Sara Bareilles, Christian Borle, Ashley Park, and Heather Headley to Lead Encores Into The Woods- Page 8

[Melissa25]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 8:40am

I have attended many of the Christmas Pops shows at Carnegie Hall and personally get very antsy when that chorus comes out. It’s like Sondheim antithesis.

[GiantsInTheSky2]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 9:47am

ljay889 said: "I don’t love the chorus idea either, but come on, it’s SONDHEIM and a star studded cast. Some of you are really selling your tickets because of NPH and a community chorus?"

Are you insinuating that people should be buying a ticket because of said-chorus and NPH?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 9:57am

Guys. This is the most "f*cked with" Sondheim show there is. It's my favorite but if you want to see it done the way it was originally, it's never gonna happen (sadly). Every time I see a production of it, I just know there's gonna be at least a dozen things that piss me off so if the worst thing is a chorus at the very end, I can handle it.

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 10:32am

Jordan Catalano said: "Guys. This is the most "f*cked with" Sondheim show there is. It's my favorite but if you want to see it done the way it was originally, it's never gonna happen (sadly). Every time I see a production of it, I just know there's gonna be at least a dozen things that piss me off so if the worst thing is a chorus at the very end, I can handle it."

100 percent. Every director thinks they have a new concept to bring to this already heavily conceptual musical so that’s why this added change of just a choir feels so minimal compared to the myriad of other pretentious saccharine re stagings I’ve had to say “oh god” to. 

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 10:35am

I wonder if that inclination comes from just how embedded the American Playhouse taping is in everyone’s minds. By all accounts we have an untouchable version of the show the general public always has access to unlike a lot of other broadway shows. So these directors think “the hill to climb is to not be compared to such an iconic piece of filmed theatre”

[ljay889]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 10:36am

GiantsInTheSky2 said: "ljay889 said: "I don’t love the chorus idea either, but come on, it’s SONDHEIM and a star studded cast. Some of you are really selling your tickets because of NPH and a community chorus?"

Are you insinuating that people should be buying a ticket because of said-chorus and NPH?"

How was that insinuated, lol? I was referring to those selling their tickets over these two things. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 10:45am

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "I wonder if that inclination comes from just how embedded the American Playhouse taping is in everyone’s minds. By all accounts we have an untouchable version of the show the general public always has access to unlike a lot of other broadway shows. So these directors think “the hill to climb is to not be compared to such an iconic piece of filmed theatre”"


Thats a big part of it. But also, I’ve never seen the show done with changes that actually improve on the material. Even when Sondheim went in and tinkered around, it didn’t actually improve it. That’s why the best production outside the OBC that I’ve ever seen was that 2019 semi staged concert at Town Hall because (besides that cast who was so perfect) it just let the show be the show and didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. If you just let “Into the Woods” be what it is, you don’t need any of that added BS.

 

[JBroadway]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 10:48am

I actually really liked the framing device in the Central Park production, with the runaway kid being the narrator, and reuniting with his father. I know it was divisive but I pretty much sobbed. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 10:51am

^ Yeah I hated that lolol

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 10:53am

Jordan Catalano said: "rattleNwoolypenguin said: "I wonder if that inclination comes from just how embedded the American Playhouse taping is in everyone’s minds. By all accounts we have an untouchable version of the show the general public always has access to unlike a lot of other broadway shows. So these directors think “the hill to climb is to not be compared to such an iconic piece of filmed theatre”"


Thats a big part of it. But also, I’ve never seen the show done with changes that actually improve on the material. Even when Sondheim went in and tinkered around, it didn’t actually improve it. That’s why the best production outside the OBC that I’ve ever seen was that 2019 semi staged concert at Town Hall because (besides that cast who was so perfect) it just let the show be the show and didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. If you just let “Into the Woods” be what it is, you don’t need any of that added BS.

"

Sondheim's tinkering on that show is some of his worst tinkering. Who told him Last Midnight needed to delete "you're so nice, you're not good, you're not bad, you're just nice"? And I get what he was going for at the end of On the Steps of the Palace by tying Little Red and Jack's songs back into it but- it's so clunky. Tremendously clunky. They didn't realize it was clunky in previews?

The ONLY Into the Woods change that I really loved and fit very well was the end of the opening in the movie where they kept overlaying "To see to sell to get to bring to make to keep to go to the festival" at the end climactically. It gave the ending of the Prologue a really strong finish as apposed to just the "into the woods and out of the wooooooooooooods" from the broadway show.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 11:01am

Jordan Catalano said: "^ Yeah I hated that lolol"

Fair enough. It was a bold choice, for sure. 

Since rattleNwooly mentioned more music-focused changes, I'm also reminded of the Central park production with the altered arrangement for the "I'm leaving you alone" verse in Last Midnight. I really loved that one - so dramatic, and Donna Murphy sold the hell out of it. 

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 11:02am

JBroadway said: "I actually really liked the framing device in the Central Park production, with the runaway kid being the narrator, and reuniting with his father. I know it was divisive but I pretty much sobbed."

But this is the wrong thing to do with a show that already has the narrator get eaten. There is already a heightened theatrical concept. It just muddies all of it as soon as you make the kid the narrator. 

This show walks right up to the line of indulgent and hits you with being incredibly moving and effective- but any "yes and" directors impose crosses the line always into indulgent.

Updated On: 4/15/22 at 11:02 AM

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 11:14am

I think the only aspect of the show that should leave room for directoral flexibility and interpretation is how you cast Jack and Little Red. I think there are a myriad of ways to approach who should play them, what age should play them, how in on the joke are they, so long as "No One is Alone" is effective. 

And then of course visually. This show is screaming for a revival in thrust or in the round. The running on and off element when they are all around you is phenomenal especially pacing wise. 

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 11:30am

And I'm in the camp that thinks Jack and (especially) Red should not be played by younger children.

[rattleNwoolypenguin]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 11:51am

Jordan Catalano said: "And I'm in the camp that thinks Jack and (especially) Red should not be played by younger children."

It's a tricky one cause ultimately their casting has to make No One is Alone have the "parents and children visual" 

[Valentina3]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 11:54am

Jordan Catalano said: "And I'm in the camp that thinks Jack and (especially) Red should not be played by younger children."

I agree. I'd rather they be comically grown adults as they were in the OBC (however unintentional that may have been), it just adds to the humor of them being so naive.

[inception]

Posted: 4/15/22 at 11:55am

rattleNwoolypenguin said: "
And then of course visually. This show is screaming for a revival in thrust or in the round. The running on and off element when they are all around you is phenomenal especially pacing wise."

In 2019 I saw a good production at a theatre out in the suburbs of Chicago (just googled to help my memory, Writers Theatre, Glencoe, IL) and the ONLY thing that bugged me was that it was in the round so often actors had their back to you.  

[stlrod]

Posted: 4/19/22 at 5:55pm

Last Thursday, there were a bunch of tickets (40% of the balcony and scattered with some pair elsewhere) for the final 5 days (only days I checked) and now they are ALL gone.  Either NPH sold a lot of tickets or the resellers grabbed them.  My guess is it is the latter.

[Steph N]

Posted: 4/19/22 at 8:03pm

Yep, resellers. I saw a bunch on stubhub for hiked up prices. A seat you could have gotten for $35 is now $125. I'm thankful I bit the bullet and bought mine on Saturday.

[everythingtaboo]

Posted: 4/20/22 at 9:54am

A choir singing isn't unusual to a ITW song. Betty Buckley singing Children Will Listen with the Harlem Boys Choir at the Sondheim at Carnegie Hall was beautiful. If it's done with similar care, it'll be a lovely ending. 

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 4/20/22 at 12:03pm

I agree. It's not a rare thing, it will only be a few minutes and Im sure it will work really beautifully. 

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 4/20/22 at 1:21pm

Am I the only one who thinks a choir of intergenerational New Yorkers joining the finale is going to be gorgeous? And entirely appropriate?

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 4/20/22 at 1:26pm

Not at all. People will bitch about anything, even children singing. Imagine? 

[jlindsey865]

Posted: 4/20/22 at 1:48pm

I am so, so, so excited for this production AND this cast.  Sad to see Christian Borle go, but I don't hate the NPH casting.  I can't wait to see Sara tackle Sondheim.  Also, this is my favorite show of all-time, so I am very much looking forward to this evening at the theatre.

[NOWaWarning]

Posted: 4/20/22 at 1:54pm

Also the original announcement back in August said the production would “bring together Broadway's brightest stars with a multi-generational group, including New York City public school students, to highlight the ways theater connects us across generations.” So the choir thing really shouldn’t be a surprise. 
 

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/Sara-Bareilles-Christian-Borle-Ashley-Park-Dul-Hill-More-Announced-for-2022-Encores-Season-20210816