About the artist
Into the Woods is a Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine musical that weaves together characters from classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales — Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel — around an original story of a Baker and his Wife wishing for a child. It premiered on Broadway in 1987 and won Tony Awards for its score and book.
Sondheim’s music is dense and intricately woven, using recurring motifs and rapid-fire, conversational lyrics rather than conventional pop-song structures, heard in numbers like «Prologue: Into The Woods» and «“May I Compare This Ear of Corn?”». The show is famous for its structural twist: a seemingly happy first act gives way to a much darker second act exploring the real consequences of wishes granted, loss and moral compromise.
Cast recordings span the original 1987 Broadway production, a 2002 revival, and the 2014 Disney film adaptation starring Meryl Streep, Anna Kendrick and Emily Blunt, which introduced the material to a new mainstream audience. Into the Woods remains one of the most frequently revived and studied works in the Sondheim canon, prized for how it subverts fairy-tale conventions through song.