Why didn't Betty Buckley do Into the Woods on Bway? — Page 2

Betty Buckley replaced Bernadette Peters in Song and Dance in 1986. I saw BP twice in the role and thought her performance was definitive. Regardless, I've always regretted not seeing BB's take on the part because I'd love to have experienced her renditions of those songs. She often includes "Unexpected Song" in concerts and has recorded it, but changes the tempo and accompaniment so much that it's really something else (and something diminished) altogether.

It was hard for me to imagine BB playing a naive 20-something year-old girl five years after playing the step-mother of naive 20-something year-old girls on Eight is Enough. I wish I had seen it to give her the opportunity to prove me wrong. (Anyone here see her in the show?)

The relevance to this thread is that she wasn't an audience draw; the show closed in November 1986, shortly after she joined. Into the Woods opened on Broadway one year later. If the producers needed a name other than Stephen Sondheim to drive ticket sales, Betty Buckley was not it.

I thought that poster was claiming she was an audience member during previews, not a performer.

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She was a most inappropriate replacement for SONG AND DANCE. Nothing in her persona or presence suggests a flighty English girl who cannot find the right man. She seemed selected strictly for possessing the vocal chops, and the show was heavy-handed with her. And she notoriously had trouble with Emma's wardrobe, and didn't look quite right.

I would argue that her issues with The Witch having nothing to do with glamour. Certain in her youth she was a radiant, sexy woman, and look no further than CARRIE -- the film -- or her TV footage. But she doesn't have a knack for suggesting a lightness of touch. She was a humorless, almost one-note Rose at Papermill, finding the aggression and ruthlessness but none of the charm. I can imagine that her Witch lacked the necessary twinkle in the eye. WOODS requires a deft touch, sophistication and gravitas. But also a style, an understanding that even deconstructed, the material is still a fairy tale of a special sort. When I saw her Norma, I saw a victim. She tended to play the end, again, despite vocal brilliance, and if Norma isn't a bit of fun in act one, she's too tragic too soon. So I would think Buckley's Witch might've been all about "Stay With Me," the sad backstory-infused mother side of the character, and too little about the foreground "Enchantress." People may strongly disagree, but I just don't see a comfort with humor.

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Updated On: 7/4/12 at 11:45 AM

So just to be clear--Buckley played the role in workshops done between the original LaJolla workshop production, and the Broadway opening? Of course there were a number of differences in LaJolla, though the majority of the cast carried over.

Yeah, I'm aware about cast changes being common, I guess I'm just surprised I had never heard about Buckley being in the role. Of course Buckley, and certainly Peters, were bigger names than Ellen Foley who was probably best known for Night Court and (vocally anyway) for singing Paradise by the Dashboard Light with Meatloaf--and I got the impression originally they wanted to the Witch to be a bit more of a "rocker chick" than she ended up being, even if Foley later played the role as a replacement. I had just never heard of any major workshop staging between La Jolla and previews in New York, so found it interesting, (though maybe the OP meant rehearsals).

There were two workshops in La Jolla. Buckley did the first. Ellen Foley the second.

I don't think Buckley's was open to the public. I don't think it was a complete show then...may have just been one act.

Which "she" are you referring to? Ellen Foley or Buckley? (impossible to tell from your post)

Yes, Foley played the role.
Replacement List from IBDB

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It's not as easy to replace actors in workshops as you think. Most of them, especially the leads, and especially any "names," but often even the chorus members, are on "right of refusal" contracts.

Workshops are done for little or no money at all while they hone the show, so the only thing producers can offer actors as an enticing carrot is a contractual "guarantee" of sorts or at least a financial commitment to use them should the show move forward into a full-scale production.

If an actor is on one of these (typical) workshop contracts, they have to be "bought out" of it if the production moves ahead without them.

So while it does happen, it's not cheap to do it, and producers have to think long and hard about who they hire for their original workshops, for that reason.

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Updated On: 8/11/12 at 08:30 AM

Westcoast -- I think the poster meant that Ellen Foley played the role. If he clicked "reply to message" on one of the posts about her, we'd have no way to see that. (but most people assume we can tell)

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Which is why Patti has a pool bought for her by Lord Loyd Webber. Lol

This is in response to the Best12Bars explaining being bought out.

Updated On: 8/11/12 at 08:35 AM

Westcoast_wannabe: whoops! No, I was mistaken. I meant Folley, but for whatever reason, I though it was Buckley. Can I use the it was 1 AM, and I spent the day at rehearsal and performing excuse? Sorry....

Amy Adams reminds me of "Sybil"'s mother in that horrifying TV movie with Sally Field.

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