The Public Theatre's Shakespeare/Park presents INTO THE WOODS -- Discussion- Page 33

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:05am

I saw Cleo as the Witch at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles. She was terrific in all respects, and I wasn't expecting her to be since she was such a departure from Bernadette Peters. Her smokey/jazzy voice sounded great on Stay With Me and Last Midnight. And she had such a wonderful, strong personality on stage and an instant connection with the audience.

I also saw her in Drood with the full OBC, late in previews. The whole cast was fantastic. I then saw Drood later in the run with Donna Murphy in the title role and Karen Morrow as Puffer. It was such a letdown after seeing the full OBC. The energy was gone.

Here's the full cast of Into the Woods at the Ahmanson with Cleo Laine headlining as the Wtich:


Witch - Cleo Laine
Baker - Ray Gill
Baker's Wife - Mary Gordon Murray
Narrator / Mysterious Man - Rex Robbins
Cinderella - Kathleen Rowe McAllen
Wolf / Cinderella's Prince - Chuck Wagner (playing Westenberg's roles now)
Jack - Robert Duncan McNeill
Jack's Mother - Charlotte Rae
Little Red Ridinghood - Tracy Katz
Rapunzel - Marguerite Lowell
Rapunzel's Prince - Douglas Sills
Cinderella's Stepmother - Jo Ann Cunningham
Florinda - Susan Gordon-Clark
Lucinda - Danette Cuming
Cinderella's Father - Don Crosby (OBC member Kim Crosby's father)
Cinderella's Mother - Nora Mae Lyng
Grandmother / Giant - Nora Mae Lyng
Steward - Marcus Olson

Updated On: 8/6/12 at 10:05 AM

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:21am

Wow - Charlotte Rae must have been great as Jack's mother!

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:24am

She was!

A great choice for the part and she played it beautifully. The music fit her singing voice and the role fit her comedic abilities.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:28am

"Laine plumbs the darkest corners of the music for both acts, in the first as a frightening hag and through the second as a purposeful matriarch to the authors` morality fable. Laine`s characterization is a distinct departure from the original Broadway concept of Bernadette Peters, whose coloratura voice and plucky comic instincts cast a softer, lighter focus. My feeling is that Laine offers the more dramatically engrossing portraiture."
Them's fightin' words!

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:38am

Well, I wouldn't say she was better than Peters, but she was refreshingly different and made the role work beautifully for her. It wasn't remotely an imitation of the Broadway version of the Witch.

And yes, it goes without saying that they lowered the keys for her solos to better fit her voice and take advantage of those "deeper" notes. It worked so well. Cleo has a huge range, and in the larger group numbers they left the keys alone.

Everybody in that production was good. Standouts being Laine, Rae, Mary Gordon Murray (such an incredible voice!) as the Baker's Wife and Tracy Katz (hilarious) as Little Red. Robert Duncan McNeill (after All My Children but before Star Trek) was an excellent Jack and could really sing it well. And it was great seeing Chuck Wagner play the other prince (and the wolf). Douglas Sills was great, too, and the two of them were memorable with Agony. I also remember loving Rex Robbins as the Narrator/Mysterious Man. He had been in 1776 (both the OBC and the film).

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:39am

I was fortunate to see Charlotte Rae as Berthe in the 2000 Paper Mill Playhouse production of Pippin. She was great! Ran into her in the parking lot behind the playhouse. She is so small! Great personality and a giant presence on stage. A lot of fun to see her perform on stage after watching her on television as Mrs Garrett when I was growing up.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:49am

A lot of people loved Mary Gordon Murray. I have friends who swear her Baker's Wife was 2nd best or tied with Gleason's. I had no idea it was Kathleen Rowe McAllen as Cinderella. She more less disappeared after ASPECTS OF LOVE. Beautiful, with a beautiful voice.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 10:59am

Mary was astonishing as the Baker's Wife. Her acting was first-rate and her voice was unmatchable. I've never heard the role sung that well and probably never will. For my money, she was (marginally) better than Gleason, and that's saying a lot.

As for Kathleen, I'm having a bit of a "brain fart" here ... I swear I didn't see her, even though her name is in my program. The way I (vaguely) recall it is that she didn't complete the Los Angeles run and left to join rehearsals for the OBC of "Aspects of Love." I see the names online for the actresses that replaced her in the tour, and I don't recognize them. So I'm not sure who I saw ... but I don't think it was Kathleen (perhaps an understudy who had taken over temporarily?). I remember liking Cinderella, however. But in a show filled with outstanding performances, she was just one among them.

Here's the Los Angeles Times review of the production. It's an all-out rave for Cleo Laine as well.


Review of INTO THE WOODS from 1988

Updated On: 8/6/12 at 10:59 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 11:08am

There's not much of anything on YouTube for Mary Gordon Murray. I found a clip of her singing 18 years after she played the Baker's Wife. Her voice is still amazing, but imagine how it might have sounded two decades earlier!

She had the ability to belt like a rock star AND sing legit like an opera singer. She had a rich alto and a surprisingly high soprano, both.

And she was one hell of a good actress and comedienne.

I also saw her pre-Broadway in THE MOST HAPPY FELLA as Rosabella. She was a temporary out-of-town fill-in for Sophie Hayden. When the show opened in NY, I kept hoping Mary would go into it, but apparently it was already worked out in advance. Ah, well. I wish she worked more on Broadway!


Mary Gordon Murray in 2006

[gstrus2]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 11:15am

VIRTUAL LOTTO DETAILS:
So I emailed the Public Offices, and they said around 100-500 tickets are given out daily, and over 1000 people enter everyday, :)

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 11:20am

Best of luck, gstrus2! We all know how anxious you are to see the show! lol.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 12:49pm

WIN TICKETS TO THURSDAY NIGHT'S OPENING NIGHT PERFORMANCE AND CAST PARTY!

https://www.facebook.com/publictheater/app_28134323652

The contest began on the 1st and closes tonight at midnight... let me know who enters and if one of you guys win! haha.

Updated On: 8/6/12 at 12:49 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 12:55pm

You mean Thursday night's opening and cast party.

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 12:57pm

Got it! lol. I got the opening night date and tonight's contest deadline confused. Thanks!

[Act4ever]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 1:35pm

FYI, Cinderella is getting a new dress

[Brian07663NJ]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 1:41pm

fantastic - the one she had when I saw it Friday night was far from being a classy princess ball gown! Looked like a trampy home made high school prom dress

Here is an extended wish that the tree delivers it to her from above (second level) and not on the same level! Updated On: 8/6/12 at 01:41 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 1:45pm

Her new dress is silver and gold, more fairy taley.

[ProjectMayhem]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 2:35pm

Hey I'm brand new to this website and I was wondering if anyone could help with my query.

I have booked 2 tickets for the Open Caption Performance (August 11) of this show as my older brother is partially deaf, however I am unsure if he needs to bring ID to prove his disability or not?

We are traveling over from the UK so it would be useful to know what we need to bring for the show before we leave, however the Public Theater have said they will not release the confirmation email for the tickets until 24 hours prior to the show.
Is anyone else attending this and does anyone know what the Public Theater would accept as proof of disability, bearing in mind that it will be UK-Government produced identification.

Thanks a lot!

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 8/6/12 at 3:04pm

I don't know, but I'd bring whatever you have, to be safe. If you can't call the Public to ask (212-539-8500), maybe try their twitter.

Good luck, and welcome to the board. I always enjoy the signed shows more than the captioned ones, but it may not be as practical in this instance.
Public theater twitter

[jacobsnchz14]

Posted: 8/7/12 at 10:36am

Amy Adams on LIVE WITH KELLY talking about "Into The Woods" and more!

http://www.broadway.com/buzz/163287/watch-into-the-woods-star-amy-adams-talk-parenting-facebook-envy-broadway-dream-roles-on-live-with-kelly/

[somethingwicked]

Posted: 8/7/12 at 11:56am

After seeing the frozen incarnation of the show this week for the first time since I saw it in the first week of previews, here are the changes I noticed:

-As has been mentioned in this thread, they've re-thought the costuming for Cinderella. She no longer has the bird tattoos in her dowdy outfit, and they've added leggings to cover up where they were before. Her ballgown is also new. It's long and silver and gold and sparkly, and definitely a huge improvement over the previous costume.

-I thought it sounded like they re-recorded some of the chatter between the little boy and his father before the start of the show, and they definitely tweaked the blocking of their reunion at the end.

-As has also been discussed here, they've re-thought "Last Midnight." They've tweaked the blocking, added back most of the original lyrics, and also polished The Witch's exit significantly. They also changed the very ending of the song. Before, Murphy used to sing, "Mother, here I come!" Now she sings, "Mother... here... I..." and then yells like Bernadette Peters did at the end of the very original. It was much more affective.

-Donna Murphy sings most of "Children Will Listen" alone now. The ensemble comes in much later than before.

-When Cinderella's Stepmother and Florinda and Lucinda were hunting for the Prince before, one of them used to carry a rifle (which I thought was hilarious,) but that's gone.

-Last night, Rapunzel was wearing a vizor and sun screen on her nose in her first scene after being banished. That may have been there before, but I noticed it specifically last night.

-Did the Grandmother always speak with a thick southern accent? I didn't remember her doing that before, but I was struck by it last night.

-Amy Adams used to throw The Prince's arrow into the audience, but she now throws it off stage right. They've also adjusted the tempos and the keys a bit for her in that song. I noticed she sang the final note up higher rather than down low like in the original.

-There were also bits and pieces of scenes that were re-blocked all over the place. It seemed like a lot of stuff was taken down from the levels and played downstage on the ground, which worked better.

-There's now a fully staged curtain call, which wasn't there when I saw it before.

The show was certainly tighter and more fluid last night, but I still don't think it's anywhere near as good as it should be, mostly because of casting issues that can't be re-thought. The weather sure was lovely, though.

Updated On: 8/7/12 at 11:56 AM

[gstrus2]

Posted: 8/7/12 at 12:28pm

Central Parks run has been extended to September 1st. :)

[E.Davis]

Posted: 8/7/12 at 12:37pm

This picture. That is all.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 8/7/12 at 12:39pm

^WTF is even supposed to be happening in that picture?

[rougeduck]

Posted: 8/7/12 at 12:39pm

She's gettin' her shoe.