And who will join Vanessa Williams on her Witchy journey Into the Woods?
Theatregoers have been asking that for weeks now, fueled by rumors and speculations over who would co-star with the Kiss of the Spider Woman actress in the Broadway-bound revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical. Well, now it can be told (by the Boneau/Bryan-Brown press office, that is): Also in the cast of Into the Woods are John McMartin (The Visit in Chicago) playing the Narrator and Mysterious Man, Laura Benanti (Swing) playing Cinderella, Gregg Edelman (late of Reefer Madness) as her Prince, Dennis Kelly as her father, Christopher Sieber (Triumph of Love) as Rapunzel's Prince, Melissa Dye as Rapunzel, Kerry O'Malley as the Baker's Wife, Stephen DeRosa (The Mystery of Irma Vep) as the Baker, Adam Wylie as Jack, Mary Louise Burke (Fuddy Meers) as Jack's Mother, Molly V. Ephraim as as Little Red Riding Hood, Trent Armand Kendall as the Steward, Pamela Myers as Cinderella's Stepmother, Tracy Nicole Chapman as Florinda, Amanda Naughton as Lucinda, Jennifer Malenke as Sleeping Beauty and Kate Reinders as Snow White. Completing the ensemble are Stephen Berger, Linda Muggleston, Chad Kimball and Adam Brazier.
Into the Woods opens at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre April 25, 2002 following previews beginning April 13. The show will try out at L.A.'s Ahmanson Theatre Feb. 1-March 26, officially opening there Feb. 10.
The production will be directed by the musical's original director and bookwriter, Lapine. Paul Gemignani will serve as musical director, with John Carrafa choreographing. The revival is produced by Dodger Theatricals. Desinging the show are Brian MacDevitt (lighting), Susan Hilferty (costumes), Douglas W. Schmidt (set) and Dan Moses Schreier (sound).
Billed as a family show, Into the Woods twists popular fairy tales, infusing them with an adult sense of what happens after the "Happily Ever After." Jack's murder of the giant (of beanstalk fame) provokes the wrath of his giant wife, Cinderella's prince is a hopeless philanderer, the witch is not wicked but overprotective, and a slightly psychotic Little Red Riding Hood proudly wears the grey skin of the wolf she cut up from the inside out. The score is one of Sondheim's most popular, with the comic and manic "Into the Woods," "Agony" and "On the Steps of the Palace" contrasting with the dramatic and wondering "Children Will Listen" and "Giants in the Sky."
At the May 16 Tony Awards nominations brunch at New York City's Marriott Marquis, Dodgers producer Michael David confirmed that Woods would be targeting Broadway after the Ahmanson. He also mentioned that Sondheim and Lapine would do some revisions the show's book. "When the original show toured, it already had changes in the second act from what was on Broadway," David told Playbill On-Line, "so Stephen and James are definitely taking a look at it again and seeing what they'll do with it." "Our Little World," a number sung between Rapunzel and the Witch and performed in the 1990 London production, has also been spectulated as an addition to the revival.
