INTO THE WOODS Reviews — Page 11

Midnight Radio said: "While we are on casting that would never happen, I would kill to see Patti LuPone finally take on the witch.

It's a semi-concert staging. Bernadette and Patti could still pull it off."

Patti's voice is still in great shape; Bernadette not as much. Silly comparison. But neither are happening, so lets just cross our fingers that we dont injure ourselves stampeding back to the St James to see Heather Headley.

I’ve always wondered. I’m sure there’s truth to at least a phone call being placed at some point in time. I’m sure that’s where my fascination with the idea of wanting to see her do it so badly, came from. But even right now I think she’d be incredible. Just one of those perfect casting opportunities that’ll never happen.

Stage height doesn't look bad at all, considering how elevated it is for some productions at the St. James:

I am really hoping this extends at least through november, when I might be able to get across the country for a weekend and see it.

Patti is all wrong for the Witch. Into The Woods is an ensemble show; Patti doesn't do ensemble at this time of her life. With her well-known diction problems, the Witch's "rap" would be a disaster. I saw Donna M. as Fosca and remember her to this day. I saw Patti in the role, she played Fosca as a Sicilian Fishwife and was too old for the role.

Saw this tonight, 2nd row center, and worth every penny and worth wearing a mask again. What a cast! I thought Julia Lester stole the show, and Sarah Bareilles was fantastic, but really, this was an All-Star cast! I wish they would have charged "concert ticket prices" instead of full-production prices, but hey, you win some, you lose some. Any thought on Sarah as Fannie in Funny Girl? She might be too big of name to be "third" replacement once Lea finishes her run, but she certainly could pull it off.

Phillipa Soo was back in tonight

2nd time seeing the show at the St James tonight and mostly just came here to find out what Tony category Patina's Act 2 wig can be nominated for. Stunning.

Cheyenne was gorgeous, as expected. I don't know that he navigated the switches in tone in Hello Little Girl with the specificity and quickness that Gavin did, but that's a small quibble (and one I would normally attribute to the regular in the role having more time to settle in, but Gavin had it pretty well nailed at City Center tbh...).

I also wanted to comment on how beautiful Brian D'Arcy James is. I feel like even just in the 2 weeks since I last saw it, he's deepened and settled into the role so wonderfully. He had some stunning vocal moments that really stood out to me tonight: In No More, after Mysterious Man left the stage his "No more giants" just boomed and resonated in my guts, and I know this is very random, but the way he smoothly harmonized with Philippa on "be heard" took my breath away also.

What a treasure this production is! I feel so lucky.

Only slightly OT. Peter Marks wrote a fascinating analysis (site below) of why the sound design for this production is exemplary, perhaps the new gold standard. Since there's a WaPo paywall, highlights:

"Clarity for lyricists has to refer not just to scansion and word choice, but also how their songs are communicated. And it is on this latter point that the sound designers, actors, director and conductor of “Into the Woods” seem to be so rewardingly in sync. What I learned in talking to several of them recently was the intensity of the commitment to bringing aural clarity to the vision of Sondheim and Lapine and “Into the Woods” orchestrator Jonathan Tunick. And how much that required each of them to be listening at all times to the show and to one another. And how, too, they wanted audiences to listen.

“The way people approach doing sound, it’s not just turn up the faders and get the voices out there and get the music out there,” observed Scott Lehrer, sound designer of the production, partnering with Alex Neumann. “It is kind of how you want to deliver it to an audience. And it involves a lot of different things.”

Those things demand a collaboration on the part of the music makers and the audio designers over how subtly to get listeners to lean in to the sound. “My approach with Sondheim in general and particularly this piece is, text is first and foremost,” explained Rob Berman, the veteran music director who conducts the show’s onstage 15-member orchestra. “It should sound like talking on the notes. I’m always encouraging singers to smooth it out. The intention takes care of the detail.”

That encouragement has been taken to heart. “You work so hard so that every word is heard — not just heard, but felt,” said Joshua Henry, the magnetic baritone who plays Rapunzel’s Prince."

Gavin Creel, who plays both Cinderella’s Prince and Little Red Ridinghood’s Wolf, attested to the mixer’s pivotal role. “I remember saying to Carin, ‘I sing better when you are at the board,’ ” he said, referring to Carin M. Ford, a beloved engineer who mixed the sound for the 2017 revival of “Hello, Dolly!,” for which Creel won a Tony as best supporting actor. (Creel and the sound team heaped similar praise on “Into the Woods” sound mixer Elizabeth Coleman.)



“I have an audio monitor that just has the vocals. I can hear the actors when they’re going to breathe,” Berman said of his process of multiple auditory focuses. “I’m really accustomed to accompanying singers just by listening. Then I’m listening to the orchestra, just acoustically.”

What makes his job on “Into the Woods” all the more satisfying is the template Sondheim and Tunick laid out. Tunick, citing an example of the intricacy of Cinderella’s first act number, “On the Steps of the Palace.” “There’s an eight-, 10-bar passage — just flute, clarinet and viola. The thing that Jonathan is always brilliant at is he holds back, so that when finally all 15 players play, it sounds like 60. It’s all about proportion.”

Added deBessonet: “The way Rob directs music and conducts is just glorious. It’s always text and intention first. You might think it’s about diction, but it’s actually about the clarity of the thought — if there isn’t clarity of thought, no amount of enunciation will make that clear.”

And:


“As a lyricist, I know words really matter. It really, really matters to me what I’m saying. And I’ve always been that way,” Bareilles said. “But I was not someone who came in and knew the show very well. I was familiar with it — ish. I definitely thought I knew it better than I did. And I gained a deep appreciation for the complexity, of the mechanics, the scaffolding of the show. And from a craft perspective, it’s just a marvel.

“That’s the beautiful thing about theater pieces,” she added. “The whole thing, it’s an orchestra.”







https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/07/29/into-the-woods-broadway/

I hope this becomes the new Chicago and in 20 years we get Pamela Anderson in the Annie Golden track.