Into the Woods (1987 Original Broadway Cast)

The whole cast here is as perfect as one could wish for. Joanna Gleason won the Tony for Best Actress, deservedly so. No one has ever sung "Moments in the Woods" as well. Bernadette is wonderful as the Witch...the only recorded Witch to show all the character's colors! Kim Crosby is a fine Cinderella navigating her way through the thicket of lyrics in "On the Steps of the Palace."

Sondheim's lyrics are both playful and thoughtful. (A personal favorite quote: "Oh if life were only moments/Even Now and Then a bad one/But if life were only moments/Then you'd never know you'd had one!") As always much more to think about than your average musical...and therefore the disc stands up to repeated listenings.

The music too, is sometimes simple and lovely ("Children will Listen"; "No One is alone"); sometimes richly dramatic ("Last Midnight", "Lament") and occasionally too clever for its own good ("I know Things Now", "It Takes Two") but always in perfect keeping with the characters and the story. There is a good reason why this score won the 1988 Tony award over Lloyd Webber's PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!

PHANTOM has some lovely melodies, but many dull and boring passages, and the lyrics might as well have came out of an aeresol can! A good Broadway score combines music and lyrics effectively to tell a story ... and that is what the score of INTO THE WOODS does.

There is a video available on VHS and DVD that preserves the original cast in an enjoyable, though somewhat over-the-top performance. The video was taped in the theatre near the end of the show's two year run, while this original cast album was made just 4 days after the show's triumphant premiere. Enjoy both!

Avoid the awful London cast...the cover art is the best thing about that recording. The 2002 revival cast was enjoyable on stage, but the recording fails to capture the fun. Why settle for second best? Stick with the perfect original cast!


Bernadette Peters Dazzles   December 1, 2003
Amazing, amazing, amazing. It's no wonder that this show won all of the awards that it did. This CD is a wonderful addition to any showtune collection. A stellar CD.


"I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right." --The Witch--   August 22, 2003
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

What am I right about? Well, how fabulous INTO THE WOODS is, for one thing. I adore INTO THE WOODS. I'll just be honest here on this one. I don't really have anything critcal to say about it. I fell in love with the score the moment I heard it for the first time.

This is one of Sondheim's most accessable musicals: not as harmonically challenging as SUNDAY IN THE PARK... or as attention-to-detail-demanding as the lyrics in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. The music is gloriously lush and memorable, these are Sondhiem's most hummable tunes. The plot and characters are funny and endearing.

Basically, this is a massive fairy-tale-for-grown-ups: all your favorite fairy tale characters spend Act I making wishes, getting "through the woods", and basically following the fairly familiar plots your remember from your childhood. Act II is darker as we find out what happens AFTER ever after! Cinderella realizes that maybe life with a prince wasn't what she was wising for after all, Jack (of beanstalk fame) gets a little greedy, Little Red Riding Hood's mom dies and Prince Charming gets a little fickle.

I can't tell you how much this show will win its way into your heart. Its message, which it delivers in the fable-like way of all fairy stories, brings these imaginary characters troubles surprisingly close to home. You will see how wittily Lapine and Sondheim have reminded us to be "careful the wish you make...the spell you cast."

Anyway, this is truly the only version of this show you'll ever want: they got it right the first time, people! First of all, you have the truly showstopping performance of Joanna Gleason as the Baker's Wife and the wonderful Bernadette Peters as the Witch! What more do you want? The whole cast is perfect... Particularly memorable are the Princes and Little Red.

The whole score is nicely organized on one CD (not the spoken dialogue, just the sung bits...which is most of the show anyway). Also included is what is misleadingly called the full libretto, although NONE of the spoken dialogue is included. You can follow along perfectly with the CD however. Some nice photos are included too. For the true entire experience of this original cast's amazing production you should get the video or DVD... the show was filmed for TV! It's wonderfully filmed and if you aren't a DVD fantic, save your money and go VHS; there are NO extras on the DVD at all.

"I wish!"


When Andrew Lloyd Webber just isn't it   July 15, 2003
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

No More is a perfectly enchanting song, i think i'm addicted to it. This musical is the cure to the ordinary musical blues. Phantom of the Opera and Les Miz are all very well and good and I love them both to death, but sometimes you need something different and Into the Woods is it.


Another brilliant sondheim score   June 24, 2003
 1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I really don't know how to put this in any other way than "BUY IT!" it's amazing...the intricacy of each and every harmony, melody, the theme, everything is so brilliant. bernadette peters is fabulous as the witch