1987 Into the Woods – Stage Setup Before Prologue

If you were lucky enough to see the original Broadway production of Into the Woods (1987–1989) at the Martin Beck (now the Al Hirschfield) Theatre, I'm hoping you might be willing to assuage my curiosity about one element of the original staging. What was visible on stage when the audience entered the theater? Was it the false proscenium with the three "houses" in it? Or was there a curtain in front of that? I've always wondered how long the Prologue actors had to hold their frozen positions before the Narrator came out. On the PBS broadcast, the first shot of the stage has everyone already in place, so you don't see when or how they got there... whether a curtain lifted revealing them, or whether they walked out in full view of the audience, etc. Thanks to anyone who is willing to share this information!

Updated On: 5/27/23 at 07:33 PM

If I had to take an educated design/direction guess, I'd assume there was a scrim/curtain when you entered that went up in the dark right before the downbeat where the actors are frozen.

Thanks for clearing up my very foggy memory!