AMERICAN PLAYHOUSE: INTO THE WOODS {SEASON TEN PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
One in this dramatic anthology series. This episode presents a recorded performance of the Broadway musical "Into the Woods." The story begins long ago in a far-off kingdom, where several fairy-tale characters lament their lot in life ("Act One Prologue"). Cinderella, a young woman living under her cruel and abusive stepmother and stepsisters, longs to attend an upcoming royal festival, but they do not permit her to go. She decides to visit her mother's grave in the forest to get advice. Meanwhile, a lad named Jack and his mother are poor and in need of food. His mother forces him to take his beloved cow, Milky White, to market in order to get money for food. Next door to him live a baker and his wife, who long to have a child but are unable to do so. Little Red Riding Hood, a young girl, stops by on her way to her grandmother's house to pick up some bread for her. A witch living nearby visits the baker and his wife and says that they are unable to have a child due to a curse she put on their house long ago when the baker was just a child. She explains that the baker's father tried to steal produce from her garden to satisfy his pregnant wife's cravings, and that he also took a handful of the witches' beans for himself. The witch demanded that the baker's father surrender his other child, a daughter, to her. The mother died out of grief, and the father supposedly died later as well. The witch, still not satisfied, laid her curse upon the house, making the baker's family tree "barren." Unbeknownst to the baker, the witch took away his sister, Rapunzel, and has kept her locked away in a tower deep in the forest ever since. In order to undo the curse and provide them with the child, the witch asks the baker and his wife for four ingredients to work a spell: a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a slipper as pure as gold. The baker and his wife set off into the woods to collect the ingredients in three days' time. Cinderella arrives at her mother's grave, where a tree watered by her tears stands ("Cinderella at the Grave"). The spirit of her mother appears to speak to her and grants her wish that she could attend the royal ball, providing her with a sparkling gown. While transporting his cow, Jack is approached by a mysterious old man who speaks to him in riddles before vanishing. Red Riding Hood encounters a wolf who tries to waylay her journey, hoping to devour both her and her grandmother ("Hello, Little Girl"). She strays from the path despite her mother's warnings never to do so. The baker finds Red Riding Hood and tries to steal her red cape, but cannot bring himself to go through with it. His wife joins him even though he asked her not to come. They find Jack on his way to the market with Milky White and con him into trading away his cow for the witch's beans, which they claim are magical. They give him five of the beans and keep one for themselves as Jack delivers a heartfelt farewell to Milky White ("I Guess This is Goodbye"). The baker and his wife contemplate the ethicality of their actions in the woods ("Maybe They're Magic"). The witch visits Rapunzel, scaling the tower via the young lady's abnormally long hair. A prince happens upon this scene and falls in love with Rapunzel, vowing to visit her the next day when the witch is gone. The baker makes another attempt to steal Red Riding Hood's cape, but gives it back when she starts crying. When she kicks him and runs off, he pursues her. When she reaches her grandmother's cottage she encounters the wolf disguised as her grandmother, who promptly devours her whole. The baker encounters the wolf asleep after eating both Red Riding Hood and her grandmother, and uses a knife to split open the wolf's belly and free them. Red Riding Hood reflects that while her experiences with the wolf were frightening, she did learn several valuable lessons from them ("I Know Things Now"). She gives the baker her cape as thanks for saving her life. Jack returns home with the beans and his mother, upset that her son was so stupid, casts them out the window and sends him inside as the beans grow into an enormous beanstalk reaching into the sky. While transporting the cow back home, the baker's wife encounters Cinderella fleeing the royal ball. They have a brief discussion about Cinderella attending the ball and meeting the kingdom's prince ("A Very Nice Prince"). The baker's wife realizes that Cinderella's slippers could be used as one of the ingredients in the spell, but before she can obtain them Cinderella runs away from her approaching prince. In all the confusion, the cow runs away as well and the baker's wife chases after it. Only two days remain until for the witch to work her spell ("First Midnight"). Jack returns from climbing the beanstalk and recounts an adventure in a castle in the sky inhabited by giants ("Giants in the Sky"). He finds the baker and gives him a few gold pieces stolen from the giant's horde in the hopes of buying back his cow. The baker tries to explain what is happening, but Jack believes he wants more money and says he will return to the sky to steal more. The baker encounters the mysterious man who takes his gold, and seems to know that the baker desires a child. The baker regroups with his wife and he agrees to go looking for the missing cow. Cinderella's prince and Rapunzel's prince meet with each other and discuss the seemingly unattainable women who have entered their lives, and their struggles to woo them ("Agony"). The baker's wife overhears this conversation and decides to try to obtain some of Rapunzel's hair to use in the spell. The mysterious man delivers the cow to the baker before parting; he and the witch seem acquainted with each other already. The baker's wife manages to trick Rapunzel into letting her tear off part of her hair, and runs away with it. On the way back she encounters Cinderella running from the palace again. Cinderella seems somewhat disillusioned with royalty and with the festival. The baker's wife tries to take Cinderella's slipper, but she fails and Cinderella flees, pursued again by her prince. The baker reunites with his wife; between the two of them they have three of the four required items, and they realize that their teamwork was essential in completing their goal ("It Takes Two"). Jack finds them and shows them a hen that lays golden eggs he stole from the giant. He still wishes to purchase his cow, but at that moment the cow falls over dead, marking the end of the second day ("Second Midnight"). The baker decides to find another cow while his wife pursues Cinderella; he no longer cares what they have to do to obtain what they need. The witch discovers Rapunzel's affair with her prince and forces her out of the tower. Rapunzel is no longer content to stay locked away, but the witch expresses her desire to shelter her from the evils of the world ("Stay with Me"). Despite her pleas, Rapunzel is determined to go, so the witch tears out her hair and banishes her to a remote desert. She then ambushes Rapunzel's prince and throws him out of the tower onto a thicket of thorns, rendering him blind. Jack encounters Red Riding Hood in the woods, now sporting a wolf skin cape and a knife. He tells her of a golden harp owned by the giant, and he decides to go back up and steal it when Red Riding Hood refuses to believe his tales. Cinderella returns from her third visit to the palace, musing about how the prince spread the stairs with pitch to prevent her from leaving ("On the Steps of the Palace"). She decided to leave behind one of her shoes to see if the prince truly loved her, or merely who she was pretending to be. The baker's wife encounters her again and offers her the remaining bean in exchange for her other slipper, but Cinderella casually tosses it away. However, she exchanges her shoes for Cinderella's so that she can run faster from the prince. The prince and his steward decide to try the shoe on the feet of every maiden in the land to determine Cinderella's identity. The mysterious old man convinces the prince to give the baker's wife the remaining shoe and he agrees. Jack's mother runs out in a panic: the giant tried to climb down the beanstalk after Jack and fell when Jack chopped down the stalk, possibly crushing him to death. The witch appears before the baker and his wife, requesting the ingredients for her spell. She brings Milky White back to life after it is revealed that the baker found another cow and doused it in flour. Jack returns, alive, and presents his mother with the giant's golden harp. The witch commands the baker and his wife to feed the other three ingredients to the cow. The spell doesn't work; the witch finds out that the hair was from Rapunzel and that the ingredients will not function if she has touched any of them. The mysterious old man appears and advises the baker to use corn silk as a substitute. This works and Jack milks the cow. During all this, the witch reveals that the mysterious old man is actually the baker's father, but the old man apparently dies almost immediately afterwards. The witch drinks the resultant mixture and is transformed, acquiring a youthful and beautiful appearance. The narrator reveals that the witch's former state was due to the theft of her beans, but now she has been restored ("Act One Finale"). Jack is reunited with his mother and cow. Cinderella's prince nearly marries her stepsisters when her stepmother mutilates their feet to fit the slipper, but he is turned back by the spirit of Cinderella's mother, and eventually he makes the right choice and Cinderella is whisked back to the royal palace. Rapunzel bears twins and her prince eventually stumbles across her. Her tears manage to heal his blindness. The witch appears and asks Rapunzel to return with her, but she chooses to stay with the prince and their children. The witch tries to lay a curse on them, but finds that the restoration of her youth has stripped her of her magical powers. Cinderella's stepsisters have their eyes pecked out by pigeons. Overall, it seems as though everyone has gotten what they wanted and will live happily ever after, but the remaining magic bean grows into another beanstalk, unnoticed by anyone. As Act II begins, Cinderella, Jack, and the baker's family live out their new lives; although they have their heart's desires they still long for more in their lives ("Act Two Prologue"). Suddenly there is a great rumbling across the land, throwing the baker's house into disarray. The witch visits and they determine that a giant is the culprit. The baker decides to inform the royal family, although the witch notes that it will do no good. On the way he informs Jack and his mother of the giant's arrival. Jack is eager to fight the giant, but his mother fears for his safety and will not let him leave. The baker speaks with Cinderella, now a princess, and she agrees to launch an investigation into the matter. Red Riding Hood's house and mother are crushed by the giant, although she does not yet know the cause. She stops in to see the baker and his wife on her way to move in with her grandmother. Cinderella learns from the birds that her mother's grave has been disturbed, and she disguises herself as a peasant to go and see for herself. Jack defies his mother's wishes and heads out to find the giant himself. Rapunzel briefly encounters the witch but leaves, resentful of how she was treated. Rapunzel's prince and Cinderella's prince meet in the woods, both of them frustrated with their marriages and in search of winning other unattainable women they have encountered ("Agony [reprise]"). Red Riding Hood, the baker, and his wife get lost and run into the royal family making their way through the wood. The witch arrives as well and it is revealed that the giant has destroyed both the castle and the village. The giant finds them and it is revealed that it is the wife of the giant Jack killed. She desires to find Jack and kill him in revenge for murdering her husband, and is convinced that Jack is among the group she has just found, although they do not know where he is. After arguing amongst themselves, they decide to offer the story's narrator to the giantess, although he objects that without him, they'll never be able to finish their story. The giantess kills the narrator, dissatisfied. Jack's mother comes forward and argues with the giantess; their argument concludes when the prince's steward bludgeons Jack's mother in the head with his staff, stunning her. The steward claims that Jack is hiding in the tower and the giantess goes to look, promising vengeance if she does not find him. Rapunzel runs forward in a panic and gets killed when the giantess accidentally steps on her. Her prince arrives too late to save her. Jack's mother dies from her injury as she pleads with the baker not to let Jack come to harm. The witch is overcome with grief at the loss of her adopted daughter ("Witch's Lament"). The royal family escapes, leaving only Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, the baker, his wife, and the witch. The witch decides to find Jack and sacrifice him to the giantess in order to save the rest of the land from destruction. The others want to find Jack before the witch does and they split up while Red Riding Hood looks after the baker's child. While looking for Jack on her own, the baker's wife runs across Cinderella's prince, who promptly seduces her ("Any Moment"). The baker finds Cinderella weeping over the now-destroyed tree on her mother's grave. He informs her of the castle's destruction and offers to help keep her safe. The prince leaves the baker's wife in the woods, claiming that their time together was "just a moment." The baker's wife contemplates what has happened to her ("Moments in the Woods"), and realizes that she needs to get back to her husband and her normal life. However, the giantess passes through and a tree falls on top of the baker's wife, killing her. The witch returns to the baker and the others with Jack in tow. She announces that the baker's wife is dead and that she found Jack weeping over her body. The witch tries to make everyone see that the only way to stop the giantess's wrath is to kill Jack. The others start assigning blame, trying to shift culpability to everyone else ("Your Fault"). Finally the witch has had enough and chastises them for the selfish actions they took in trying to fulfill their wishes, leaving them alone to die as she dissipates in front of them ("Last Midnight"). The baker goes off to be by himself, leaving his child with Cinderella. He feels useless without his wife and feels as though his child would be better off without him. In the woods he encounters his father, who points out that he is running away from his life just as he did many years ago ("No More"). This makes the baker realize that he can't run away from his problems and he returns to the others. They all devise a plan to defeat the giantess: Cinderella's birds will peck out the giant's eyes, and they plan to smear the ground with pitch to immobilize the giantess while Jack and the baker attack her from up in a tree. As they prepare, Cinderella encounters her prince; the birds told her of his tryst with the baker's wife. She accuses him of philandering and he explains that while he has been content in his marriage, part of him has always wanted something more. Cinderella realizes that she wants something "in between" her life as a peasant and the life she had as royalty, and asks the prince to leave. Red Riding Hood returns and says that her grandmother had been killed as well, leaving her without any family. Cinderella provides her with some comfort, pointing out that they will have to rely on each other now. The baker tells Jack that his mother is dead and tries to dissuade him from taking murderous vengeance on the prince's steward, voicing similar sentiments to that of Cinderella's ("No One is Alone"). The giantess falls for their trap and is killed. The baker, Jack, Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella decide to all move in together, forming a new sort of family and a new life for themselves. Following some posthumous advice from his wife, the baker offers some comfort to his infant son, telling him the story of how all this came to pass ("Act Two Finale").
Details
- NETWORK: PBS
- DATE: March 20, 1991 Wednesday 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:22:43
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:24026
- GENRE: Musical
- SUBJECT HEADING: Musical theater; Fairy tales
- SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1982-
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Lindsay Law … Executive Producer
- David M. Davis … Executive Director
- Michael David … Executive Producer
- Michael Brandman … Executive Producer
- Roger L. Downey … Coordinating Producer
- Iris Merlis … Producer
- Wendy Cornell … Associate Producer
- Nondas Voll … Associate Producer
- James Lapine … Director, Writer
- Stephen Sondheim … Composer, Music and lyrics by
- Paul Gemignani … Conductor
- Bernadette Peters … Cast, The Witch
- Joanna Gleason … Cast, The Baker's Wife
- Danielle Ferland … Cast, Little Red Riding Hood
- Chip Zien … Cast, The Baker
- Ben Wright … Cast, Jack
- Kim Crosby … Cast, Cinderella
- Robert Westenberg … Cast, The Wolf/Cinderella's Prince
- Tom Aldredge … Cast, The Narrator/Mysterious Man
- Barbara Byrne … Cast, Jack's Mother
- Pamela Winslow … Cast, Rapunzel
- Chuck Wagner … Cast, Rapunzel's Prince
- Merle Louise … Cast, Grandmother/Cinderella's Mother