Into the Woods (2002 Broadway Revival Cast)

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Music reviews of Into the Woods (2002 Broadway Revival Cast)

Music Review: A great recording, but not a must have if you own the others
Rating: 4 Stars

Into The Woods may likely win out over all of Stephen Sondheim's works as the most popular and approachable. The musical, with book by James Lapine, takes several familiar fairy tales and spins them together in a very clever and often humurous way - in the first act, at least. The main plot lines deal with The Baker and His Wife, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Little Red Riding Hood... but you'll also catch whiffs of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Three Little Pigs, and Rapunzel, among others. The first act of the musical weaves these popular fairy tales together and provides what seems like a happy ending; the second act poses questions about what happens to the characters in a fairy tale once they have everything their hearts yearn for.

Sondheim's score for Into The Woods is immensely clever, using every musical trick in the book to twist main themes like "Into The Woods", "Children Will Listen" and "No One Is Alone" into a full score of material. One of those musical tricks is unabashed recycling of his old music, which is always a treat for Sondheim fans who can't help but wonder if the presence of the same melodies across shows is indicative of some deep hidden meaning. We'll let that topic go, though, and leave it as fodder for the "love Sondheim / hate Sondheim" argument that rages ever onwards. Suffice it to say that we'll forgeo with my usual dissection of the score this time around.

This recording does offer some differences over the earlier Broadway recording. The most notable of these is the inclusion of "Our Little World", which is a song that was cut from the earlier production. The song takes place at Rapunzel's tower as the Witch is preparing to climb Rapunzel's hair, and the melody provides a stronger connection between the Witch and the recurrence of the themes from "Children Will Listen". "Hello, Little Girl" is done with both princes doubling as wolves, but the second wolf only appears at the end of the song, chasing the Three Little Pigs while the first wolf runs off to Red's grandmother's house. Other differences are similarly minor: there are subtly changed lyrics, additional vocal snippets from other characters, and some different musical direction. For the most part, however, this CD is extremely similar to its earlier Broadway cousin.

The audience for this recording is the same audience who have the earlier recording featuring Bernadette Peters and Joanna Gleeson, which is probably to its detriment. The first Broadway production is still fresh in people's minds, and some of the characters sound so similar across both discs that you cannot help but draw comparisons with all of them... so here are mine. Vanessa Williams is a different witch; she has an odd vocal inflection in her "ugly" phase, I prefer her sound in the latter half of the recording. She performs well, in general, but cheats a little on higher notes. Laura Benanti's Cinderella is really very good. Her voice is very strong and superbly controlled; she's almost in a class all her own. As a matter of personal preference I'll take Stephen DeRosa's Baker over Chip Zien, because I think Mr. DeRosa has a softness of character in his portrayal that appeals to me. Kerry O'Malley, as the Baker's Wife, cannot compete with Joanna Gleeson, but those were very large, Tony-winning shoes to fill and I don't fault Ms. O'Malley for trying. The poor woman playing Jack's Mother (Marylouise Burke) cannot sing, and in a way the casting reminds me of the use of Glynis Johns as the original Desiree in A Little Night Music (or, more accurately, the use of Hermione Gingold as Desiree's mother). The other characters sound too much like their original counterparts... for "I Know Things Now", you can almost convince yourself you're hearing the original Broadway cast recording.

There are, in my opinion, some general improvements in this recording over the original Broadway cast recording. First (and not least), the CD was wonderfully packaged by Nonesuch, with a full, 88-page libretto peppered with fill-color production photos. Also, the diction is better across the board; Sondheim's tricky lyrics come across with great clarity. Finally, the vocal balance of the entire cast is better, providing a better execution of the score as a whole -- I think this is closer to the way Sondheim meant it. Some people call this the "music school sound", implying that the vocals are so technically accurate that there is no emotion in them, but I don't think that's the case. Sondheim often paints with rhythms in vocals, and when a cast is unbalanced the full effect of what's written is lost. The "Finale", in particular, is communicated much more effectively in this recording due to this balance.

If you're in the unique position of not owning ANY recording of this show, I'd have to say that at this point you can randomly choose one, depending on availability, and you'll essentially get the same thing. Both recordings have stronger and weaker points that cancel each other out, and enough similarity to make you wonder why they wanted to record it again in the first place. If you already own Into The Woods you probably won't gain much by making a second (or third) investment.

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