The Wonder that is "Into The Woods"- Page 2

[Jon]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 9:38pm

Ben Wright teaches Musical Theatre at Indiana Univerasity.

It is my understanding that he comes from a very conservative religious family, and the Broadway lifestyle never sat well with him. He really is an inocent farmboy, like his character in State Fair!

[senortenor]

Posted: 3/3/05 at 9:45pm

Oh, wow, I didn't know that he taught there. I am an IU alumnus. Yay. (Boo to conservativeness... )

[LightMyCandle125]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 12:04am

joanna is awesome! i was lucky enough to go to a master class she taught at my school, and she is just as nice as she is talented.

long live "into the woods"!!!

[scotty]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 12:28am

Caskett!

[little_sally]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 12:32am

I actually just bought the original cast recording this afternoon. I've had the revival for awhile and there is no comparison between the two, even if I am a huge Laura Benanti fan.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 12:44am

I really wish I could have seen the staged concert. Even if Ben teaches theatre I would love to see him come back to Broadway at some point. If his voice is anywhere near what is was in "Into The Woods" he could be just wonderful!

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 1:18am

A special INTO THW WOODS memory....

September 2, 1989. The Final Broadway performance of INTO THE WOODS. A sunday matinee. The theatre is packed. Just as the houselights are going down Stephen Sondheim is seen slipping into his aisle seat.

The audience was pumped. Each section of the prologue was greeted with prolonged applause, and every number received a thunderous ovation. Many original cast members are still in the show including Tom Aldredge, Chip Zien, Ben Wright, Barbra Bryne and Edmond Lyndeck. Ellen Foley was playing the Witch, Patricia Ben Peterson was Cinderella and Kay McClelland played the Baker's Wife.

By the time "No one is alone" is sung several cast members have visible tears. The show ends and the audience is on its feet cheering each of the leads. The curtain falls but the audince continues applauding all through the play-out music hoping the cast will take one more curtain call. But the music ends and the curtain remains down. Finally the applause subsides and people begin leaving the theatre.

Suddenly the curtain goes up and the whole cast is still on stage joined by Mr Sondheim. People who had started leaving the theatre come back in and the applause wells up. Sondheim raises hs hands and announces that today is Ben Wright's birthday...he is 19 today. Paul Gemignani leads the orchestra, cast and audience in singing "Happy Birthday." The cast pose for a few pictures then disperse to their dressing rooms. Sondheim comes to the edge of the stage and down on his hands and knees to sign playbills, pose for pictures and pleasantly answer questions.

Outside the theatre on the sidewalk the cast sign autographs and chat with fans before heading off to a final cast party.

The next day the giant boot that had hung over the edge of the Martin beck theatre for almost two years is deflated and removed.

Opening nights can be very exciting.... but closings have a special magic al their own.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 1:21am

I sort of hate to ask it,
But do you have a basket?

Just reminded me of:
I sort of hate to ask it,
But what's a rhyme for basket?

These lyrics are only take full shape visually -- Little Red Riding Hood has been stealing the Baker's cookies and so it's funny that she then asks for a basket.

And the Baker's Wife DOES think of her husband -- that's what "Moment in the Woods" is about. She gave into a fantasy, but realized that it only makes her appreciate what she has all the more.

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 1:27am

frontrowcentre...that was amazing! Seriously I can't even imagine what it must have been like. What an amazing show. "No One Is Alone" never fails to get me all choked up. I just love this show so much.

Sidenote: Did anyone happen to see Phylicia Rashad perform as the witch? If not, do you know what kind of reviews she got?

[teth]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 2:33am

I just watched the DVD of it today. It's so great! It's certainly making me sad because my school is doing it and I failed to audition. X_X

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 2:53am

Blue Wizard: What are you talking about? Whoever mentioned the "what's a rhyme for basket" is referring to the Forbidden Broadway version, INTO THE WORDS.

[Urban]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 5:24am

I actually enjoy the London Cast recording the best believe it or not. I guess it has something to do with fairy tale characters actually having proper British accents!

The rivial was the first cast recording of ITW I owned (I currently have the 3 major ones and an Australia recording)

I loved the rivial when I first heard it, but when I heard the others... it just got even better!

I do agree the Baker's Wife in the rivival just doesn't hold a candle to either Joanna Gleeson or Imelda Stauton.

In fact in heinsight, Kerry O'Malley was pretty white bread bland. She had no emotion. Just look at "Moments in these Woods", both Joanna Gleeson and Imelda Stauton... you could feel that they are being torn between the Prince and the Baker, it was like this big schizophrenic argument with in herself.

Yet Kerry O'Malley just... sang prettily through it. No emotion.

Of course I still think Laura Benanti was fantastic.

[magruder]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 12:01pm

There was a plot line that got dropped from Into The Woods, but I don't know at what point it was abandoned. (This might have been used in San Diego or early Broadway previews). The narrator didn't die in Act Two, and at the end was revealed to be the Baker's Son, telling the story to us, as his father is seen telling to him just prior to "Children Will Listen". So, the narrator was doubling as his own grandfather when he played the Mysterious Man (which explained why the same actor played both roles). I gather that all might have been too trippy for audiences to understand, but I think it's a neat twist that ties the whole show together thematically. A shame it got dropped.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 12:55pm

How could anyone not appreciate the Baker's Wife as played by the brilliant Ms. Gleason? One of the most amazing characterizations ever.

[redhotinnyc2]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 2:12pm

I'm with you Rath - when she stops the show on the DVD - it's absolutely amazing - she finishes her number and has to kill time while the audicnce goes wild - you don't see that often in this business any more...and I cry everytime I get to that point in the DVD because I am simply blown away by her performance.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 2:40pm

I love INTO THE WOODS, but like most Sondheim shows, it was terribly boring the first time I saw it live in the theater. Again, like most Sondheim shows, I fell in love with INTO THE WOODS after knowing the recording and then after watching it many times on video.

The show plays much better on recording and video as much of Sondheim does. Again, it is very difficult to enjoy a Sondheim show seeing it live for the first time in a theater. That is why the original INTO THE WOODS bombed at the box office as did the revival.

I love Bernadette Peters but found her witch performance embarassing. She resorted to schtick and often seemed completely lost and undirected. THERE are very good reasons she did NOT receive that Tony nomination. Of course her singing is gorgeous! Her performance from the theater is well captured on video--she seems "not to know how to act the old witch" and in the part after she has transformed into the beautiful young witch she describes the giant as BIG-- and then says "so big"-- doing schtick almost directly from a sketch on The Carol Burnett Show.

You can "hear" the part of the witch performed in a vastly superior manner on the original London cast recording of INTO THE WOODS, by Julia McKenzie.(I got her name right, didn't I?)
Listen to the London recording, and you will hear a bewitching witch who is truly heartbreaking and thrilling.

Hopefully, INTO THE WOODS will be done with a new director someday and some work done to the book. There is a masterpiece in there but obviously, like most Sondheim works, INTO THE WOODS is virtually inaccessible upon first live viewing in a theater.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 2:43pm

WISH, I loved it the first time I saw it. In the theater. It instantly became my second favorite show, and has remained such all these years.

[robbiej]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 2:56pm

frontrowcentre,

i was at that stage door that day. i got to chat with everyone, made friends with the guy at the door and he took us on a tour of the theatre after everyone had left. we went under the stage and walked the route that the Witch took during the transformation scene. it was a remarkable day.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 2:59pm

Rathnait, you are clearly someone unique in many ways. Your love of theater and your passion, your clever writing, etc. It is not surprising that someone with your talents, knowledge, heart and capabilities could love a show like ITW upon first viewing. There are not many folks like you.

That is why the original and revival of this masterpiece both failed to find audiences. As did the original and revival of FOLLIES, PACIFIC OVERTURES, etc.

[BWayBoy88]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:40pm

Joanna Gleason was absolutly perfect in that role. I can think of only a few other people who deserved a Tony as much as she did.

magruder- I never heard about that but I think it is a really cool twist that really works if you think about it

[kangaroo]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:50pm

frontrowcentre2, thanks for those memories. It seems like it was amazing.

Anyone know how Ben Wright looks now? He was my favorite character as Jack, and I really was just wondering how he looks now.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 2:48am

Blue Wizard: What are you talking about? Whoever mentioned the "what's a rhyme for basket" is referring to the Forbidden Broadway version, INTO THE WORDS.

LOL, sorry -- I'm unfamiliar with the songs of Forbidden Broadway. I thought the post was criticizing Sondheim's rhyme.

Ben Wright turned 19 in 1989??? I didn't realize he was so young. How old is he on the DVD, 17? I think some of my dirty thoughts are dirtier than I thought.

And as usual, I'd like to express my undying love for Joanna Gleason and her perfect and glowing Baker's Wife. This has quickly become one of my favourite threads.

[KMF_NYC]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 8:29am

Magruder -- the grandfather sub plot WAS in early previews on the broadway run and subsequently dropped a week or so later (yes, I instanly fell in love with the show and had to get back and see it again).

I thought that original plot "twist" of the narrator being the Bakers Son was wonderful and when they threw him to the giant I was speechless.....

[magruder]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 8:44am

KMF -

I'm so glad that you saw that version! The narrator getting killed always struck me as some cheap comedy after I found out what the original intent had been. Do you remember much about how they revealed the narrator as the baker's son? Was it confusing at all? I saw the show twice, but after opening, so I never saw that version of Act Two. Any insight as to how it worked would be appreciated!

[Parks]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 9:11am

Woah..the narrarator was supposed to be the baker's son? And I thought I had figured out the show.