Into the Woods DVD Question??

[BroadwayBound062]

Posted: 3/26/09 at 5:10pm

I was looking IMDB and it said that the filming of the DVD was 3 years after the production began and was at a different theatre. Is this true? I figured it was during the original run with Ms. Peters was still in it? Thanks for any info!

Updated On: 3/26/09 at 05:10 PM

[theatreguy]

Posted: 3/26/09 at 5:39pm

That's incorrect. It was filmed at the Martin Beck towards the end of the show's run. All of the original cast who were not still in the production returned for about a week for the taping.

Also, this is terribly petty but it happens just about every day here: the title of this thread should be "Into the Woods DVD Question" without any questions marks. When you end a sentence with a question mark it means that the sentence is a question. Likewise, when you end a sentence with a period it means that the sentence is a statement. The sentence "Into the Woods DVD Question" is NOT a question. It is a statement that you HAVE a question which you will be asking in the thread.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/26/09 at 8:37pm

It was filmed in 1989 I believe so... two years? But yeah right near the end of the run. I knew someone who was at the filming and he said one reason the audience sounds SOO animated (I swear Act I sounds like it has a laugh track) is because it was filled with many people hoping to see the show again before it closed, and then the original cast returning was a surprise announcement so revved them up.

Sunday in the Park was also filmed near the end of its run--Bernie was already doing Song and Dance (and I think Robert Westenberg had replaced Mandy but am not sure)--of course Danielle F from the original cast as the young girl was too old and not used by then. And actually Passion was *also* recorded near the end--in fact once the show was closed (but it was recorded quite differently--on film without a live audience. I usually hate filmed stage productions with no audience--I find something jarring about the Oklahoma DVD for instance--but for Passion it's appropriate)

E

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/26/09 at 10:51pm

INTO THE WOODS was taped at the Martin Beck Theatre the week of May 23, 1989. Bernadette Peters and Joanna Gleason returned for the performances that one week. That helped excite the audience when word got out they were returning, and also before each performance Sondheim came out and made a speech explaining that these performances were being taped. That helps explain the overly enthusiastic response. The show was still running at that point. It did not announce a closing until August and played its final performance on Sunday September 3, 1989.

SUNDAY was taped the week after the final performance, which was on Sunday October 13, 1985. Although Mandy Patinkin had returned to the show for its final months, Bernadette Peters was starring in SONG AND DANCE at the time. The producers of SUNDAY bought out 2 evening performances of SONG AND DANCE to secure Peters' participation in the tapings in front of invited audiences. The rest was done without an audience in a daytime schedule.

PASSION was filmed on the stage of the Plymouth Theatre the week after it closed.

[Byron Abens]

Posted: 3/26/09 at 11:19pm

Bernadette also had to go in and redub some of her vocals afterwards for "Sunday" as her voice was shot by that point from doing Song and Dance. It's most noticeable at the end of "We Do Not Belong Together." The final note we are hearing is definitely not coming from that mouth.

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 1:27am

Yes, apparently she had to redub quite a bit, but the roughness in her voice serves her well in "Children and Art."

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/27/09 at 6:12am

They did a decent job of dubbing her--for the most part. I've already mentioned my sound probs with the DVD but I prob wouldn't have really noticed the dubbing if I didn't know. I didn't realize it was a performance done over several nigths and even some stuff without an audience all joined together though--it's seamless (I have some pop concert and ballet performance DVDs that are several shows joined together for the best take and you can ALWAYS notice). The invited audience makes sense too as it's obvious the audience for Sunday *knows* the show.