Show background information
Into the Woods is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. It debuted in San Diego at the Old Globe Theatre in 1986, and premiered on Broadway in 1987. Bernadette Peters' performance as the Witch, and Joanna Gleason's portrayal of the Baker's Wife, brought acclaim to the production during its original Broadway run. Into the Woods won several Tony Awards, including Best Score, Best Book, and Best Actress in a Musical (Joanna Gleason), in a year dominated by The Phantom of the Opera. The musical has been produced many times, with a 1988 national tour, a 1990 West End production, a 1991 television production, a 1997 tenth anniversary concert, a 2002 Los Angeles production and a 2002 Broadway revival. It was later loosely adapted into the hip-hop dance musical, Into the Hoods.
Inspired by Bruno Bettelheim's 1976 book, The Uses of Enchantment, the musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales and follows them further to explore the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. The main characters are taken from the stories of Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunel, and Cinderella, tied together by a more original story involving a baker and his wife and their quest to begin a family, most likely taken from the original story of Rapunzel by the Brothers Gimm. It also includes references to several other well-known tales.
Show summary
Act I
A narrator opens the show with the classic words "Once Upon a Time". He introduces us to four people who each have a wish: Cinderella, who wishes to attend the King's festival; Jack, a simple young man who wishes that his cow, Milky-White, would give milk; and the Baker and his Wife, who wish they could have a child. While Little Red Ridinghood buys some bread from the Baker to take to her grandmother's house, Jack's weary mother nags him into selling the cow, and Cinderella's stepmother and sisters tease her about wanting to attend the King's festival.
The Baker's neighbor, an ugly old Witch, reveals the source of the couple's infertility: Many years ago, the Baker's father stole from the Witch's garden, including some of her magic beans. He was caught by the witch, and, in exchange for his life, he promised to give the witch his unborn child. The witch took the child, the Baker's sister Rapunzel, and cursed the family to be barren. The curse will be lifted if the Baker and his Wife can find the four ingredients that the Witch needs for a certain potion — "the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, and the slipper as pure as gold", all before the chime of Midnight in three days' time. All begin their journeys into the woods — Jack to sell his cow at Market, Cinderella's family to the Festival, Cinderella to her mother's grave to ask for guidance, Red Ridinghood to her Grandmother's house, and the Baker, refusing his wife's help, to find the ingredients ("Prologue").
Cinderella visits her mother's grave and receives a beautiful gown and shoes from her mother's spirit ("Cinderella at the Grave"). Little Red Ridinghood meets a hungry and lusty wolf ("Hello, Little Girl"). The Baker meets his wife, who has followed him into the forest. The pair con Jack into selling Milky-White ("I Guess This Is Goodbye") for five of the beans, telling Jack that they're magic. The Baker, who does not realize the beans' power, has qualms about being so dishonest, but his wife reasons that "Maybe They're Magic". When Little Red Ridinghood arrives at her grandmother's house, she is swallowed by the Wolf. The Baker slays the Wolf, pulling Little Red Ridinghood and her grandmother from the beast's innards, and Red rewards him with the red cape, boasting of her new experiences ("I Know Things Now"). Jack's mother angrily tosses the beans aside; they grow into a beanstalk that reaches into the clouds. The Baker's Wife runs into Cinderella as she flees the festival, pursued by a prince and his steward. The Wife quizzes Cinderella on her time at the ball, and she explains that it was a nice ball with "A Very Nice Prince". The wife spots Cinderella's pure gold slippers. Midnight chimes, Cinderella rushes home, and Milky-White runs away. The cast enters one by one to state morals and credos as the First Midnight chimes ("First Midnight").
Jack, having climbed the beanstalk and returned, describes his thrilling adventure in the clouds and the ("Giants in the Sky"). He gives the Baker five gold pieces he stole from the giants to buy back his cow, and when the Baker hesitates, Jack rushes back up the beanstalk to find more. The Mysterious Man emerges and taunts the Baker, stealing the money. The Baker's wife confesses she has lost the cow, and she and the Baker split up to look for it. Cinderella's and Rapunzel's Princes, who are brothers, meet up and brag about their new-found loves. The Baker's wife takes note when Rapunzel's prince mentions that he is in love with a girl in a tower with hair as "yellow as corn." The princes argue who is suffering more ("Agony"). The Baker's Wife fools Rapunzel into letting down her hair and yanks out some. Meanwhile, The Mysterious Man gives Milky-White back to the Baker.
The Wife and Cinderella meet up yet again, and the Wife makes a desperate grab for her shoes, almost succeeding before the maiden flees. The Baker and his wife reunite, now with three of the four items. The Baker admits that they've had to work together to fulfill the quest ("It Takes Two"). Jack arrives with a hen that lays golden eggs and attempts to buy Milky-White back, but the cow suddenly keels over dead as midnight chimes. Again, the characters exchange morals ("Second Midnight"). The Witch discovers that the Prince has been visiting Rapunzel and begs Rapunzel to stay with her ("Stay with Me"). When she refuses, the Witch angrily cuts off Rapunzel's hair and banishes her to a desert. The Mysterious Man gives the Baker the money to buy another cow, and Jack, goaded by Little Red Ridinghood, who is now sporting a wolf skin cape and a knife for protection, returns once again to the Giant's home to steal a magical harp.
Cinderella's Prince spreads pitch on the stairs of the castle to try to capture her. She escapes, but leaves one of her slippers as a clue to her identity "On the Steps of the Palace". The Baker's Wife tries to trade her own shoes and the last bean for Cinderella's one slipper; Cinderella throws the bean aside, but trades shoes with the Baker's wife and flees. The Baker arrives with another cow, and they now have all four items. A great crash is heard and Jack's mother reports that a Giant has fallen from the beanstalk and is dead in her backyard. The Witch discovers that the new cow is not pure white — it is covered with flour. However, the Witch revives Milky-White, and the Baker and his Wife feed the items to her. Jack milks her, but no milk comes. The Baker's Wife reveals that the hair is Rapunzel's, and the Witch furiously explains that the magic will not work, because she (the witch) has touched Rapunzel's hair. The Mysterious Man tells the Baker to feed the hair-like corn silk to the cow. Now Milky-White gives milk, which is the potion. The Witch reveals that the Mysterious Man is the Baker's father, but the Man dies before the Baker can talk to him. The curse is broken, and the Witch is restored to youth and beauty, which were lost when her magic beans were stolen.
Cinderella's Prince finds Cinderella, whose foot fits the slipper, and she becomes the Prince's bride. Rapunzel has borne twins, and she and her Prince are reunited. The witch attempts to curse the couple, only to find that her power has been lost. At Cinderella's wedding to the Prince, the stepsisters are blinded by birds as they try to win Cinderella's favor. Everyone but the Witch and the stepsisters congratulate themselves on being able to live happily "Ever After", though they fail to notice another beanstalk growing sky-high in the background.
Act II
Once upon a time, later, in the same far-off kingdom, everyone is still wishing: The Baker and his Wife have their precious baby boy, but wish for more room, Jack and his mother are rich and well-fed, but Jack misses his kingdom in the sky, and Cinderella is living with her Prince Charming in the Palace, but is getting bored. Still, they are all happy despite these minor inconveniences ("So Happy").
Suddenly, everyone in the Kingdom is knocked over by an enormous crash, and enormous footprints have destroyed the Witch's garden, sparing only a few beans. The Baker and his Wife decide that they must tell the Royal Family, although the Witch says that the Royal Family can't do anything about it, and they safely escort Little Red Ridinghood to her grandmother's house after her mother was killed by the Giant. Jack decides that he must slay the Giant (as he knows how, from his previous experiences), and Cinderella learns from her bird friends that her mother's grave was disturbed and decides to investigate ("Into the Woods" Reprise). While everyone else is drawn back into the woods to deal with the new threats, the two Princes have grown bored with their marriages and now lust after two new princesses — Snow White and Sleeping Beauty ("Agony" Reprise). Rapunzel, overcome with post-partum depression, becomes hysterical, and flees.
The Baker, his Wife and Little Red get lost in the Woods and find the Witch, who brings news that their houses have been destroyed, and the Royal Family and their steward, who reveal that the castle was set upon by the Giant. The Giant then appears, and everyone realizes that this Giant is a woman, the widow of the Giant that Jack killed by chopping down the beanstalk. The Giant's booming voice proclaims that she wants Jack's blood in revenge. To satisfy the Giantess, everyone offers her the narrator as a sacrifice, until they realize how lost they would be without him. Nevertheless, the Witch throws him into the Giant's arms and he is killed. Jack's mother finds the group and aggressively defends her son, angering the Giant's widow, and the steward clubs Jack's mother to make her be quiet, inadvertently killing her. The Giantess leaves to search for Jack, and Rapunzel runs underneath her and is trampled, to the horror of the Witch and her Prince ("Witch's Lament").
The Royal Family leaves to hide in a Hidden Kingdom. The Witch declares she will find Jack and sacrifice him to the Giantess, and the Baker and his Wife decide they must find him first and split up to search. The Baker's Wife meets Cinderella's Prince, and he seduces the willing Wife ("Any Moment"). Meanwhile, the Baker discovers Cinderella at her mother's destroyed grave and convinces her to join their group for safety. The Prince, satisfied, leaves the Baker's Wife with a few platitudes, and she realizes her error and decides to return to her happy life with the Baker and their son ("Moments in the Woods") just moments before being accidentally crushed by the angry Giantess.
The Baker, Little Red Ridinghood, and Cinderella anxiously await the return of the Baker's Wife when The Witch drags in Jack, whom she has found burying the Baker's Wife. The Baker, grief-stricken, unwittingly agrees to give him to the Giantess, causing an argument. The characters first blame each other for their predicament, Jack for stealing from the Giant, Little Red for goading him on, The Baker for giving him the beans for the cow, Cinderella for throwing away the bean that raised the last bean-stalk, until finally they all decide to blame the Witch for growing the beans in the first place ("Your Fault"). Disgusted, the Witch curses them, purposefully throws away the rest of her magic beans, reactivating her mother's curse and making her vanish ("Last Midnight").
The Baker, grieving after his Wife's death, leaves his child with the others and flees. He does not get far before he is visited by his father's spirit, who convinces him to face his responsibilities ("No More"). The Baker returns to the group and helps them plan to kill the Giantess, using Cinderella's bird friends to peck out the Giant's eyes at an area smeared with pitch, where Jack and the Baker can finally deliver a fatal blow. Cinderella confronts her unfaithful Prince, and they take a tearful but necessary good-bye. Little Red returns with the news that her grandmother has been killed by the Giantess as well. Meanwhile, the Baker, perched in a tree with Jack, tells Jack that his mother is dead. Jack vows to kill the steward in revenge, until the Baker convinces him that killing the steward wouldn't benefit anyone. Cinderella comforts Little Red and tries to answer the young girl's qualms that killing the giant makes them no better than she is, while the Baker explains to Jack his inability to say what is really morally correct ("No One Is Alone").
The four remaining characters slay the Giant, and each of the previously deceased characters returns to describe the lesson they learned. The survivors plan to rebuild their lives together, and The Baker's Wife returns (in the form of a spirit) to give her husband one final lesson: Tell their child the story of the Woods; actions have consequences — even for future generations. The Baker begins to tell the story as the Witch appears, leading the company in the show's final moral: Be careful what you pass on to your children ("Children Will Listen"). All join in on a last reprise of the title song, surmising that we all must venture Into the Woods, but never to forget the past ("Finale").