Music Theatre International (MTI) is typically the place one goes in order to license a particular show to perform regionally, communally, etc. Among the shows they handle is Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine‘s Into the Woods, which is gearing up for its release next week (and I will be seeing tomorrow).
In preparing for my viewing, I have, of course, been doing a little refresher of the original show, such as watching the new Blu-ray of the original production starring Bernadette Peters, Joanna Gleason, and Chip Zien over and over and over again. I also have been re-reading Sondheim’s notes on the show’s lyrics in his book Look, I Made a Hat, which is volume two of his collected, annotated lyrics.
Another thing I have watched in my preparation is this terrific video produced by MTI back when the show was first getting licensed. The video consists of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine talking for nearly an hour about ways to perform the show, the important details one should not gloss over, and just a lot of interesting information about the meanings of why certain things were written a certain way.
Lapine is a bit droll to listen to, but Sondheim is as lively, engaging, and interesting as ever. Sondheim has always talked about how much he loves teaching and how important a profession it is, so this is something right in his wheel house. Hearing him talk about the minute intricacies to his writing is really interesting and shows he is working on a really crazy, high level. I mean, in a recent LA Times interview, he talks about how Meryl Streep was ordained to play the Witch because her last name is an anagram of Bernadette Peters’ last name, who played her originally. Who else is going to notice that?
I highly recommend giving this video a watch, which you can do so below.
[yt id=”NUN_MTChn5M” width=”500″]
