Stephen Sondheim
There has been much clamour from readers for full-length Sondheim musicals and this week Into the Woods with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine who also directed, has become available online, free to watch on YouTube.
Two suggestions for watching this show on YouTube. If you have Ad-Block or Ad-free, do use it as the interruptions are many. Also, do choose the subtitles button on your set, not because any of the dialogue or lyrics are unclear but because they are so brilliant, and go by so fast, that even those of us who are famliar with the show and have seen it multiple times, may not have grasped the depth and meaning in almost every line. I found watching it with subtitles a revelation.
For those unfamiliar with the show, the premise at first seems simple, it’s a retelling of well-loved fairytales – Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapulzel, Cinderella, Red Ridinghood, and others, – up to the moment of “and then they lived happily ever after.” That’s the first act. What Sondheim and Lapine do then is to look at what happens after “happily ever after”. In life, says Into The Woods, as in fairytales, getting your heart’s desire isn’t the end of the story.
This award-winning Broadway production opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on November 5, 1987, and ran for 765 performances. it was recorded on stage just before the show closed on September 3, 1989 with the original Broadway cast including Bernadette Peters as the Witch, Joanna Gleason as the Baker’s Wife, Chip Zien as the Baker and the irreplaceable Danielle Ferland as the best ever Little Red Ridinghood.
This is a great show and, like most of Sondheim’s shows, there is so much in it that it’s hard to grasp first time. Each time you see it, the more you will get out of it but, at Broadway prices, going back to see it again and again to wring all the juice out of it is not an option for most theatregoers. That’s why it’s a joy to be able to watch it here, online, free, as often as you like.
The post Ruth Leon recommends… Into The Woods – Bernadette Peters appeared first on Slippedisc.
