Phylicia Rashad as the Witch in INTO THE WOODS?? — Page 3

I know Marin Mazzie went on as the Witch, as an understudy. She never played the part regularly. She was also Cinerella's understudy. The only role she played "officially" was Rapunzel.

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Strangely enough, I see Marin more as a Baker's Wife than any other character. But maybe her voice was different back then.

A friend worked the Buckley in SUNSET BLVD and has said she is extremely difficult and demanmding to work with. She is a b---- diva.

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awful?? how was she awful? first off she was only shown a short time in that clip. i thought she did really good from what i seen.

Ljay, I do believe people still auditioned for Dot though, didn't Victoria Clark audition for the role as well? Or did she go in for a different role?

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LadyRosecoe, Victoria was not in the Broadway company of SUNDAY. She auditioned but didn't get it.

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See now I'm terribly confused. I had read in some varying places that she was a replacement in the original cast. Then I checked IBDB.COM and saw that she wasn't a replacement in it.

THEN, I googled it and came up with this:
http://www.broadway.com/gen/Buzz_Star_File.aspx?ci=504729

There seems to be conflicting information and I don't know which is true. Could anybody clear this up?

That's really interesting. Since she wasn't listed on IBDB.com and I am aware that she did audition for a role in the show that she did not get, I just figured she was never in the show.

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I saw an early preview, and "Boom! Crunch" was the song then (I still have the playbill ... somewhere). But unless I'm wrong, it was really just a draft of "Last Midnight." I don't think "Midnight" was a brand new song, just a refurbished one freshly titled.

And sidebar: the number is one of the most problematic songs in all of Sondheim. It was especially perplexing in the Vanessa Williams revival, when the Witch suddenly grabbed the Bakers' baby and began singing to it, while they were all still talking about "him" and "he" being Jack. The song is about whether to sacrifice Jack to the lady giant, and yet there's the Witch suddenly wondering whether to kidnap this baby. In the middle she thrusts the baby back in the Baker's hands and basically goes back to singing about the Jack dilemma. Very confusing, and still not a good match of action with lyrics. And the song is built around the Witch referencing her own mother, even exiting the world to re-join her. An offstage character mentioned once before, quickly, in the opening scene, when the beans are explained. The Sondheim lyric is haunting, but underneath full of a kind of arch psycholobabble that doesn't help the story telling. And "I'm the witch, I'm the hitch..." line shows the strain. She's explaining her role in this story, and all stories with witches -- sort of providing Cliff Notes on herself as a stock character. That said, when sung well, if confusing dramatically it's still far from boring in context.

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Very interesting article, husk.

I had never heard that some thought the Baker and his wife were Hansel and Gretal's parents, of course pre-stepmother and with their son being Hansel, but it's quite a new take for me on these two. I've enjoyed this show since I was six, and that idea never even occurred to me. Having thought about it, though, it does make sense.

Thanks for posting.