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Into the Woods, Jr. - About Into the Woods, Jr.


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About Into the Woods, Jr.

About The Brothers Grimm and Fairytales

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Educational Resources for Teachers and Students

 

Into the Woods, Jr., specially adapted for young performers from Stephen Sondheim's hit Broadway musical, is based on the fantastic adventures of Grimm's fairytales Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel, among others.

What is musical theatre?

Musical Theatre is a stage, television or film production with dialogue and songs that tell a story. Many of the songs are sing-a-long-songs, with lyrics and tunes that are often easy for the audience to remember.

Musical theatre productions are often 'book musicals' -- that is, a story from a book that has been adapted for stage and told with songs and music, and sometimes with dancing, too.

There are many types of book musicals, because the stories that are being told are so different. An example of book musical is The Wizard of Oz.

The Kennedy Center has produced its own book musicals for children, such as The Emperor's New Clothes and Lilly's Plastic Purse. The Kennedy Center will produce the book musical Tom Sawyer in the 2002-2003 season.

Musical theatre also includes variety shows, which are a showcase of talents of different performers on stage. The performers can be dancers, singers, or actors -- sometimes, they are all three!

Links to theatre resources, including musical theatre:
http://www.artslynx.org/theatre/
http://www.musicals101.com/musical.htm

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[phot o of Stephen Sondheim.]Stephen Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for Passion (1994), Assassins (1991), Into The Woods (1987), Sunday in the Park With George (1984), Merrily We Roll Along (1981), Sweeney Todd (1979), Pacific Overtures (1976), The Frogs (1974), A Little Night Music (1973), Follies (1971, revised in London, 1987), Company (1970), Anyone Can Whistle (1964) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962), as well as lyrics for West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), Do I Hear A Waltz? (1965) and additional lyrics for Candide (1973). Side by Side by Sondheim (1976), Marry Me A Little (1981), You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (1983) and Putting It Together (1992) are anthologies of his work as composer and lyricist. For films, he composed the scores of Stavisky (1974) and Reds (1981) and songs for Dick Tracy (1990), for which he won an Academy Award. He also wrote songs for the television production "Evening Primrose" (1966), co-authored the film The Last Of Sheila (1973) and the play Getting Away with Murder (1996) and provided incidental music for the plays The Girls of Summer (1956), Invitation to a March (1961) and Twigs (1971). He won Tony Awards for Best Score for a Musical for Passion, Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Follies, and Company. All of these shows won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, as did Pacific Overtures and Sunday In the Park With George, the latter also receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1985). Mr. Sondheim was born in 1930 and raised in New York City. He graduated from Williams College, winning the Hutchinson Prize for Music Composition, after which he studied theory and composition with Milton Babbitt. Mr. Sondheim is on the Council of Dramatists Guild, the National Association of Playwrights, Composers, and Lyricists, having served as its president from 1973 to 1981, and in 1983 was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was appointed the first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Oxford University in 1990, and he was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1993.

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James Lapine

James Lapine began his directing career in 1977 with the production of Gertrude Stein's poem/play Photograph, for which he won an OBIE Award. He directed and wrote other pieces such as Twelve Dreams and Table Settings. In 1983, he received a Tony Award for his play Falsettos, which he co-wrote with playwright William Finn. Shortly after, Mr. Lapine began his work with Stephen Sondheim co-writing Sunday in the Park with George, which won a Pulitzer Prize, and revising Merrily We Roll Along, Passion and Into The Woods.

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Illustrations by Ray Cruz.Used with permission by Anthenum Books.