show-stoppers. But it does make for vivacity of another kind. And Sondheim's lyrics...are brilliant.... I think you'll find these cast members alert and engaging."[17]
Adaptations[edit]
Junior version[edit]
The musical has been adapted into a child-friendly version for use by schools and young companies, with the second act completely removed, as well as almost half the material from the first. The show is shortened from the original two and a half hours to fit in a 50-minute range, and the music transposed into keys that more easily fit young voices. It is licensed through Music Theatre International Broadway Junior musicals.The plot differences from the original with the story ending on a "happy ending"[129]
In 2019, a similar adaptation, Into the Woods Sr., adapted for performance by senior citizens in community centers and nursing homes, premiered. It is available under license.[130][131]
Analysis of book and music[edit]
In most productions of Into the Woods, including the original Broadway production, several parts are doubled. Cinderella's Prince and the Wolf, who both cannot control their appetites, are usually played by the same actor. Similarly, so are the Narrator and the Mysterious Man, who both comment on the story while avoiding any personal involvement or responsibility. Granny and Cinderella's Mother, both matriarchal characters, are also typically played by the same person, who also gives voice to the nurturing but later murderous Giant's Wife.
The show covers multiple themes: growing up, parents and children, accepting responsibility, morality, and finally, wish fulfillment and its consequences.[136] Time Magazine's reviewers wrote that the play's "basic insight... is at heart, most fairy tales are about the loving yet embattled relationship between parents and children. Almost everything that goes wrong—which is to say, almost everything that can—arises from a failure of parental or filial duty, despite the best intentions."[137] Stephen Holden wrote that the show's themes include parent-child relationships and the individual's responsibility to the community. The witch isn't just a scowling old hag, but a key symbol of moral ambivalence. Lapine said that the most unpleasant person (the Witch) would have the truest things to say and the "nicer" people would be less honest.[138] In the Witch's words: "I'm not good; I'm not nice; I'm just right."
Given the show's debut during the 1980s, the height of the U.S. AIDS crisis, the work has been interpreted as a parable about AIDS.[139][140] In this interpretation, the Giant's Wife is a metaphor for HIV/AIDS, killing good and bad characters indiscriminately and forcing survivors to band together to stop the threat and move on from the devastation, reflecting the devastation AIDS wrought on many communities.[140][141][142][143] When asked about the connection, Sondheim acknowledged that initial audiences interpreted it as an AIDS metaphor, but said that the work was not intended to be specific.[140]
The score is also notable in Sondheim's output because of its intricate reworking and development of small musical motifs. In particular, the opening words, "I wish", are set to the interval of a rising major second and this small unit is both repeated and developed throughout the show, just as Lapine's book explores the consequences of self-interest and "wishing". The dialogue is characterized by the heavy use of syncopated speech. In many instances, the characters' lines are delivered with a fixed beat that follows natural speech rhythms, but is also purposely composed in eighth, sixteenth, and quarter note rhythms as part of a spoken song. Like many Sondheim/Lapine productions, the songs contain thought-process narrative, where characters converse or think aloud.
Sondheim drew on parts of his troubled childhood when writing the show. In 1987, he told Time Magazine that the "father uncomfortable with babies [was] his father, and [the] mother who regrets having had children [was] his mother."[144]