The root of the problem of the revival (and count me among those who felt it was a mess) lies with James Lapine. If the producers (and James Lapine as author) wanted to revive the show, they simply should have passed the reigns to another director. Asking a director to come back twenty years after the original production to create a revival with a *new* concept rarely if ever works.
And James Lapine, by his own admission, had no idea what more to do with the material. He was clueless going into casting, and it became something of an inside joke on Broadway because virtually everyone on Broadway had been seen and called back for every role (when Emily Skinner and Daphne Rubin Vega are called in for the same role, you know you've got a director with concept crisis).
As it was, at the final callbacks, Lapine basically had two sets of actors for each role. One, who closely echoed the original casting choices (Caitlin Hopkins, Stephen DaRosa) and one that were radically different (Kerry O'Malley, Kevin Chamberlain).
Even then, Lapine couldn't make up his mind which direction he wanted to go in and so he compromised by picking half and half.
It was a poor decision, because what he ended up with was a cast that was mostly either an inferior copy or what felt like a random, bizarre choice for their role. *As a side note this is how the production ended up with two wolves – both Sieber and Edelman – originally up for the same role inevitably had a contract with Prince/Wolf stipulated in the role category.*
It didn't help that Vanessa Williams (who I thought was both funny and captivating in SPIDER WOMAN) just didn't have a distinct enough personality to spear head the production. When the most memorable member of the cast is the actor in a rubber cow suit, you know you've got problems.
Nothing about the revival was an improvement on the original, or even near its equal. Not the cast, not the unnecessary book changes, not the design - nothing.
Nobody much cared for it - and I truly believe its Tony Revival win was as much a salute to Sondheim (and the fact that the show originally lost to PHANTOM) as it was more a deliberate snub to OKLAHOMA (an inferior Broadway transfer of a British revival of THE American Musical). INTO THE WOODS was also supposed to tour - which pulled the regional Tony voters.
As for the production's box office failure - it was probably based partly on mediocre word of mouth and partly on the marketing which attempted to sell the show to family, Disney-style audiences. And WOODS even in this milquetoast production has never been that kind of show.
The revival was also highly unnecessary. Its performed all over the country by high schools and community theatres. To bring it back to Broadway successfully, it really needed an exciting excuse. A fantastic production radically different than the original (something akin to the strange and fascinating original London production perhaps?)
Anyway - I bet the show gets revived again in a few more years. Maybe John Doyle will do it.
Updated On: 1/21/08 at 03:11 PM
