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Heather Headley: "Into the Woods"

 Sondheim found his voice with "Gypsy," but then he made additional great early strides with "Company," a celebration of ambivalence:


You're always sorry; you're always grateful.
You hold her thinking, I'm not alone.
You're still alone.

Again and again, Sondheim found new ways to describe the Divided Self: "Marry me--a little! Love me--just enough!" "Wait for me. Hurry. Wait for me. Hurry....."

Years later, in a last major two-act musical ("Into the Woods"), we find Sondheim still reflecting on inner turmoil:

You think of all of the things you've seen--
And you wish that you could live in-between.
And you're back again, only different than before.

Sondheim asks why God seems to favor rigidity:

Must it all be either less OR more--
Either plain OR grand?
Is it always OR?
Is it never AND....?

And Cinderella has a choice between hell and heaven, but she actually thinks *both* options are problematic:

Which do you pick....
Where you're safe, out of sight--
And yourself--but where everything's wrong?
Or where everything's right....
But you know that you'll never belong?

The new City Center production has many bold choices. When the Witch begs for Rapunzel's attention, she actually prostrates herself. (You can see a hint of this in the clip below.) A wonderful Julie Taymor-ish move is to have the Giant represented by two wire boots, taller than humans; puppeteers drive the boots around the stage. (Only in theater!) Finally, Heather Headley does "Children Will Listen" as a kind of church hymn; she seems to connect with each individual person in the building, and you're reminded of the NYT's famous "Heather Headley canonization," from the "Aida" days. (The Times referred to Headley's "hieratic dignity.") As Headley sings the last lines of the show, the cast suddenly triples itself; new chorus members surround the audience, in the aisles, and the age-range seems to be "nine-to-ninety."

I haven't done any research--and "Into the Woods" is always around, whether the production features Vanessa Williams or Amy Adams or Sutton Foster or Meryl Streep. But I hope the Headley version will come to Broadway.

https://playbill.com/article/go-behind-the-rehearsals-of-into-the-woods-starring-heather-headley-neil-patrick-harris-sara-bareilles-more

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