Into the Woods
This recording documents the musical's ground-breaking, Olivier Award-winning revival from the Regent's Park in London in 2010, which was directed by Timothy Sheader and starred Jenna Russell as the Baker's Wife, Mark Hadfield as the Baker, and Hannah Waddingham as the Witch (plus Judi Dench as the recorded voice of the Giant).
This epic adventure musical incorporates plots and characters of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine. In the first act of this 1987 classic, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine weave the stories of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood and the beanstalk-climbing Jack into a witty farcical basket, held together by the tale of a baker and his wife who seek to end a witch’s curse.
Act II sees the characters' happy endings unravel into a violent mess of retribution and recrimination. With unsettling conclusions, Into the Woods examines the subjective and elective aspects of morality itself, going beyond simply rewriting the morals of its stories.
- First Published: 1986
- Composer: Stephen Sondheim
- Playwright: James Lapine
- Adapted: The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales
- IMDB Rating: 7.8/10
