Into the Woods help- Page 2

[Plum]

Posted: 11/8/04 at 11:34pm

The video of Sunday in the Park With George is very good. I have objections to the Johanna in the video of Sweeney Todd, but it's still well worth watching.

I've never seen the video of Passion or the concert versions of Follies and Sweeney, but I've heard good things about all of them. I wouldn't substitute a video for the OBCs of any of those shows, though.

And hey, don't feel any need to apologize if you're just getting into musical theater. The important thing is that you're willing to try out different shows. :) Updated On: 11/8/04 at 11:34 PM

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 11/8/04 at 11:36pm

Plum - for your info, I don't ask people ages to know how to judge them. And I'm not 18...where'd you pull that from, the same place you saw me ask someone to act like an adult? Get ure facts straight and THEN maybe you'll have a point, but probably not. I ask people's names a lot because the amount of people on this board that are unable to type in coherent sentences is overwhelming. Perhaps it's due to age.

[Jon]

Posted: 11/8/04 at 11:36pm

The videos of Sunday in the Park with George (original cast, except for the little girl) and Sweeney Todd (National Tour cast, including Angela Lansbury and several others from the original Broadway cast)are excellent.

[GovernorSlaton]

Posted: 11/8/04 at 11:38pm

I have Sweeney Tour, Sunday, Woods, and Passion. All excellent.
More will soon find their way into my collection. :)

[Plum]

Posted: 11/8/04 at 11:39pm

I saw someone else say that you were 18. If you're not, I'm sorry I made that assumption. But you're always asking people's ages, and it strikes me as ironic coming from someone who likes to post inflamatory comments "for fun." Updated On: 11/8/04 at 11:39 PM

[Jess1483]

Posted: 11/8/04 at 11:39pm

I love the Into The Woods video. It's very well done and you should definitely check it out.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 12:15am

I'm going to be nice, despite the fact that i am not a valid source.
THe opening begins with the narrator onstage and three houses. One house belongs to Cinderella, one to Jack, one to the Baker and his Wife. THe narrator begins "once upon a time" and so does the show "Into the Woods - Prologue". It is quickly revealed how unhapy each of the characters is with his/her station in life...cinderella wants to go to the ball, jack wishes his cow would give some milk, the baker and his wife wish for a child. As per the fairytales Cinderella is instructed to pick lentils out from the fire in return for passage to the ball, jack is instructed to sell his best friend milky white for no less than five pounds. The baker and his wife are visited by the Witch who lives next door, who reveals that the baker once had a sister, but due to an unfortunate series of events (involving the bakers father creeping into the witchs garden and stealing among other things 6 magic beans which the witchs mother had insisted the witch never lose) the witch took the baby from the bakers parents and raised her as her own child, named Rapunzel. The witch reveals she placed a spell on the baker's family making the "family tree a barren one". In order to have the spell removed the Baker and his Wife must go into the woods and find 4 ingredients for the witch: A cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold. The have until the chime of midnight thrre days from them to bring the items to the witch. So the Baker sets off into the woods, as do Cinderella and Jack...the baker tells his wife she must stay home as the woods are no place for a woman. Also Little Red has gone visiting the Baker to buy some treats to take to her granny on the woods. She also joins them in going into the woods (little red is greedy and eats all the treats along the way).
WE soon find ourselves watching cinderella sitting at the foot of a rather large tree, she talks to it as it is the place where her mother was buried, and it is her link to the past. ("Cinderella at the Grave")She wishes that she would be able to go to the ball, and a woman in the tree appears (her mother one would assume) and grants her wish, providing her with a beautiful ball gown and lovely shoes. she runs off.
Meanwhile little red is making her way along the path when she is confronted by a wolf..."Goodday young lady" and he sweetly "seduces" her with a beautiful song ("Hello Little Girl") and she tells him where she is headed, and he tells her of the beauty of the woods, meanwhile singing aside with "grandmother first, then miss plump, what a delectable couple, utter perfection..." "carnality twice in one day, theres no possible way, to describe what you feel, when you're talking to your meal." The wolf leaves little red, and she continues on her way.
The baker is on his journey, but forgets the ingredients he is supposed to be finding. His wife, under the guise of giving him his scarf, has followed him into the woods and in the middle of a fight she spots jack leading along a white cow. THey inquire about the cow and tell jack that 5 pounds is a lot to expect for a cow...they offer him 5 magic beans (they dont know they are magic, nor do they no that the MYSTERIOUS MAN has told jack that if someone should offer him 5 beans to accept them) jack accepts and tearfully farewells his friend ("i guess this is goodbye") while the baker tells off his wife for lying, but she explains "maybe they're magic".
The baker sees little red, and under some encouragement from the witch tries to steal little reds cape. She starts crying and returns it...but follows her to her grannies house to make sure she is ok. She is not, as she has been consumed by the wolf...the Baker sees the red cape in the wolfs mouth and slices its belly, freeing little red and her granny. Little red gives him the cape to say thankyou for rescuing her. She sings of what she has learnt in "i know things now"
THe bakers wife has met a girl from the ball who falls over a lot, named cinderella. They talk about the prince, and then the bakers wife notices her shoes, made of pure gold. She reaches for them, but cinderella runs off, as does the cow that the baker was meant to be looking after. The cast come onstage telling a few morals "First midnight" and then jack arrives onstage telling of his journey to the sky "giants in the sky".
Two princes arrive onstage, one has been pursuing Cinderella, the other Rapunzel (he had been watching the witch enter her tower one day, and decided to himself). They sing of the pain they endure for the ones they love "Agony" (somewhat irrelveant but i read that Stephen Sondheim explained that this song was about the princes having blue balls!!! when Chris Siebher was in rehearsals for the revival)
Meanwhile the Bakers wife has also seen Rapunzels tower, and calls "rapunzel rapunzel let down your hair to me" and after she does pulls a nice big piece out, much to rapunzels disgust. She is onstage with the hair and the cow (which was returned by the mysterious man) when cinderellas stepsisters complain about being assaulted by a man trying to compare their hair to a cob of corn. It is the baker and he learns his wife has found the yellow hair. He begins to realise her importance, and no longer opposes her being in the woods. they sing "It takes two" and end with a kiss.
The witch has learned of Rapunzels affair with the prince and hauls her out of the tower screaming. She then forgives her, and sings a lovely ballad "Stay With Me", at the end of the song she takes back her forgiveness and casts rapunzel, now with normal length hair (the witch ripped the hair off), into the desert or somewhere like that. The prince leaps from the tower into a thicket of brambles which tear out his eyes, and he wanders looking for her, blinded by his love, so you might say.
Now cinderella appears and she is missing a shoe. In "On the steps of the palace" she reveals the prince coated the palace stairs with pitch and she was left with a choice : stay and be caught by the prince, or leave missing a shoe. She sees the Bakers wife, who on the second midnight attacked her for the shoe, and scared tries to run away. But the prince is coming, and the bakers wife swaps her plain, but comfortable, shoes for cinderella's. The princes steward takes the shoe off her, but the prince soon allows her to keep it, saying he only needs one shoe to find her.
Meanwhile, milky white has died. Jack, now rich, has returned from a second trip to the sky, and is trying to buy back milky white. But the cow dies, and the baker is forced to find a new cow.
Cinderella's prince arrives at her home, and after some gruesome action (the stepmother cuts of ones toe, and the others heel) cinderella is taken off to the castle with her prince.
Third midnight is near, and the baker and wife show the witch their four ingredients. The witch says the cow doesnt look quite white enough, but the bakers wife pats it...and flour goes everywhere. THe witch is furious, and they reveal that milky white had died, and the witch says she will bring it back to life. So they have milky white back, and they feed it the rest of the ingredients. They go to milk the cow (jack does, since she will only milk by his hand) and nothing happens. They discover it is because they used rapunzels hair, and the witch could not touch the ingredients. The mysterious man hurries onstage, telling them to feed the cow the hair from the corn cob...they do, and they milk milky white...and this time it works...the witch snatches the goblet and drinks it down...and BOOM CRASH and she is young and beautiful! the baker and his wife are no longer barren.
The witch soon sees rapunzel and her prince (when rapunzel found him she cried over him and her tears cleared his blindness) and asks rapunzel to come back. Rapunzel refuses, saying that the witches actions (shutting her up in a tower for 14 years, casting her into the desert, blinding her prince, leaving her alone again, where she bore twins etc etc) mean she will never be happy. The witch, now angry, uses her staff to put a spell on them. But nothing happens. She tries again, and again nothing happens.The prince and rapunzel run off and the witch in anger snaps her staff in half, then as smoke pours from it she tries to put it back together. THe narrator reveals that "as is often the was in these stories" the witch sacrificed her magic for youth and beauty.
Cinderella and her prince marry, but birds come down and blind her sisters.
THey are all happy and sing "Act One Finale : Ever After" where the only unhappy ones are the witch and the sisters "i was greedy/ i was vain/i was haughty/i was smug/we were happy/it was fun/we were blind/ but we went into the woods to get our wish and now we're really blind..."
the cast finish singing and the narrator reveals "to be continued" and the curtain comes down (a giant beanstalk appears in the middle of the stage as well)


well thats act 1 and im sorry becos im doing this from memory...so some of the details may be a little out of order but i think theyre pretty right...ill post act 2 in a second.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 12:22am

I'm going to be nice, despite the fact that i am not a valid source.
THe opening begins with the narrator onstage and three houses. One house belongs to Cinderella, one to Jack, one to the Baker and his Wife. THe narrator begins "once upon a time" and so does the show "Into the Woods - Prologue". It is quickly revealed how unhapy each of the characters is with his/her station in life...cinderella wants to go to the ball, jack wishes his cow would give some milk, the baker and his wife wish for a child. As per the fairytales Cinderella is instructed to pick lentils out from the fire in return for passage to the ball, jack is instructed to sell his best friend milky white for no less than five pounds. The baker and his wife are visited by the Witch who lives next door, who reveals that the baker once had a sister, but due to an unfortunate series of events (involving the bakers father creeping into the witchs garden and stealing among other things 6 magic beans which the witchs mother had insisted the witch never lose) the witch took the baby from the bakers parents and raised her as her own child, named Rapunzel. The witch reveals she placed a spell on the baker's family making the "family tree a barren one". In order to have the spell removed the Baker and his Wife must go into the woods and find 4 ingredients for the witch: A cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold. The have until the chime of midnight thrre days from them to bring the items to the witch. So the Baker sets off into the woods, as do Cinderella and Jack...the baker tells his wife she must stay home as the woods are no place for a woman. Also Little Red has gone visiting the Baker to buy some treats to take to her granny on the woods. She also joins them in going into the woods (little red is greedy and eats all the treats along the way).
WE soon find ourselves watching cinderella sitting at the foot of a rather large tree, she talks to it as it is the place where her mother was buried, and it is her link to the past. ("Cinderella at the Grave")She wishes that she would be able to go to the ball, and a woman in the tree appears (her mother one would assume) and grants her wish, providing her with a beautiful ball gown and lovely shoes. she runs off.
Meanwhile little red is making her way along the path when she is confronted by a wolf..."Goodday young lady" and he sweetly "seduces" her with a beautiful song ("Hello Little Girl") and she tells him where she is headed, and he tells her of the beauty of the woods, meanwhile singing aside with "grandmother first, then miss plump, what a delectable couple, utter perfection..." "carnality twice in one day, theres no possible way, to describe what you feel, when you're talking to your meal." The wolf leaves little red, and she continues on her way.
The baker is on his journey, but forgets the ingredients he is supposed to be finding. His wife, under the guise of giving him his scarf, has followed him into the woods and in the middle of a fight she spots jack leading along a white cow. THey inquire about the cow and tell jack that 5 pounds is a lot to expect for a cow...they offer him 5 magic beans (they dont know they are magic, nor do they no that the MYSTERIOUS MAN has told jack that if someone should offer him 5 beans to accept them) jack accepts and tearfully farewells his friend ("i guess this is goodbye") while the baker tells off his wife for lying, but she explains "maybe they're magic".
The baker sees little red, and under some encouragement from the witch tries to steal little reds cape. She starts crying and returns it...but follows her to her grannies house to make sure she is ok. She is not, as she has been consumed by the wolf...the Baker sees the red cape in the wolfs mouth and slices its belly, freeing little red and her granny. Little red gives him the cape to say thankyou for rescuing her. She sings of what she has learnt in "i know things now"
THe bakers wife has met a girl from the ball who falls over a lot, named cinderella. They talk about the prince, and then the bakers wife notices her shoes, made of pure gold. She reaches for them, but cinderella runs off, as does the cow that the baker was meant to be looking after. The cast come onstage telling a few morals "First midnight" and then jack arrives onstage telling of his journey to the sky "giants in the sky".
Two princes arrive onstage, one has been pursuing Cinderella, the other Rapunzel (he had been watching the witch enter her tower one day, and decided to himself). They sing of the pain they endure for the ones they love "Agony" (somewhat irrelveant but i read that Stephen Sondheim explained that this song was about the princes having blue balls!!! when Chris Siebher was in rehearsals for the revival)
Meanwhile the Bakers wife has also seen Rapunzels tower, and calls "rapunzel rapunzel let down your hair to me" and after she does pulls a nice big piece out, much to rapunzels disgust. She is onstage with the hair and the cow (which was returned by the mysterious man) when cinderellas stepsisters complain about being assaulted by a man trying to compare their hair to a cob of corn. It is the baker and he learns his wife has found the yellow hair. He begins to realise her importance, and no longer opposes her being in the woods. they sing "It takes two" and end with a kiss.
The witch has learned of Rapunzels affair with the prince and hauls her out of the tower screaming. She then forgives her, and sings a lovely ballad "Stay With Me", at the end of the song she takes back her forgiveness and casts rapunzel, now with normal length hair (the witch ripped the hair off), into the desert or somewhere like that. The prince leaps from the tower into a thicket of brambles which tear out his eyes, and he wanders looking for her, blinded by his love, so you might say.
Now cinderella appears and she is missing a shoe. In "On the steps of the palace" she reveals the prince coated the palace stairs with pitch and she was left with a choice : stay and be caught by the prince, or leave missing a shoe. She sees the Bakers wife, who on the second midnight attacked her for the shoe, and scared tries to run away. But the prince is coming, and the bakers wife swaps her plain, but comfortable, shoes for cinderella's. The princes steward takes the shoe off her, but the prince soon allows her to keep it, saying he only needs one shoe to find her.
Meanwhile, milky white has died. Jack, now rich, has returned from a second trip to the sky, and is trying to buy back milky white. But the cow dies, and the baker is forced to find a new cow.
Cinderella's prince arrives at her home, and after some gruesome action (the stepmother cuts of ones toe, and the others heel) cinderella is taken off to the castle with her prince.
Third midnight is near, and the baker and wife show the witch their four ingredients. The witch says the cow doesnt look quite white enough, but the bakers wife pats it...and flour goes everywhere. THe witch is furious, and they reveal that milky white had died, and the witch says she will bring it back to life. So they have milky white back, and they feed it the rest of the ingredients. They go to milk the cow (jack does, since she will only milk by his hand) and nothing happens. They discover it is because they used rapunzels hair, and the witch could not touch the ingredients. The mysterious man hurries onstage, telling them to feed the cow the hair from the corn cob...they do, and they milk milky white...and this time it works...the witch snatches the goblet and drinks it down...and BOOM CRASH and she is young and beautiful! the baker and his wife are no longer barren.
The witch soon sees rapunzel and her prince (when rapunzel found him she cried over him and her tears cleared his blindness) and asks rapunzel to come back. Rapunzel refuses, saying that the witches actions (shutting her up in a tower for 14 years, casting her into the desert, blinding her prince, leaving her alone again, where she bore twins etc etc) mean she will never be happy. The witch, now angry, uses her staff to put a spell on them. But nothing happens. She tries again, and again nothing happens.The prince and rapunzel run off and the witch in anger snaps her staff in half, then as smoke pours from it she tries to put it back together. THe narrator reveals that "as is often the was in these stories" the witch sacrificed her magic for youth and beauty.
Cinderella and her prince marry, but birds come down and blind her sisters.
THey are all happy and sing "Act One Finale : Ever After" where the only unhappy ones are the witch and the sisters "i was greedy/ i was vain/i was haughty/i was smug/we were happy/it was fun/we were blind/ but we went into the woods to get our wish and now we're really blind..."
the cast finish singing and the narrator reveals "to be continued" and the curtain comes down (a giant beanstalk appears in the middle of the stage as well)


well thats act 1 and im sorry becos im doing this from memory...so some of the details may be a little out of order but i think theyre pretty right...ill post act 2 in a second.

[paradox_error]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 3:53am

you know when i started writing the act 1 synopsis there were only like 8 replies to this post...now there are so many...and im sorry i double posted...its only the second time ive ever done it and im sorry since it was such a long post
here is act 2:
act 2 starts very similarly to act 1, the 3 homes, only cinderellas is now a palace, jacks is much more nicely furnished and the baker and his wife have a baby. It starts with the narrator : "once upon a time...later" and the opening follows along the same lines as the prologue "i wish, i wish more than anything...etc etc" and then they go into "so happy" where they basically just say how happy they are. THen as they reach a climax the music is cut off suddenly and the cast are knocked around and parts of their houses fall in on them. The witch rushes into the bakers house, and he becomes angry "did you do this to my house?" to which she replies "always thinking of yourself...look at my garden" the witches garden has been destroyed, and they notice the large fottprints that caused its demise. This is one of my favourite bits of the show the baker asks "do you think it was a bear?" "a bear? no bears are sweet. besides you ever see a bear with forty foot feet?" "dragon?" "no scorchmarks - usually they're linked" ",manticor?" "imaginary" "griffin?" "extinct" "giant?" "a giant? possible...VERY possible...giant is smart. giant has a brain. giant is like people, only bigger. MUCH bigger. SOOOOOOOOO big" the baker rushes off to tell the prince, but on the way stops off at jacks, who, he reasons has already killed a giant, so should be able to do it again. Jacks mother refuses, and makes jack promise he will stay at home. The baker goes on to the castle, where the princes steward the notion that there is a giant in their midst. The baker pleas with the princess to help, saying he has a young child that needs protecting. She promises to help, and the Baker leaves. THen the birds come to her and tell her there is trouble in the woods. She dresses in her old dirty clothes and hurries off to see what the problems are. THey all make their way into the woods once again. although im pretty sure its the babies first trip. They all go in wondering what did the damage, whether it really was a giant, or a big wind or whatever.
Rapunzel runs onstage screaming and keeps running offstage. She is followed by her prince, and about this time cinderella's prince run onstage too. TRHey talk about what they are doing in the woods, the prince says he is looking for the giant, to which his brother rapunzels prince replies "why? that is a job for your steward or less." he then goes on to say "what are you REALLY doing in the woods, brother?" and they go into a rather funny reprise of "Agony" as tehy sing about their new loves, Sleeping beauty and snow white.
The characters congregate onstage and suddenly the stage shakes and everyone is frightened. THey are confronted by the giant, who is looking for jack, who killed her husband, the first giant. She has lost her glasses and is near-sighted. She thinks they are hiding him from her. They then conspire to give the giant a replacement jack...tell her its jack...tehy suggest the steward, seeing as its his duty to protect the citizens...s the conspire the narrator starts talking, along the lines of "it is important to examine the moral influence in tales such as these...blah blah blah" the cast turn and look at him, and start to advance on him "no...i tell the story, i do not partake in it" but they pull him into the story he pleads "if you kiull me you will never know how the story ends" but the witch throws him to the giant anyway. THe giant picks him up, realises its not jack and drops him. THen jacks mother comes onstage and starts arguing with the giant. its quite a funny argument "what about our pain, do you think it was a walk in the park disposing of YOUR husbands remains". THe ginat gets angrier and angrier and everntually the steward hits jacks mother over the head with his staff as he is afraid she will get them all killed. Jacksmother dies, but not before making the baker promise he will protect jack. Suddenly rapunzel runs onstage, fleeing the prince. She runs in the direction of the giant, keeps going, and they warn her...and then she gets squashed with lovely sound effects to boot. The witch is terribly upset by this (rapunzels prince is much LESS upset) and sings "Lament" about the loss of her daughter (even though its not really her daughter).
The baker, bakers wife and little red all want to protect jack, so they decide to fan out to find him. THe baker and his wife leave little red with the baby and set out for one hundred paces in opposite directions.
On her travels, the bakers wife comes across cinderellas prince, who is wandering aimlessly through the forest. He is impressed by the fact that she is alone in the woods and proceeds to seduce her. (it is interesting to note he says "good day young lady" as did the wolf in act I which heightens the similarities of the characters, which are played by the same actor) he sings (Any moment") and seduces her, and they passionately roll around the stage. They roll offstage/out of view and the baker appears and finds cinderella crying at the destroyed tree that was once the proud shrine to her mother. The baker soon realises it is the princess, but dirty. Unbeknownst to this pair, their partners are cheating on them...and we swing back to the pair who roll back onstage...the prince leaves as suddenly as he came...announcing "i must leave you" and then singing a bit more song. THe bakers wife is a bit stunned, and similar to little reds revelation after being seduced by the wolf (do you see any parallel between the characters of the wolf and the prince? if not...you should) she sings of the lessons she has learned "moments in the woods". At the end of the song she sets off to return to her husband but is killed by the giant.
The baker, cinderella and little red are confronted by the witch dragging jack along. He is carrying the bakers wifes scarf and the baker learns of his wifes death. The witch announces her intention to give the boy to the giant, but they all refuse. It instead turns into a blame game, as they all argue who is at fault for the arrival of the giant and the subsequent deaths "your fault" at the end of the song they all blame the witch "you're the one to blame its your fault" and she responds with "Last Midnight". She decides to give up on these people, and gives away her last beans, and lets her mother punish her again. She disappears in a big flash of light.
THe devestated baker flees, following in the footsteps of his father. He meets up with his father in the woods, who teaches him that running away accomplishes nothing "No More"
THe baker returns to the others and his child. THey conspire on how to slay the giant before anyone else is killed. They come up with the idea of cinderellas birds poking her eyes out in a field covered with pitch (so her feet will stick) while jack and the baker hide in a tree and hit her on the head with big sticks.
Cinderella is approached by her husband, the prince, but she rejects him, and tells him to assume she was lost to the giant. In on of the best lines in the show, the prince explains that his philandering is due to the fact he was "raised to be charming not sincere". The part company, and cinderella returns to her friends.
THey are all nervous, but realise together they might accomplish it. Little red has an attack of guilts, thinking her mother wouldnt like the fact she killed the giant. Cinderella comforts her, singing "Noone is alone" and while they sing that, jack and the baker in the tree wait for the giant. The baker reveals to jack about his mothers death, and jack replies that he will kill the steward, as he has done wrong and must be punished. The baker joins in "noone is alone" as he comforts jack and tells him that justice is not something only he can give. THey kill the giant! and then they wonder what to do with themselves. Ciunderella says she will help the baker raise his child, and little red announces she will care for jack.
The characters (dead and alive) all appear onstage one by one to give their moral, and downstage the baker ponders his ability as a father. The ghost of his wife appears and tells him that of course he was meant to have children, and sings a reprise of noone is alone. The witch then appears and sings "Children will listen" and is joined by the cast in "Finale"

there we go...and that only took about 2 hours...Captain_obvious i think you owe me one...and i wouldnt mind a pm that says a little "thank you"...but of course it is my pleasure. i love this show, even though it is not my favourite sondheim...sorry if i got anything wrong...i did everything from memory so i cant be sure as to the accuracy of what ive said.
Peace out

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 3:59am

::hands Paradox a cookie::
That was very kind of you. I wouldn't have done it!

[paradox_error]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 4:20am

::I gladly takes the cookie and eats it::
buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp
i think i needed that
:):)
well im always willing to help someone in need...even if they dont go about showing it in the best way...if i know something that can help someone then i will gladly help them...
who would have though that knowing the whole libretto for into the woods would ever help someone?

[WhatDoINeedWithLove?]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:09am

I dont mean to sound like the neighborhood bitch, but shouldnt you do your own work? If you saw the video and listen to the recording and if you would do a little research online...you could do your paper...

Just a thought

[broadwaylove89]

Posted: 11/14/04 at 10:40am

What are some good audition songs for a high school student for this show?