With SO many changes to this INTO THE WOODS revival, I'm wondering if any other Sondheim show has been changed as much over the years as this one has and also what other shows have been drastically changed since they first opened.
No two productions of Jekyll & HYDE have really ever been the same. Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse give a lot of room for the director/new creative teams to try out new ideas (some terrible, some great).
Follies. Merrily. Has "Marry Me a Little" been officially added back into company? Hell Roadshow has changed repeatedly and it hasn't even made it to Broadway yet.
Oy- they've cut songs, added songs, removed the framing device- last time I saw it there was a loooong scene with "Frank Jr." that I sure don't remember in the original.
Dracula (how many versions of one play can there be?)
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
"The troubled piece -- a 16-performance failure when it opened in 1981 -- has undergone continual revision by Stephen Sondheim, the late George Furth (who wrote the original book) and director/playwright James Lapine. Built-in problems in the narrative, which lumbers backwards from 1976 to 1957, remain, but this seems the best of all possible "Merrilys." Sondheim fans will heartily approve." Variety thinks so
Cabaret - First came the original, then the movie was practically a completely different story with different music , save for a couple songs. Then the 1998 was sort of a 'melding' of the two (with fantastic results).
If I am reading correctly, Jordan is talking about textual changes, not different ways in which directors choose to approach a piece. Correct me if I'm wrong, though.
I would guess that MERRILY has more textual changes than ITW. Frankly, I don't see a reason for a single change in ITW's text or score. Every addition or deletion (including the much admired OUR LITTLE WORLD) has been for the worse, as far as I'm concerned.
Cabaret v. 1998 is verrrrry different from the one that opened in the 60's.
"Frankly, I don't see a reason for a single change in ITW's text or score. Every addition or deletion (including the much admired OUR LITTLE WORLD) has been for the worse, as far as I'm concerned."
I sat there during the last revival (which I generally thought was ok) and was completely gobsmacked at the changes. The two wolves in Hello, Little Girl? Our Little World? The new ending to On the Steps of the Palace? The changed lyrics in Last Midnight?
None of them were an improvement.
I understand that Last Midnight is troublesome. But change the perspective of the song and it can become something harrowing. The first line shouldn't be a warning. It should be a realization. Then just run with it.
Our Little World is the only change I like for Woods.
Jordan--I'm not sure what you mean about "so many changes". The current ITW in the park productions' changes are mainly all directorial concepts, but barely textual at all. Which, for me, is something pretty different (i mean there have been productions of Company done with same sex couples and Merrily told chronologically, but those wouldn't count either IMHO). Yeah the last revival made all those pointless changes, that now seem to be largely dropped (at least one--the Three Little Pigs does go back to the San Diego original production though--as did, I think, the two wolves, but I find it all just pointless).
Cabaret certainly tops my list--if we don't count the film, there are at least four different scripts, albeit they all are textually pretty similar (Masteroff added much of the bisexuality element to the 1987 production and Mendes/Marshall just played that up further in thei production). But every revival likes to use a different song list, too.
Show Boat also has never had a revival (except maybe the 1932 one?) that used the original script/song list, and every version seems to usea different mix.
The 90s revied Company made, in its way, nearly as many changes as Follies has between Follies' 1971 and current script. From small details like Joanne being far more likeable in her current dialogue, to more major ones like era it's set in. That always bothers me, partly because less people seem to realize how drastically Company changed in tone, even if not in actual content (it seems current productions in many ways thankfully return to aspects of the original script--and I don't really mind the new "gay" scene).
Chicago's revival drops a number of book scenes (the card game) but I don't think the text of the piece is all that different.
Then are the more obvious ones where the new productions are firmly called revisions and where it's pretty obvious--Merrily, Chess, On a Clear Day (*cough*).
"But has even MERRILY (post original opening) gone through as many book and lyric changes as this WOODS has? "
Yes, certainly. I still think the changes made to Woods--which were mainly for, and then dropped after, the Williams revival changed the structure of the show far less than Merrily--where every major production has made some changes, some very significant. However, it seems to me you consider a major change this new concept of making a kid narrator--for me that's still just a directorial thing, and there have been odder directorial changes for other musicals in regional productions. A show like Company has had maybe 40-50% of its lines at least slightly re-written in the licensed 1995 based version--which ITW really ahs not, etc.
"Cabaret v. 1998 is verrrrry different from the one that opened in the 60's. "
But textually (script wise, not song wise), it's virtually the same as the '87 Prince revival, which really is very close to the original (geek that I am, I've watched the video of the '87 production while following with a copy of the hardbound 60s script). Again, I think the changes are more in tone (plus some of the Mendes concepts like the concentration camp ending).
