ribonucleic
02-08-2013, 04:54 PM
With Into the Woods, songwriter Stephen Sondheim and librettist/director James Lapine retold a group of children's stories in an intricate, moving way that worked on many levels. In the show... Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, and other familiar fairy tale characters, joined by a few newly invented ones, engage in interrelated adventures. Sondheim and Lapine's interpretation is informed by child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim's book The Uses of Enchantment, and they not only retain some of the gorier aspects of the original tales, but also add adult complexities. Sondheim's score for Into the Woods is one of his most tuneful, and slyly acknowledges the melodic simplicity of the Disney movie versions of some of these fairy tales, but his lyrics are typically witty and, not infrequently, employ tongue twisters. - AllMusic
To the best of my knowledge, this is the only way to hear the complete show performed by the original Broadway cast. It is a live performance from 1989, complete with audience laughter and applause, which was broadcast on PBS's American Playhouse in 1991, then ripped from the subsequent DVD.
Please PM for links.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the only way to hear the complete show performed by the original Broadway cast. It is a live performance from 1989, complete with audience laughter and applause, which was broadcast on PBS's American Playhouse in 1991, then ripped from the subsequent DVD.
Please PM for links.