Show and Tell Post #2!!

My Show and Tell post for this segment will be on Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods.  It was first performed on Broadway in 1986 and has been performed many, many times since then.  

Into the Woods is a cleverly written musical that combines several of the Grimm’s Brother’s fairy tales.  We see characters from Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and even some brief appearances from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.  There is also a brand new story about a Baker and his wife desperately trying to start a family.  A witch comes to their home one day to inform them that the reason they can’t have children is because of a curse placed on the Baker’s family.  The five different stories intertwine with one another as the Baker tries to break this curse.  He journeys “into the woods” to collect “the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold.”  If he is able to return to the witch with those things in 3 days, the spell will be broken.  Each of the characters has a wish that the journey “into the woods” to try to fulfill.  For the most part, the well-known stories progress as we’ve always known them, but intertwine with one another in surprising ways.  Act Two presents and entirely new plot line, however, when the characters (who are all acquainted with one another at this point) are forced to battle the wife of the giant that Jack killed.

To think about the dramaturgical choices that Sondheim and Lapine made in creating this play is different from many others since much of the plot is based on little pieces of stories that already existed.  It is still an original plot, though, so I’ll look at it as its own world.  I noticed that there are some crucial parts of the stories that are not included in the script at all.  There are no scenes with Cinderella at the ball or Jack climbing the beanstalk and meeting the giants.  We don’t see Rapunzel or Cinderella meeting their princes.  These parts of the stories are told through their songs.  It’s easy to say that the writers left these parts out of the story because we already know all of that stuff.  However, I think that’s cheating a little bit.  All of the scenes, except for the first scene of each act, are set “in the woods.”  Therefore, it makes perfect sense that we would never enter the palace for the ball or climb up the beanstalk into the world of the giants.  We hear about those parts in the character’s reflections after their experiences.  The clever lyrics of the songs paint a very vivid image of what occurred.  Also, we are able to hear the impression and perspective of the characters.  We know their intentions and reactions to what happened.  That’s very different from hearing the original stories in the third person form in a story book.  This brings me to my next point.  The choice of including a Narrator is another very game-changing choice.  For the entire Act 1, much of the story is presented as a story book through the voice of the Narrator.  This makes perfect sense since these are all stories that many people relate to in that way.  However, there is a moment in Act 2 when everything changes.  The line between the Narrator and all of the other characters is severed.  Suddenly the characters notice him and he becomes part of the plot.  It’s a bit unsettling, which supports the rest of the play (especially Act 2) very well.  Many of the things that the audience thought they knew about all of these stories is completely shattered after their happily ever afters.  All of Act 2 constantly breaks everything that was ever known about the well-loved characters.  Incorporating a consistent, charming narrator throughout Act 1, then breaking that consistency as well throws the reader and the audience for a loop once again.