Bernadette Peters: “Into The Woods” Cast Reunion

Bernadette Peters joined other former cast members of the immensely popular Broadway play Into the Woods on Sunday. The reunion was a highly-anticipated event which brought together many of the origin...
Bernadette Peters: “Into The Woods” Cast Reunion
Written by Lacy Langley
  • Bernadette Peters joined other former cast members of the immensely popular Broadway play Into the Woods on Sunday. The reunion was a highly-anticipated event which brought together many of the original cast, as well as the behind-the-scenes creators of the show.

    According to Playbill.com, Bernadette Peters, who originally played the witch, and Joanna Gleason, who played the baker’s wife, “looked like they could step back into the next Woods revival without missing a beat.”

    The first 20 minutes of Sunday’s event featured Stephen Sondheim, composer, and James Lapine, libretist, in conversation with host Mo Rocca discussing the play’s origins and inspiration.

    Apparently, Into the Woods came about as a follow-up project to the team’s Sunday in the Park with George. Sondheim suggested a “quest musical” along the lines of The Wizard of Oz.

    When they decided to mix the fairy tales of Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel with an original story about a childless baker, a quest is certainly what they got.

    The second act featured the song “Your Fault” which reunited Bernadette Peters, Chip Zien, Ben Wright, Danielle Ferland and Kim Crosby and brought down the house.

    Bernadette Peters largely carried the second act. She performed a trio of Woods numbers and also shared some of the talk time with Sondheim and Lapine.

    She quickly learned that the part of the witch was still available following the show’s pre-Broadway run in San Diego. Bernadette Peters, who knew nothing about the role, threw her hat in the ring right on the spot.

    The witch, she admitted, is the outsider. Bernadette Peters loved playing the pragmatist who says what everybody else is thinking and who has no problem being unpopular.

    Who wouldn’t love that?

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