From: chu@acsu.buffalo.edu (John C. Chu)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: INTO THE WOODS
Date: 8 Oct 92 14:13:54 GMT
Organization: UB

In article <1992Oct8.132729.8739@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jefrank@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Jason E Frank) writes:
>In article <BvrtsJ.Co0@news.udel.edu> conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad) writes:
>>
>>Assuming that the main characters will still be the same, I admit I have
>>trouble seeing anyone but Joanna Gleason as the Baker's Wife.  But how
>>about casting some of the GOOD show singers whom one could never gather
>>in the same cast onstage?
>>
>>Howard McGillin and George Dvorsky as the two princes
>>Rebecca Luker as Cinderella
>>Kim Criswell and Debbie Shapiro as the stepsisters
>>Judy Kaye as the stepmother
>>Michael Jeter as the Mysterious Man
>>Jason Graae as the Baker
>>Daisy Eagan as Red Riding Hood
>>John Cameron Mitchell as Jack

[Sigh... Jon, why do you always make disagreeing with you on casting
choices so difficult!! :-) I'd use essentially the same cast. It is
kind of interesting how 3 of the original leads and 1 quick
replacement of Secret Garden are on that list though.]

>Most of these names are not well-enough known outside of theatre
>to be likely candidates.

Jon Conrad essentially said as much in the (deleted) comment following
his cast list. However, I assume he was talking about a dream cast. It
certainly is mine. (Besides, we get to reunite Rebecca Luker and
Howard McGillin. :-) )

My only real quibble is that unless Sondheim re-works Cinderella to be
a real soprano part, it'll be a waste of Rebecca Luker's wonderful
lyric soprano voice (incidentally, the same "complaint" I have with
the McGlinn recording of Annie Get Your Gun. She's wonderful, but
sounded a little forced and uncomfortable in some of the lower
passages.) We might have to bring back Kim Crosby(?) because not only
was she wonderful in the part, she could manage all those register
shifts (she only cracked once I think on the cast album and not at all
on the videotape). I'd almost rather see Rebecca Luker as Rapunzel
just so I know there is someone competent navigating up there. (You
don't suppose Patti Cohenour is available?) And maybe I'd use Judy
Kaye to be Cinderella's real mother just so we get to hear her sing a
few lines by herself. (Or maybe Angela Lansbury? That would work well
too if, for some reason, they use the B'way doublings of parts.)

[Michael Jeter]
>But I think that the
>Mysterious Man/Baker's father is much too serious a character (even
>given his lines)--I'd much rather see him as the baker.  Anyone 
>have thoughts on this?

Hmm... I think Jason Graae would be so perfect as the Baker. He has
the right sense of timing and acting to pull the part off (not that
Michael Jeter doesn't). Having seen the role he played in Grand Hotel,
(I didn't actually see him. I saw the understudy of the person (Mark
Baker) who played the part in the tour) I think he'd pull off the
combination of jester and serious parent needed for the part fine
(considering that he won a Tony for playing Kringlein (sp?))

Of course, all this assumes that the movie version resembles the stage
version.

BTW, to whomever called the Henson Creature Shop creations "campy", I
would have to disagree. The muppets might come off that way perhaps.
However, their other creations look practically lifelike to me. They
take great care to make the creatures and their movements look
realistic. I think something like this would work wonderfully with
Into the Woods.

To anyone who suggests reuniting the original cast:

One practical consideration, surely Danielle Ferland is getting too
old to play Little Red Riding Hood? She sounded like she was having
vocal difficulties in the videotape. (However, I heard her singing in
the PBS show Behind the Scene. If her singing was recorded after her
appearances in A Little Night Music and Into the Woods, she may have
gotten over those vocal problems and be starting the transition into
an "adult" voice.)

					john
				chu@acsu.buffalo.edu