INTO THE WOODS Cast Recordings- Page 4

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 8/14/12 at 1:46am

They really do sound incredible on the album. It was recorded in surround sound, apparently, but I've never had a system to play it on.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/14/12 at 2:25am

I could listen to Dankworth's Cinderella all night.
Where is she?

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 8/14/12 at 12:30pm

Anyone know who is performing the songs on the film demo?

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 8/14/12 at 8:49pm

Dankworth is doing concerts and gigs like that in the UK whenever she can as far as I know.

Re Jack's London 1990 costume - I think his triangular paper hat is supposed to be a nod to the traditional 'dunce' hat which was like a big cardboard cone on one's head.

[Miranda3]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 1:36am

After John Dankworth (her dad) died several years ago, Jacqui Dankworth married Charlie Wood, an American blues/jazz vocalist and keyboardist. He relocated from Memphis (I think it was) to the U.K. and they are touring together. Jacqui also appeared with Cleo in San Francisco a year or so ago at the Razz Room. There is a wonderful YouTube video, maybe mentioned on this site before, of a young Jacqui and another young male singer at the Guildhall School being coached by Sondheim, while singing the roles of Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney Todd.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 3:05am

That clip is great, I can't find any tubes of Jacqui, I'll keep trying, thanks for the info.

Jack's hat is a traditional folded paper hat, which may very well be based on a larger pointy dunce hat.

[Miranda3]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 2:47pm

Curtain,

I just checked the Tube of You and found several of Jacqui's performances there, including this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swptyN38I-o

Maybe you meant Broadway tunes only, tho? She does have a website that used to include clips, but it is under reconstruction, though it still includes her performance schedule and a few other items: www.jacquidankworth.com

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 3:41pm

Thanks!

I was using Jacqueline...
She's lovely and her voice is so special. Updated On: 8/15/12 at 03:41 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 6:37pm

I forgot that Jacqui was one of the performers on that excellent teaching episode from Sondheim of the South Bank Show (done, I believe, when he was in London for the RNT production of Sunday). Another thing I have sitting around on VHS somewhere...

[Miranda3]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 9:18pm

I read a few months ago that Cleo was subbing for Jacqui at a gig in the U.K. because Jacqui was involved in the filming of Les Mis. But I haven't been able to find out what her role in the film is. Does anyone know?

[Musicaldudepeter]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 10:46pm

Crone

[Miranda3]

Posted: 8/15/12 at 11:34pm

Peter: I saw Les Mis, of course, but don't remember any "crone" role so am assuming this is a minor chorus part. Is that right? Too bad there isn't a larger role for her.

Curtain: Did you see this on YouTube (the original London cast, including Jacqui)? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgGJWd9JQJw&feature=related



Updated On: 8/16/12 at 11:34 PM

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 2:09pm

Regarding Tom Shepard, didn't he and Sondheim have some sort of falling out after he left for MCA?

Back when SHOW MUSIC magazine was still being published (God how I miss it!! Will never forgive Goodspeeed Opera House for what they did to destroy it) - they did an interview with Sheppard and in the following issue reprinted a letter from Sondheim answering back to some of Tom's more egregious statements. Sondheim claims in the letter that recording sessions with Sheppard were often filled with tension, that Sheppard was high handed and difficult and ended with the comment that this was the reason why Sondheim (and he claims many others in the industry) now refuse to work with Tom.

Sheppard was one of RCA Red Seal's top Classical and Broadway album producers. He ran afoul of the label's manager (Jose Menendez who was later killed by his two sons) when an elaborate 4 LP boxed set retrospective of Sondheim's career did not sell well. (RCA put very little into marketing the set.) Menendez wanted to cancel the label's recording of FOLLIES IN CONCERT but was overruled by Bob Summer - one of the label's presidents. Despite winning a Grammy award for the FOLLIES album Sheppard soon resigned and joined MCA which was trying to build up MCA Classsics as a major Classical/Broadway label. That didn't work out well and MCA Classics was disbanded and Sheppard was released to continue as a freelance producer. As far as I know he never has worked with Sondheim again. I wondered at the time what the PASSION album would have been like if Sheppard had produced it.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 2:13pm

I assume the crone is in Lovely Ladies?

[ChiChi]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 7:46pm

I think Our little world as done in the OLCR is beautiful. The arrangement in the Broadway revival was very disappointing.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 2:13am

Yes Miranda3, That clip is fun and you get a taste of the costumes and the great performances but that set is nothing like the real one and puts me off a bit.

[broadwayfreak4]

Posted: 9/2/14 at 11:57pm

What are the differences between the OBCR and the 2007 remastered release? I have read some comments that the quality of the recording sounds like they recorded the album in a tunnel. Is there a specific recording that is closest or even identical to the licensed version that is currently available?

[jimmycurry01]

Posted: 9/3/14 at 1:45am

I have both, and both sound fine. I have never heard of anyone saying either release sounds like it had been recorded in a tunnel. The OBC recording is pretty much the version MTI offers. I believe they allow you to use the updates made for the 2002 production if you choose.

[broadwayfreak2]

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

I mean, is there a difference between the MTI version and the first release of the OBC and the 2007 re-release of it? (I know there are three bonus tracks with the re-release, but don't know if they are karaoke or something else).

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 9/4/14 at 9:19pm

I don't have the '87 CD, but I know many cast albums recorded during that time period (the early digital age) tended to be mixed very flatly upon their original CD releases (at least from what I've heard). That may be why it sounds inferior, if indeed it does. And they could have done a remaster for the re-release that gave it a fuller sound. I'm not sure if that wave of re-releases actually included remasters but it might have seeing that it was the first re-release since the '80s.

[Thparkaly]

Posted: 9/4/14 at 11:56pm

The OBC Recording is pretty close to the MTI version, with the ability to add songs and alternate endings from various productions. However, there are some things on the cast album that have been cut or edited for the show (the "Agony" references in "A Very Nice Prince", some lyrics in "Lament" I think, etc.).

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 12:10am

I just saw a pretty fabulous revival of the show at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. They used Our Little World. I've always enjoyed the lovely duet, as it develops more of the witch and Rapunzels relationship. The director used it in a different spot that normal, and made it a real high light of Act One, it was much more gorgeous than haunting.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 12:27am

I hope the director got permission to reposition the song. The MTI script is very specific about where the song is supposed to be inserted if it is to be used.

[JohnyBroadway]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 12:38am

Oregon Shakes is one of the most respected regional companies in the country. The director Amanda Dehnert took some exciting liberties with the storytelling not changing any written work, but just by how she portrayed it in her storytelling. She even newly arranged some of the music. With that I believe the received written permission for all changes.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 9/5/14 at 4:45am

The 2007 Into the Woods OBC with bonus tracks is indeed remastered. It's not a huge improvement--not much difference from a digital 1987 release but I prefer it and the volume is louder (common to most CDs now.) When Sony Broadway Masterworks got control over the RCA catalog and incorporated them they remastered, beautifully, all of the RCA Sondheim original cast albums, except for Assassins (which being from the 90s probably didn't need it,) and, frustratingly, Pacific Overtures (probably because I bet it's Sondheim's lowest selling original cast album,) though they kept the RCA version, un-remastered, in print.