Into The Woods with 10/11 People

Hey my school is doing Into The Woods this year and we only have 11 people. We are going to try to base it off the recent off bway revival. Did anyone see it ? How did the Narrator/Mysterious Man work?

The actors paying the (1) Witch, (2) Baker and (3) Baker's Wife only played 1 character.

(4) There was an actor who played The Mysterious Man and Cinderella's father

(5) an actor playing Little Red and Rapunzel

(6) An actor playing Jack and the Steward

(7) An actor playing Cinderella and the Granny

(8 .) An actor playing Cinderella's Prince, the Wolf and Lucinda

(9) An actor playing Rapunzel's Prince, Florinda and Milky White

(10) An actor playing Jack's Mother and Cinderella's Stepmother

The narration was divided up between all the actors. The Narrator's section in Ever After was done by (11) the music director/pianist. I believe they cut the section where the narrator dies. Cinderella's mother was done by several of the female actresses singing in harmony around the "tree." Many times the actors had to switch back and forth in the middle of the scene, when they played 2 characters who are onstage at the same time.

Updated On: 11/18/15 at 04:50 PM

Thanks guys! We were actually ready to do Sweeney Todd School Edition when some of the parents freaked out :/ so we chose into the woods as our backup. I know Woods like the back of my hand but it's gonna be interesting doing it with 11.

Kad, I'm interested in hearing about how the Narrator-less production was "remarkably effective." I'm assuming they got legal permission to cut his death? That's kind of an important part, and they would have also had to edit the Witch's lines during that scene ("Some of us don't like the way you've been telling it" and the like. Can you lay it out?

How did they do Rapunzel's death? With the actress being both Rapunzel and Little Red?

While it's great that everyone is being super helpful, I want to remind the OP that 90% of these suggestions are illegal and in breach of your licensing contract. Fiasco clearly got all of their changes approved by Music Theatre International (and its authors). You must submit all changes to them for approval.

Good luck!

But if he/she does that, it means they have to reassign lines and presumably adjust some of the dialogue. That is technically in breach of the licensing contract. Every significant change must be outlined, submitted and considered for approval!

I also agree that it's unlikely a random high school would get approval to remove the character of Narrator and their death. That is probably a change that Fiasco received approval from directly through Sondheim & Lapine.