First scene of Sondheim's Into The Woods with the Original London Cast including Jacqui Dankworth and Imelda Staunton with Nicholas Parsons as the narrator - on Wogan's TV show
The set was provided by the BBC and we only took a few props (Milky White, the baker's oven) as this was done on the Wogan show between dress rehearsals and the opening night. The cast were just bedding in and relaxed more into the roles over time.
Hi Alan, this abridged version was recorded at the LWT Studios (Studio 1) Upper Ground. The programme was called Arts Review 1990, produced by The ITV South Bank Show and presented by Melvin Bragg. I was one of the sound engineers that worked on this very performance. I still have the script and part of the multitrack audio performance. It was great fun to work on.
@@AnalogueFix @alanwallace4060 From what I've seen, this production had the best staging. I wish it had been fully filmed! Glad we have the cast recording and the three clips from this show + Julia's Last Midnight at least.
I was lucky enough to see this production when I was 15. I have NEVER forgotten it, twas was the birth of my love of Sondheim!!! I adore the the OBC recording... but Julie Mckenzie is the ultimate witch for me and always will be. Clive Carter! What a wolf! (Thankyou for taking me Mum! I'm 36 and still one of the best shows I have ever seen, even with a Theatre Studies A Level!!! xxx)
I had friends who saw it on Broadway and this production in London. They remarked the B'way production was more "Disneyish" & London production litterally much more "Grimm" and dark. Both are interesting versions.
I'm fairly certain this is a scaled-down selection done for the Wogan Show on BBC 1 to promote the London opening. The look of the show in the theatre was vastly different - rather like a creepy Victorian nursery with peeling wallpaper and creaking doors as entrances into and out of the Woods. Designed by the brilliant Richard Jones. I actually prefer it to the Broadway incarnation. This footage is great to see, but it's not a fair basis on which to judge the production.
I saw the Broadway production in NY, and the Sydney Theatre Company version, and I preferred that one too ... a brilliant set with multiple revolves that gave the show great momentum, and better, more colourful costumes that banished the rather dreary look and atmosphere of the Broadway show. I was not a fan of the famed Broadway Sound either ... it seemed blaring and constantly played at full volume ... the reduced orchestra in the more intimate venue suited the show much better ... and I think the cast, with Judi Connelly, Geraldine Turner and Philip Quast was superior too.
Just to let those of you who are interested know, this isn't the actual set at all - this is just a studio throw-together to have something in the background for Wogan's tv show. In the original London production (I was there on opening night!), the actual set was done in sepia tones and looked very much like a German woodcut. It was quite beautiful - it wasn't as funny as the Broadway cast, but it was much darker.
I worked as a Sound Engineer on this actual recording! It was from the South Bank Show Arts Review 1990 transmitted on ITV (LWT) and directed by Danny Wiles. It's mentioned as being from the Wogan show, but I think that's wrong unless they copied our sound and shots exactly! As comvic20 says, it was intended to have a darker more twisted style of production. Very English! It was great fun to work on, especially as this particular scene was adapted for the TV studio.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a good analogy. The London production was made to be different, drier, less shtick, more twisted. I love the original Broadway, but this version is really interesting. There are so many ways to do things - and I think this works in its own way - Very Different.
00:40 - I have the Stepmother's green gown. I bought it from Ed Mirvish's Theatre Museum, in Toronto, Canada, in 1991, along with another of the Stepmother's costumes. Ed owned the Old Vic in the 1980s & 1990s, and he had many "Into the Woods" costumes and props in his Museum, including 2 of the cows. And everything was for sale.
Would you be able to send me any photos of these items?! I’ve been searching for any records of the show possible and as an aspiring costume designer I would love to see some details of the costumes!
again, this production was amazing when it opened in london in 1990 (1?) Imelda Staunton is amazing on this cast recording. Julia McKenzie takes a few times to fall in love with but she is an old sondheim actress and was VERY different. This is my favorite cast recording of this show.
This production was sensational. The clip here is an excerpt which was done in a film studio for the Southbank show presented by Melvin Bragg for the Christmas lineup of the best productions Of that particular year . So it really wasn’t on the set. It was based on European nursery rhymes and Bettelheim designs. The designs by Richard Hudson they were brilliant, the sensational Richard Jones was the director and the wonderful Sue Blaine, who designed the costumes for the Rocky horror picture show designed fantastic costumes for this production. You really had to be there. Jackie Dankworth was by far the best Cinderella. Tessa Burbridge played little red Riding Hood. She was brilliant. And honestly, nothing like Harry Potter! Still it’s a subjective thing isn’t it?
I was one of the sound engineers that worked on this very TV performance! The programme was called Arts Review 1990 produced by The South Bank Show and as you rightly mentioned, presented by Melvin Bragg. This version was narrated by Nicholas Parsons, who sadly passed away a short while ago. It was recorded in Studio 1, at what was then called LWT, Kent House, on Upper Ground. It was great fun to work on!
Love the Broadway video, love this too. Julia McKenzie is fantastic on the London recording too, IMHO. I think "Into The Woods" is a flexible enough show to sustain many different interpretations.
Apparently this production was supposed to be weird/creepy as fuck. They purposely had under-lighting instead of the typical kind most stage productions use. The woods were just a bunch of opening doors and stuff apparently in one big room.
Wow, what's up with all the people hating on this production? In case you haven't noticed, Into the Woods is not all happy fairy-tales. Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, their all using the original versions, which are NOT like the Disney-ified ones. In doing this, they created a very unique atmosphere and have made it seem like they are literally in an illustration. And they have amazing voices on top of that.
Well done for putting it here for all to see. We actually pre-recorded this with a live orchestra and all live singing, as there simply wasn't enough space in the studio for this special performance and the rest of the Arts Review programme!
Mark Dorrell was the Music Director- amazing. The sound is so crisp and bright. The cast is perfection. I like the concept- it's like a take on watching family dysfunction in all it's soap opera like spectacle. All the archetypal characters represented and their psychologies... Brilliant.
I really do like this version. Sure, a couple times it was a little weird, but it was still good. I love their singing! I want to see the actual London version now!
LOVE this! Like someone mentioned, this is very Brothers Grimm. to each their own, but some just aren't well-schooled on the differences between American & British theatre, and so they reject their first impression. i love the OBC but I prefer the more complex interpretation by the london cast. I hated when I first heard it, but the more I listened the more it grew on me & felt it had stronger characterization & more excitement. Imelda Staunton is genius
The divine Miss Staunton, who also hit a home run on London stage with Gypsy and Sweeny Todd , is clearly Sondheim's British muse. Miss Staunton said the fact that she and Daniel Radcliffe had worked on this production together was very useful when it came time for the two in HP and the Order of the Phoenix. She and Daniel trusted each other, and it helped them with the very difficult scene where Umbridge forces Harry to carve into his own hand.
This version is crazy. And I think for that reason alone I kind of like it. But of course the OBC was amazing - so nothing could ever beat it in my mind.
In the Woods is always tricky in the UK thanks to panto expectations of fairy tales. This production was great; very dark, even Act 1. This does not do it justice. Genius casting. Salute to Staunton, Mackenzie & Rowlands. Lots of very UK specific references like National Trust trees and Hanoverian Princes. Real THEATRE. References to The Royal Family play very "differently" here. But probably would have run longer with the touch of Disney glamour the B'way production had...then leading us deeper into those woods.
Sophie Thompson played Mafalda Hopkirk, she also played the Baker's wife in the 1999 revival of into the woods. This is the 1990 original with Imelda Staunton, who played Dolores Umbridge.
The Design for the London show is a mixture of early 20c fairy tale illustrations and earlier European influences, This in my mind was the greatest strength of this production and The set was a large curved engraving of trees not the feeble attempt shown in the video above which is someone at the BBC light entertainment trying to be stylish!!, the whole thing was much darker and less saccharine than the US version, a lot less Disney!
i like the idea of this production. I love how the UK has various accents to give a clearer sound of who is "poor" and who is "royalty" and so on. I love the production design as well, but it's lost most of the humor. Perhaps the english have a different way to read American humor, but since I hear no one laughing, I'm to assume it isn't working.
she does look like harry potter. speaking of harry potter, the woman playing the bakers wife is also the same woman who plays dolores umbridge in the 5th harry potter film.
How sad that some people can't appreciate a different production. ITW is based on Grimm fairy tales which were originally dark and cautionary tales not bright and happily-ever-after fairy tales. This clip is obviously filmed in a studio and not the London stage production. As for the costume design it is a brilliant twist on English pantomime and commedia dell'arte. Okay I confess this was the first production of ITW I saw in 1991 so am quite partial to it.
Remember this version performed was on a tv show and so the set was temporary and not as well designed. true the costumes are stranger but this how their fairytale characters are perceived. To be honest I like the London soundtrack over the Broadway soundtrack
These costumes... When Jack appeared on the screen I broke down laughing. This production just seems to have lost the fantasy edge of Broadway and gone to a harder version. Also, does anyone else see Red's snaggle tooth at 1:43 ?
The stupid little "Maybe the driver saw green and thought it meant 'go" scene, the redundant green Elphaba projection at the beginning of NOMTW, almost all the choreography and blocking of DTL, new lines in WWotE and Wonderful. I can't remember all of them though, it's been a long time since I saw the show without the London changes. I do like the new lines in WWotE though, that's one of the only things I actually like from the London changes.
Yes! I wondered when someone would say that. Did you also know that he was playing along the great Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes in 'The Sussex Vampire' ? (or 'The Last Vampyre' as the film is called.)
Guys you have to understand that Cinderella SHOULD be batshit crazy. Much like Johanna in Sweeney Todd, this is a girl that talks to birds and is cooped up all day long. Do you know anyone who would be sane with that sort of treatment. I say for Cinderella, the loonier the better.
They already have Rapunzel, who in Act II becomes batshit crazy after spending most of her life locked in a tower. Plus, unlike Cinderella, she had no human contact except with the witch.
I have to say... it's a little weird and so it is quite startling. Something I do like, actually, is the mc escher-esq feel of the set. It's really cool.
