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Original Broadway Production:

Opened
November 5, 1987
Ran
764 Performances
Theatre
Martin Beck Theatre
Music
Stephen Sondheim
Lyrics
Stephen Sondheim
Book
James Lapine
Producers
Heidi Landesman
Rocco Landesman
Rick Steiner
M. Anthony Fisher
Frederic H Mayerson
Jujamcyn Theaters
Executive Producer
Michael David
Associate Producers
Greg C Mosher
Paula Fisher
David B Brode
The Mutual Benefit Companies
Fifth Avenue Productions
Director
James Lapine
Set Designer
Tony Straiges
Lighting
Richard Nelson
Costumes
Ann Hould-Ward
Patricia Zipprodt
Sound
Alan Stieb
James Brousseau
Musical Direction
Paul Gemignani
Originally Produced
Old Globe Theater

Original Broadway Cast:

Narrator
Tom Aldredg
Cinderella
Kim Crosby
Jack
Ben Wright
Baker
Chip Zien
Baker's Wife
Joanna Gleason
Cinderella's Stepmother
Joy Franz
Florinda
Kay McClelland
Lucinda
Lauren Mitchell
Jack's Mother
Barbara Bryne
Little Red
Danielle Ferland
Witch
Bernadette Peters
Cinderella's Father
Edmund Lyndeck
Cinderella's Mother
Merle Louise
Mysterious Man
Tom Aldredge
Wolf
Robert Westenberg
Rapunzel
Pamela Winslow
Rapunzel's Prince
Chuck Wagner
Grandmother
Merle Louise
Cinderella's Prince
Robert Westenberg
Steward
Philip Hoffman
Giant
Merle Louise
Snow White
Jean Kelly
Sleeping Beauty
Maureen Davis

Awards:

1987 Tony Awards - 9 nominations, 3 wins:
  1. Best Score (Stephen Sondheim)
  2. Best Book (James Lapine)
  3. Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason)
1997 Drama Desk Award
  1. Best Musical
  2. Best Lyrics (Stephen Sondheim)
  3. Best Book for a Musical (James Lapine)
  4. Featured Actor in a Musical (Robert Westenberg)
  5. Featured Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason)
New York Drama Critics Circle Award
  1. Best Musical

Synopsis

Into the Woods is an award-winning musical featuring a score by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch, and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife, brought acclaim to the production during its original Broadway run. Into the Woods won several Tony awards, including Best Score, in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera. The Witch has attracted numerous "name" actresses in major productions, including Ellen Foley, Phylicia Rashad, Nancy Dussault, and Vanessa Williams.

Inspired by Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment, the musical intertwines a collection of uncensored versions of 18th century Brothers Grimm fairy tales. An original story involving a Baker and his Wife's quest to begin a family ties together the stories of Little Red Ridinghood, Jack of Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella.

Act I opens with a wish, a witch, and a curse. Each separate tale intertwines throughout the story, each depending on a weakness or strength of another. The play's conflicts are motivated by selfish wishes, made for the betterment of individual characters.

Act II explores what happens after "happily ever after," when these wishes have come true. The land is ravaged by a giantess, whose husband was killed when Jack chopped down the beanstalk. The show explores the consequences of actions taken in the first act, and the need for community in order to survive "the Woods". Among the many messages expressed in the musical, one of the strongest is that unless people are gathering for one mission, the mission cannot be accomplished, as long as each is egocentric.

Notable songs in the musical include "Into the Woods", "Hello, Little Girl", "I Know Things Now", "Giants in the Sky", "It Takes Two", "Agony", "Stay With Me", "On the Steps of the Palace", "Ever After", "Happy", "Moments in the Woods", "Your Fault", "The Last Midnight", "No More", "No One Is Alone", and "Children Will Listen".

The musical makes 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.

Broadway Productions

Into the Woods opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on November 5, 1987, and played 804 performances. It starred Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Kim Crosby, Ben Wright, Danielle Ferland, Chuck Wagner and Robert Westenberg. The original production won the 1988 Drama Critic's Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, and the Original Cast Recording won a Grammy Award.

The show was revived on Broadway in 2002 with Vanessa Williams as the Witch, the recorded voice of Judi Dench as the Giant, and other cast members including John McMartin, Stephen DeRosa, Gregg Edelman, and Christopher Sieber. The plot was retooled, with a subplot added involving The Three Little Pigs restored from the earlier San Diego production. Critics were kind to the show, but loyal fans put it down, stressing that the important adult messages of the original production were now undermined with a seeming sense of flippancy. The revival had a 280-performance run.