Into the Woods - Sondheim (1986)
A Stephen Sondheim musical that won many awards.
1991 Original Broadway Cast Proshot
(Proshot = professional recording) My first exposure to the show. I watched this while on a flight to Arizona for a family vacation. I then ended up listening through to most of the soundtrack again while in Arizona and parts of the songs were in my head throughout (mainly the first song (Prologue)). The original cast is great.
Into the Woods - Sternfeld Studio Immersive Show
I went to see this in October 2025. This was one of the most incredible theater experiences I've ever had. It was the full show of Into the Woods - but literally in the woods, taking place across a series of trails on land owned by a boy scout camp in Staten Island. The highlights of the experience were that we were outside the whole time, we were constantly very close with the actors (like we were milling about in the same space), and physically moving through the actual woods as we moved from scene to scene (and sometimes walking through different areas while scenes were happening). They timed it so that the midpoint of the show happened at sundown, so for the second act, it was getting darker and darker and we were given flashlights (which eventually became quite necessary) to guide us through the woods and ensure we weren't tripping over roots. The music was also all acoustic, which was unique and enjoyable. And the acting was quite good.
I'm so glad I got to experience this. There were so many magical moments. The crazy thing is that I only introduced myself to Into The Woods about a month prior to this show. The way I found out about the Sternfeld production was because I happened to search online "into the woods productions" wondering if there was anywhere in the world that the show would be playing... and it was literally right then and there going through their run of this. To my dismay, tickets were sold out... But they eventually opened up more (and I'm glad I kept checking!!) and I snagged a ticket.
Back to the beginning: I ventured after work via train and then ferry and then rideshared (uber/lyft) to the camp. It was kind of confusing navigating to the check-in spot once I got there, but I did find it (actually by following who I later realized were some of the actors) and they sent me with one other early-arriver along the trail, map in hand, to the place where the performance would start. I think we were a little too early, because it was just me and this other guy who ended up at the benches, and it seemed that the crew was still setting some stuff up for the show. Turns out the organizers had held the rest of the audience back at the check-in area, but for some reason had let us through first. Eventually, the rest of the audience was settled in.
It was a small audience (20-30 people) and we started by gathering around a campfire at early evening. The actors were milling around at that point, chattering amongst each other. And then suddenly, without any forewarning, the actors began singing and the musicians (who were also just the actors with instruments) started playing. Partway through the intro song of the show, I think when the lyrics start saying "into the woods" a lot, some of the actors started beckoning us (with their arms) to stand up and started directing us to the trail. These interstitial moments where we are moving through the trails from scene to scene are so memorable to me, especially because they were always playing catchy transition music (part of the ITW score) as we walked.
Again -- all so memorable, and there are so many details I could talk about.
Columbia University student production
I got an extremely last minute seat to this production directed by Brennan Urbi as his directing thesis at Columbia, in April 2026. The show was very fun. The direction took a more comical take on the show, in a good way. e.g. the cow was a balloon and Cindarella's birds were paper airplanes. I feel like I learned some lesson here about how a director can affect the feel of a show even if the script is the same.
Another interesting choice was that after the narrator was killed, there was no more piano accompaniment because the narrator had also been the piano player, EXCEPT if the actors were the ones playing it. Possibly because of this (or maybe an unrelated choice), the song "Your Fault" (which I assume is one of the most complicated songs to do in this show) was played without any backing instrumentals... Though, they did have a metronome prop that I think was ticking at this point (don't remember exactly how that prop came into play). I kind of like the characters-only-piano-accompaniment choice because it's interesting and probably they had no other choice since the narrator had been the piano player, but it also made certain songs a little less natural-sounding I think. But it's really cool that they did it!