Into the Woods appeared in San Francisco as a musical in 1986, and had a rough start on Broadway in 1987. Music and lyrics were written by the famous composer, Stephen Sondheim and author James Lapine, who released the book in 1989. Choreography by Lar Lubovitch. Bernadette Peters' performance as the witch brought acclaim to the production as it continued its run on Broadway tour.
Inspired by Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment, the musical intertwines a collection of uncensored fairy tale versions of the 18th century Brothers Grimm. The tale of the Baker and His Wife takes center stage as a common thread. The tales of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, and Cinderella (among others), interfere on the Baker and his wife's "happy," sylvan existence.
The first act opens with a wish, a witch and a curse. The separate tales are carefully included in the story, each one depending somehow on a weakness or strength of another. The play's conflicts are motivated by selfish wishes made for the betterment of individual characters.
In the second act, we see what happens when selfish wishes are granted. The land is ravaged by the wife of a giant, whose husband's death Jack caused when he chopped down the beanstalk. The show explores the consequences of the actions taken in the first act and the need for community in order to survive the world of the "woods."
Among the notable songs in the musical are the title song, "Hello, Little Girl", "Giants in the Sky", "Agony", "Moments in the Woods", "No More", "No One Is Alone", and "Children Will Listen".
Sondheim's genius emerges in the context of syncopated speech - the characters' lines, in many instances, are delivered with a fixed beat, following the natural rhythm of speech, but purposefully composed in eighth, sixteenth and quarter notes as part of a spoken song. Like many Sondheim/Lapine productions, the songs contain thought-process narrative, as if characters are conversing or thinking aloud during their songs. See lyric examples for detail.
Plot summary
Crafted by no Mother Goose nor Grimm Brothers' notion, an important character involved in the important aspects of the play is the narrator. What are stories without a narrator? The narrator of this play seems to be omniscient and uninvolved; however, as is clear by the end of the play, such boundaries do not exist in the woods.
In the first act, we are immediately introduced to most of the major players and their "wishes", essentially following the course of familiar versions of these tales. Cinderella wants to go to the ball; Jack has to sell his cow but doesn't want to; the Baker and his Wife are poor, but wish for a child.
We learn quickly that the reason they cannot reproduce is because the witch next door has cursed the Baker's lineage with infertility. Bargaining with the witch, she grants them a way to reverse their barren fate. She sends them out into the forest to fetch four items for a certain, though rather oddly concocted potion: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn and a slipper as pure as gold. Naturally, with some difficulty, they get all of these items (the cow from Jack, the cape from Little Red Riding Hood, the slipper from Cinderella, the hair from Rapunzel). Each character sets out on a journey through the woods in order to obtain their personal goal or wish.
Certain other facts are also revealed: Cinderella and Rapunzel are each pursued by handsome princes; Rapunzel is secretly the sister of the baker and was raised by his neighbour, the witch; a mysterious man is roaming the woods, who is later revealed to be the baker's father. At the end of the act, almost everyone is seemingly happy, though it is clear to the audience that more sombre tones of the Grimm Brothers' tales are creeping into the plot, and happily may not be "ever after."
Just before the end of Act I, the Grimm Brothers' plots steer the course of the characters' actions. The baker and his wife are expecting; the witch has taken the potion and become beautiful and young again (but in exchange for her powers); Cinderella has married her prince, while her "evil" stepmother and stepsisters have been punished with blindness; Rapunzel has been rescued from her tower, has borne twins and married her prince (but lost her hair); Jack and his mother are now wealthy thanks to the stolen goods from the giants in the sky (but with a dead giant in the backyard). Even Red Riding Hood is happy, simply for having escaped the wolf, and has reached a more sensible and mature, though sadly critical view of the woods. Things wrap up so nicely that many audience members mistake the intermission for the end of the play - and in fact leave - and indeed some school productions end the play at this point.
In the second act, sheer fairy-tale chaos ensues. The current state of misery in which all characters find themselves is perceived as someone else's blame besides their own. The wife of the slain giant is rampaging the land in search of Jack. She storms through the Baker's village, destroying everyone's homes. Red Riding Hood arrives shortly thereafter to announce that her mother was killed when her house was destroyed. The witch, young and beautiful again, but lacking her former powers, must join up with them to search the forest and stop the giant. Jack, too, sets off, as he feels responsible for the onset of terror. Cinderella, who has found contentment with the prince, sneaks out to see what has happened to her mother's grave. And so, all the characters are once again out in the woods, but for a different purpose: this journey is motivated by a desire to repair damage done by the original, selfish wishes. Gradually each character realizes that wishes made for one's own purpose and benefit, quickly turn against their expectations of bliss.
Lack of unity among the characters causes violent and unexpected deaths. Rapunzel is crushed by the giantess (after she runs towards her hysterically -- she thinks the giantess has killed her prince). Jack's mother is killed by a blow to the head from the royal Steward, who is attempting to stop her from futher angering and antagonizing the giantess. Even the narrator is thrown by the giant, when he is sacrificed by the other characters in an attempt to make amends. Eventually, the royal family (Cinderella's father, stepmother and sisters and the Steward), Riding Hood, Jack, the Witch, the Baker and his Wife cluster together for safety. The royal family leaves, claiming to know a far away kingdom to escape to, and are consequently trampled by the giantess. Meanwhile, the two Princes, who seemingly should be working to save everyone, are instead singing of two new women whom they wish to pursue, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.
As the survivors consider their options, they decide to split up again. The baker's wife goes off alone and encounters Cinderella's prince, with whom she has what is suggested to be a sexual liaison. As he leaves her shortly after, she is crushed to death by a falling tree knocked astray by the giantess. All reconvene, but quickly discover their diminishing numbers. A fight ensues between all, each attempting to place the blame on anyone but themselves. Eventually, they decide that the witch is to blame because she raised the beans that grew the stalk to the giants' world. The witch cannot stand the madness and disappears leaving them alone as her one final curse.
With only Jack, Red, Cinderella and the Baker (and child) left alive, they concoct a scheme to slay the giantess, using things they have learned in their journey. Cinderella spreads pitch on the ground to make the giant stick (like the prince did to catch her on the stairs at the ball). Jack waits with the Baker in a tree with a club (as he did to kill the giantess's husband). Red Riding Hood calls attention to herself and sends the giantess toward where Jack is supposedly hiding. Cinderella stands by with the Baker's child and calls to her bird friends, who peck out the giant woman's eyes, and Jack slays her.
In the end they resolve to make a new life void of violence and selfishness, but remain haunted by the ghostly memories of their loved ones.
It seems a bittersweet, though somewhat "happy ending", now that everyone has learned their lesson. But instead of "The End", just a second after the very last note of the last song, Cinderella steps away from the ensemble and sings "I Wish!" indicating that perhaps humanity may be unable to exist apart from fruitless wishes.
Productions
Into the Woods opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on November 5, 1987. It starred Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Kim Crosby , Ben Wright, Danielle Ferland , and Robert Westenberg . The original production won the 1988 Drama Critic's Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, and the Original Cast Recording won a Grammy Award.
The show was revived on Broadway in 2002 with Vanessa Williams as the witch, the recorded voice of Judi Dench as the giant, and other cast members including John McMartin , Stephen DeRosa , Gregg Edelman , and Christopher Sieber. The plot was retooled, with a subplot added involving The Three Little Pigs. Critics were kind to the show, but loyal fans put it down, stressing that the important adult messages of the original production were now undermined with a seeming sense of flippancy.
Lyric Examples
"On the Steps of the Palace" (performed by Cinderella)
"He's a very smart prince/He's a prince who prepares/Knowing this time I'd run from him/he spread pitch on the stairs/I was caught unawares/and I thought, well, he cares/This is more than just malice/Better stop and take stock while you're standing here stuck to the steps of the palace."
"Moments in the Woods" (performed by The Baker's Wife)
"Oh if life were made of moments, even now and then a bad one/but if life were only moments, then you'd never know you'd had one!"
"I Know Things Now" (performed by Red Riding Hood)
"And I know things now, many valuable things/that I didn't know before/Do not put your faith in a cape and a hood/They will not protect you the way that they should/and take extra care with strangers/even flowers have their dangers/and though scary is exciting, nice is different than good."
Samples
