INTO THE WOODS (1991)
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This award-winning Broadway production with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine was pro-shot on stage with an all-star cast. Featuring the original Broadway production in 1989, and just before the show closed, this performance was originally broadcast on PBS as part of the American Playhouse series in March of 1991 episode one of season ten. Into the Woods opened on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on November 5, 1987, and closed on September 3, 1989 after 765 performances.


CAST
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Bernadette Peters - the Witch
Joanna Gleason - the Baker's Wife
Chip Zien - the Baker
Robert Westenberg - the Wolf and Cinderella's Prince
Tom Aldredge - the Narrator and Mysterious Man
Kim Crosby - Cinderella
Danielle Ferland - Little Red Ridinghood
Ben Wright - Jack
Chuck Wagner - Rapunzel's Prince
Barbara Bryne - Jack's Mother
Pamela Winslow - Rapunzel
Merle Louise - Cinderella's Mother, Granny, and the Giant's Wife
Edmund Lyndeck - Cinderella's Father
Joy Franz - Cinderella's Stepmother
Philip Hoffman - the Steward
Lauren Mitchell - Lucinda
Kay McClelland - Florinda
Jean Kelly - Snow White
Maureen Davis - Sleeping Beauty


SYNOPSIS
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The narrator introduces four groups of characters: Cinderella, who wishes to attend the king's festival; Jack, who wishes his cow, Milky White, would give milk; a baker and his wife, who wish to have a child; and Little Red Ridinghood, who wishes for bread to bring for her grandmother.

The baker's neighbor, an ugly and aging witch, reveals the couple is infertile because she cursed his father for stealing her vegetables, including magic beans, which prompted the witch's own mother to punish her with the curse of age and ugliness. The witch took the baker's father's child, Rapunzel. She explains the curse will be lifted if she is brought four ingredients—"the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold"—within three days.

Act two begins as the narrator continues, "Once upon a time... later." Everyone still has wishes—the baker and his wife face new frustrations with their infant son, newly rich Jack misses the kingdom in the sky, Cinderella is bored with life in the palace.

With a tremendous crash, a giant's foot destroys the witch's garden and damages the baker's home. The baker travels to the palace, but his warning is ignored by the prince's steward and by Jack's mother. Returning home, he finds Little Red on her way to her grandmother's; he and his wife escort her.

The four together slay the giantess, and the other characters return to share one last set of morals. The survivors band together to hail the quartet as their heroes, and the spirit of the baker's wife comforts her mourning husband, encouraging him to tell their child their story. The baker begins to tell his son the tale, while the witch appears and warns: "Careful the things you say, children will listen".


SONGS ♫
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ACT I
0:01:26 - Into the Woods
0:13:55 - Now Can I Go to the Festival?
0:14:17 - Into the Woods
0:16:44 - Cinderella at the Grave
0:19:34 - Hello Little Girl
0:25:07 - I Guess This Is Goodbye
0:25:49 - Maybe They're Magic
0:29:25 - Baker's Reprise
0:32:35 - I Know Things Now
0:36:07 - Very Nice Prince
0:37:45 - First Midnight
0:39:08 - Giants In The Sky
0:46:00 - Agony
0:52:10 - A Very Nice Prince (Reprise)
0:54:40 - It Takes Two
0:58:13 - Second Midnight
0:59:28 - Stay With Me
1:04:45 - On The Steps of the Palace
1:19:47 - Ever After

ACT II
1:30:00 - So Happy
1:33:03 - Into the Woods (Reprise)
1:35:31 - Agony (Reprise)
1:45:42 - Witch's Lament
1:50:15 - Any Moment
1:53:03 - Moments in the Woods
1:59:48 - Your Fault
2:01:23 - Last Midnight
2:06:38 - No More
2:16:41 - No One Is Alone
2:22:14 - Act II Finale
2:24:44 - No One Is Alone (Reprise)
2:25:55 - Children Will Listen
2:27:34 - Into the Woods (Reprise)


ABOUT THIS POST
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An AI program processed each frame of this recording in an effort to bring early 1990's video up to date. Then, FinalCut Pro was used to help with color balance and exposure as well as to encode surround sound. This channel is purposely not monetized. Any ad revenue is paid to YouTube and the copy write holder: Warner Chappell who claims on their site that "Our policy regarding music on YouTube is primarily to monetize it – essentially, placing ads and collecting the royalties generated by views" as well as "Into The Woods" (1989) Sondheim, S., & Lapine, J..