INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park — Page 3

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#51

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 9:32pm

Streep would NEVER play Jack's Mother. It will be The Witch or nothing for her.

Jayne Houdyshell MUST play Jack's Mother. Though there wouldn't be much time for her between FOLLIES ending in LA and the first rehearsal for WOODS.

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 09:32 PM

#52

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 9:59pm

Now i don't know, it's proven you can steal the show with that role. Plus, streep could never do children will listen, its much to high for her.

#53

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:03pm

Trust me, random person- if they could get Meryl Streep, they'd throw out the keys and make all The Witch's songs spoken monologues if they had to.

Tonya Pinkins: Then we had a "Lot's Wife" last June that was my personal favorite. I'm still trying to get them to let me sing it at some performance where we get to sing an excerpt that's gone.
Tony Kushner: You can sing it at my funeral.

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 10:03 PM

#54

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:03pm

Sondheim had no problem lowering all of the keys for Vanessa Williams. In fact, I think some of the songs actually sound better lower.

#55

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:05pm

Now i don't know, it's proven you can steal the show with that role.

Jack's Mother is a cute little role for a character actress that gets a few laughs. Meryl Streep (who thinks very highly of herself), the most acclaimed and awarded American actress ever, will not be playing that little role. I'd be interested to know what major production of Into the Woods featured a Jack's Mother who stole the show? Barbara Bryne? Nora Mae Lyng? Marylouise Burke? I love the idea of Houdyshell, the best character actress we have working right now, playing that role.

I wonder if Chip Zien would be interested in playing the Mysterious Man. It might be a nice nod to the original production to give him a role.

#56

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:11pm

I would say it's far from a 'cute' role. I would hardly say sticking up for ones son as others try to have him killed, is very cute. Second, i know many here disagree with me on this but i despise key changes, even when you think you can get away with it unless very carefully done, can really ruin a song, or even derastically alter a character. And yes by some accounts Bryne did indeed walk away with accolades for her role. Third, we don't need an audience laughing when streep is turned into 'a being of youth and beauty' that's alitte too much suspension of disbelief. She's right for the mother, and would do great, but she could never be the witch now, she isn't vocally up to it. She could do last midnight but her our little world, and children will listen would be very subpar, especially children, as it is she can do neither arrangement. Williams keys are too low and peters are too high.

#57

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:23pm

Though it's totally legitimate to voice concern that Streep might not be able to sing the Witch, the truth is nobody can speak with any authority on what shape her current vocal instrument is in--

In her early work doing musicals she was a high soprano-- my guess is that this score probably could still live somewhere in her current Vocal range

#58

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:26pm

And yes by some accounts Bryne did indeed walk away with accolades for her role.

Whose accounts? Bryne was very good and quite funny. But Joanna Gleason was the one who walked away with the original production, not Barbara Bryne.

This statement you made...

Second, i know many here disagree with me on this but i despise key changes, even when you think you can get away with it unless very carefully done, can really ruin a song, or even derastically alter a character.

...directly contradicts this one you made later...

Williams keys are too low and peters are too high.

If you think Peters' keys are too high, than you're advocating them altering the keys, even though you stated before you "despised" it.

She could do last midnight but her our little world, and children will listen would be very subpar, especially children, as it is she can do neither arrangement.

As someone else posted, if Streep is interested in this role, they'll alter those songs however they need to in order to get her to agree to play it.

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 10:26 PM

#59

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:28pm

If anyone thinks Streep would play Jack's Mother--well, I'd like to spend some time in the world in which you live.

"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe." -John Guare, Landscape of the Body

Updated On: 1/26/12 at 10:28 PM

#60

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:40pm

They did "star cast" Jack's Mother in the original L.A. production with Charlotte Rae, who was delightful. But it's not really a "star" role for the likes of La Streep. Somebody like Joanne Worley, maybe.

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#61

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:44pm

I think Houdyshell is a most inspired choice. At the time of the original LA production I'm assuming Rae was highly visible because of The Facts of Life, but she was always a character actress.

#62

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 10:51pm

I'd like to see Mary Testa as Jack's Mother.

#63

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 11:04pm

Charlotte Rae actually did the First National Tour, not just the L.A. production. She played opposite Cleo Laine as The Witch.

#64

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 11:52pm

If the run is from mid July to mid August, I don't think that would exclude a TV actor--more and more tv shows don't have premiers till October, and it's easily worked around.

#65

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/26/12 at 11:54pm

Eric, almost all network television shows go back to filming in mid-July, which is why Jesse Tyler Ferguson said his character on MODERN FAMILY would have to "disappear for a month" in order for him to do it, since the show will have been shooting for a month already by the time INTO THE WOODS ends.

#66

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 12:45am

When do the $150.00 seats normally go on sale for SITP productions?

#67

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 12:54am

I think the Witch will be cast younger under or around 40,
She's under heavy make-up than we see the sexy bitch,
her younger self.
Glamour.

#68

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 1:07am

I vote Sondheim for the Mysterious Man, even only for one performance.

"There is no problem so big that it cannot be run away from." ~ Charles M. Schulz

#69

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 1:10am

Hunter Ryan Herdlicka (the recent 'Henrik' in A Little Night Music) for Jack, perhaps? I saw him play the role his senior year in college and he was quite good.

I'll take the wind and soar.

#70

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 1:21am

yes gvendo!!!!

#71

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 1:50am

There is no way Herdlicka can feasibly play Jack now. He can't play a teenager. A young man, yes. A teenager, no.

Streep is still most likely attached to something this summer. It is not this. She may have expressed interest in this in addition to what she's doing, for all I know, though... many have.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#72

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 6:29am

Kad, i meant for streeps range, those keys are too high/low. I also meant that if at this stage in her career she wants to do into the woods, the only role for her is jacks mother otherwise it's not possible.

Updated On: 1/27/12 at 06:29 AM

#73

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 7:20am

>I'd be interested to know what major production of Into the Woods featured a Jack's Mother who stole the show? Barbara Bryne? Nora Mae Lyng? Marylouise Burke?<

I saw all three - I wouldn't have thought it possible, but Nora Mae Lyng managed to run away with the role on the national tour. She got laughs I didn't know existed. It's a performance I wish I could see again so I could figure out how she did it. At the point when I saw the tour, Betsy Joslyn was already playing the Witch. Without the usual "star" presence as the Witch, it played as much more of an ensemble show, but I'd say I was waiting for Lyng's every appearance.

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.

#74

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 7:39am

Charlotte Rae actually did the First National Tour, not just the L.A. production. She played opposite Cleo Laine as The Witch.

Actually, the Los Angeles stop WAS the kickoff of the first national tour. And other than San Francisco (which Charlotte may or may not have done as well), I don't believe she went on the road with it for the rest of the tour. I don't think Cleo did the whole tour either.

CORRECTION; They both stayed with the tour for its first leg (several months). Cleo was replaced by Betsy Joslyn and Charlotte Rae was replaced by Nora Mae Lyng, then Frances Ford (if only it were Francis Ford Coppola).

"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

Updated On: 1/27/12 at 07:39 AM

#75

INTO THE WOODS and AS YOU LIKE IT official for Shakespeare in the Park

Posted: 1/27/12 at 9:06am

I also saw Herdlicka's Jack, matineeidol, and I'd say saying he was "quite good" is quite too kind. If you saw his Henrik, you saw his Jack... and you saw his Hunter. It was okay for any college, subpar for CMU, and nowhere near what this production will aim for.

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