Into the woods original london production?

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 7/8/14 at 8:17pm

Can anyone who saw it tell me a little about what it was like?

[StageManager2]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 2:13am

Here are some clips. I think it looks dreadful.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 2:40am

Here's another clip:



Suffice it to say it was very different from the Broadway original.

[devonian.t]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 3:26am

I saw it 4 times- it was wondrous. Sondheim has said he deeply regrets that it wasn't recorded in full.

Act 1 was utterly hilarious, drawing from the British tradition of pantomime to some extent, along with classic French farce: the woods was full of wooden doors which the characters used to enter and exit.

Act 2 became very dark- the woodland wallpaper peeled away and the large cuckoo clock was broken. The narrator's death involved a dummy of Nicholas Parsons landing on stage. At the end of Last Midnight all the doors suddenly fell off, crashing to the floor very dramatically.

The singing was glorious and of course, this production saw the introduction of Our Little World.

[keithp]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 10:28am

In the theatre, it looked (production design) wonderful and was an extremely satisfying production. Julia McKenzie was a triumph. I don't think those clips are from the theatre but a TV studio recording of extracts so difficult make a fair judgement.

[icecreambenjamin]

Posted: 7/9/14 at 11:18am

Thank you!