Hannah Waddingham as the Witch in ITW

[Showface]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 6:34pm

I apologize if there is already a thread on this, but I could not find one.

So, I have heard that Hannah Waddingham was absolutely stellar as the Witch. I heard that she is the second best Witch next to Bernadette, and that she was different compared to the other actresses who took on this role.

What made her Witch so different? What about her left an impression on you? Also, is the Regents Park Production worth renting?

[Younger Brother]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 6:54pm

I thought she was incredible also. Actually, I think she's very underrated and would love to see her return to Broadway. She'd be a fantastic Mother in Ragtime

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 7:11pm

She was good. Very different. Not my favorite. Its only a few bucks.. Rent it,

[Hex3]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 7:17pm

Rent it or buy it. Stunning production and directed from a very different view point than what you're used to. As for Hannah, I agree with BroadwayGuy. She serviced the part well, but she was not my favorite. Though there some absolutely amazing performances through out this show that it is very much worth watching.

[jo]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 7:38pm

I had seen the original production of The Beautiful Game and I had not realized that the girl who played Christine was played by a young Hannah Waddington. She sang the hit song from the show called OUR KIND OF LOVE. It was a very stirring rendition from this poignant, sad ( saddest musical I had ever seen), and beautiful musical. The next time I saw her was in the film Les Miserables where she was willing to subsume her West End fame to be in the movie adaptation, even if only in a small role as one of the factory girls.

[Showface]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 8:13pm

"She was good. Very different."


Yes, but how was she different? Also how did she disappear in "Last Midnight"? I don't think the ending is the same as the central park ending.

[ukpuppetboy]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 8:14pm

Looking more like the Baker's Wife these days..


Any day now... Updated On: 7/3/14 at 08:14 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 7/3/14 at 9:21pm

Her disappearance is an awkward blackout.

I liked her a lot, but found the true standout to be Jenna Russell as the Baker's Wife... the only actress to even come close to Joanna Gleason, in my opinion.

You absolutely should rent it. It's cheap and very worth seeing.

[Hex3]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 12:12am

Showface, I don't think anyone here is going to go down the long list exactly how different she was. You really need to see it for yourself. It's readily available and very much worth it.

[ajh]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 1:37am

I must say I think Hannah Waddingham is a very talented woman and I saw her as the Witch live but she wasn't particularly outstanding, not in comparison to Bernadette Peters or Julia McKenzie in the original BWay and West End productions. She sang it as well as you'd expect but wasn't well served by the costuming IMHO. But then I think Timothy Sheader who directed ITW in Regent and Central Park is prone to having one overriding idea and then getting hamstrung by it. His Ragtime still haunts me as a piece of cack-handed vandalism against terrific source material.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 5:45pm

Sheader's Ragtime was not in the same league as Sheader's Into The Woods.

[IdinaBellFoster]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 6:31pm

His ITW is absolutely perfect, so I was very excited to see his take on RAGTIME while I was in London two summers ago. It remains possibly the most offensive productions I've ever seen, plus it was just awful.

[ukpuppetboy]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 7:11pm

I second those comments on Ragtime at Regents Park. I've been too scared to go back since. It was a train wreck.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 7:17pm

All the Digital Theatre musicals (all three of them) are 15% off today with the code july4th. I had already had Into the Woods and Merrily, but I went ahead and got Candide. I think the code is good for buying or renting.

Updated On: 7/4/14 at 07:17 PM

[Hex3]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 9:17pm

Can anyone tell me a little about this Ragtime production? This is the first I'm hearing about it.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 9:32pm

This video clip may give you some idea of the bizarre Ragtime... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm-PGFi1r5M

[BobbyBubbi]

Posted: 7/4/14 at 9:34pm

After knowing about this version of INTO THE WOODS for a while, and seeing this discussion, I finally broke down and rented it last night.

Overall I liked it, quite visceral and imaginative with great focus on ensemble work. But as with most re conceptualizations, some parts work, some don't. For instance I'm not sure if it made sense for Cinderella to be wearing headphones and have a nose ring. If they had figured out a way to make those two things relevant to the character or story, I'd be all for it, but it was just pointlessly subversive.

There's some knit picky things too- dropped lyrics, wonky tempos and ad libbing that I wasn't a fan of, but overall I can live with that.

I also felt there was a particular cast member whose singing voice was pretty inadequate for a musical.

Am I glad I saw it? Sure. Could I live without it? Sure. Would I watch the original version over this? Yup. Any day of the week.

As for that clip of Ragtime. Yikes. While I appreciate the people at Regent's Park trying to really grapple with and reinterpret these shows, there's only so many ways you can skin a cat. Updated On: 7/4/14 at 09:34 PM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 1:14am

It is well to remember that the Central Park production, while based on this, was WILDLY different.. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst. Where it worked, it is brilliant. Where it failed, it was a disaster. But it is nice to see the show filtered through British eyes and nice to have a record so far apart from the original Broadway filming, which itself differs from what was seen on stage.
I will say that I liked the fact that Cinderella's Father was cut. It worked. A lot.
I feel as if I could go on a lengthy dissertation of what worked in Regent Park vs what worked in Central Park. It would be lengthy.

Their Ragtime, which thankfully I only saw via the trailer, made me angry,

[Hex3]

Posted: 7/5/14 at 2:46pm

That Ragtime trailer was something else. And I'll just leave it at that.