Into the Woods question

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Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:41pm

I just bought the DVD of Into the Woods, and I am blown away. I know people have been saying how good it was, but I didn't expect it to be that good.

Anyway, I wonder how did Vanessa Williams play the witch different from Bernadette Peters? I heard a lot of people really not like William's take on the witch, so I am curious with how she played it.

"I've got to get me out of here This place is full of dirty old men And the navigators and their mappy maps And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes While you stare at your books."

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:43pm

She was excellent. VERY different from Bernadette but she was shockingly quirky and had a totally different take on the Witch. It was still a very satisfying performance.

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:47pm

Thanks WickedRocks. Would you mind elaborating how her take on the witch was? I'm really curious. Quirky sounds really interesting.

"I've got to get me out of here This place is full of dirty old men And the navigators and their mappy maps And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes While you stare at your books."

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:49pm

Thanks Beaverhausen. I posted before I saw your reply. So, did Williams play the Witch more straight than Bernadette or did she still have the humor, but in a different way?

"I've got to get me out of here This place is full of dirty old men And the navigators and their mappy maps And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes While you stare at your books."

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:52pm

I saw her in it a few years ago so Ill try to muster up as many memories as possible. She was very, very (as Beaverhausen stated) "mater-of-fact". Barely any sarcasm in her performance which was shocking but ultimatley fulfilling(sp). She had many quirks, and barely ever cracked a smile. She was frightening but at the same time, she made you feel sorry for her and you could feel her pain. The Witch is one of the more strenuous roles for a female so however one can pull it off, whatever! Just as long as you DO in fact pull it off, which Vanessa definitley did.

Updated On: 10/11/04 at 05:52 PM

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 5:52pm

Williams is adequate on the Revival cast recording (certainly not as awful as everyone says), but she sounds beautiful when she should sound menacing, and shrill when she should sound beautiful. It's an uneven performance, and nowhere near Bernadette's, but she doesn't ruin the recording.

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 7:45pm

Thanks Beaverhausen. Really interesting that people see the AIDS metaphore with the female giant rampaging the kingdom. I'm missing it because I can't really see it.

"I've got to get me out of here This place is full of dirty old men And the navigators and their mappy maps And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes While you stare at your books."

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 8:02pm

LOVE THIS SHOW :)

THE GIANT IS A WOMAN!!!!!!!!!! gr8 line.

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:08pm

Vanessa Williams's "Last Midnight" was absolutely chilling. She sang it beautifully and, instead of just disapearing into the ground, she gave up her beauty so she could get gain her powers back and get away from the situation. At the end of the song, she ripped off her pretty hair and had ugly, gray hair underneath and her arm became wrinkly and deformed. She ended the song by spinning into the ground as the stage blacked out on that last chord, leaving nothing but the blood red moon visible. It was amazing.

#10

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:12pm

That sounds really great Quibbler. The truth is that I never warmed up to "Last Midnight" on the Into the Woods DVD because I didn't understand how the Witch could just disappear when she no longer had her powers, and the little dance Bernadette was doing while singing the song looked kind of silly.

"I've got to get me out of here This place is full of dirty old men And the navigators and their mappy maps And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes While you stare at your books."

#11

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:15pm

I agree. I love Bernadette Peters and the song, but on the DVD, she gets a tad shrill near the end. And the flapping of her cape is a little silly.

Vanessa Williams also played The Witch as a diva. Her transformation was also stunning. She spun up into the air and her ugly clothes fell off and she was revealed in a gorgeous red dress. After she transformed, she did a model walk down center stage.

#12

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 9:36pm

The first original Sondheim production I had ever seen

A bit of shocker because I thought he was being irreverent with the fairy tales of my youth

#13

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 10:22pm

I did like the bit in the revival where Jack was fascinated by the transformed Witch at the end of Act 1. He was almost drooling - as if puberty suddenly arrived with a vengeance.

#14

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/11/04 at 11:59pm

vanessa williams rocks!

#15

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/12/04 at 12:30am

I think V. Williams brought a little "hip-hop" so-to-speak to it. Or something. I thought she was ok.
But I love the DVD version with Bernadette Peters and the OBR. "Last Midnight" is just amazing. "Children Will Listen" is a piece of art. I also loved her in Gypsy.

#16

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/12/04 at 12:34am

vanessa williams rocks! and i loved her in kiss of the spider woman!

Updated On: 10/12/04 at 12:34 AM

#17

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/12/04 at 1:14pm

The AIDS metaphors in the piece were much more obvious and striking in earlier drafts of the piece -- very very powerful according to a friend who worked on the show with Sondheim and Lapine. For various reasons, Lapine decided to remove that material and persuaded Sondheim that a less specific, more metaphorical approach to the AIDS subject matter would be better for the overall show. To this day, my friend who heard the earlier version said that it was some of the boldest and most brilliant stuff Sondheim has ever written and that the final version of ITW is far inferior due to all of Lapine's tinkering.

"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie [http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/] "The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney

#18

re: Into the Woods question

Posted: 10/12/04 at 1:24pm

I have to say that, although I wasn't a huge fan of Vanessa Williams' interpretation, she wasn't nearly as detrimental as many suggest.

Although I would have been fascinated to know what Sondheim would have done if he directly addressed the AIDS issue, making it more metaphorical allowed for the show to resonate quite deeply after 9-11...at least for me.

I was not a fan of several of the additions in the revival (the 3 pigs...2 wolves), nor was I a fan of much of the casting (Jack and Little Red were way too young to actually allow the sexual implications of their songs to shine through). But I was a VERY big fan of Lapine's direction of act II. The original had quite a lethargic pace...reflective almost...very Chekhovian. The revival had and urgency and drive to it that was VERY affective.

Had he directed act II this way in 1988, I don't think many people would have had the famous 'second act Sondheim' problems they did.

"I'm so looking forward to a time when all the Reagan Democrats are dead."

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