Anything Can Happen In The Woods: How Diverse is Broadway’s Into The Woods?

Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into The Woods has seen a revival on the St James Theatre stage recently. This modernization of the classic has taken Broadway by storm with its diverse cast.

What Is Into The Woods?

Into The Woods, the 1987 musical written by Stephen Sondheim (and libretto written by James Lapine) takes some of the most beloved classic fairytales and bonds them all together in one world. Including fables like Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. Sondheim weaves a fractured fairytale that follows a Baker and his wife in their desperate attempts to have a child. 

In the beginning, the Baker discovers that before he was born, his father had stolen six magic beans from the local witch, resulting in a curse on the family line. The witch tells the two that unless they can find four magical items (a cow as white as milk, a cape as red as blood, hair as yellow as corn, and a shoe as pure as gold) within three midnights, they will always be barren.

Within this plot, the beginnings of Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel unfold as the Baker and his wife come across all of the characters and attempt to seize their desired items. The first act finishes with everything ending happily ever after. 

During the second act, everything dissolves as an accidental giantess begins to wreak havoc over the small village. This is a pivotal point in the narrative for several characters.  Some die, while others grow in unexpected ways.

The Original Casts and the Current Replacement Cast

This revival of Into The Woods has seen three different sets of casts.

The first is its original Encores! cast during their production in Lincoln Center from May 4th to 15th 2022. Within this original cast, 30% is made up of Black actors and actresses (Heather Headley as The Witch, Denée Benton as Cinderella, Cole Thompson as Jack, Jordan Donica as Rapunzel’s Prince, Shereen Pimentel as Rapunzel, and Ta’Nika Gibson as Lucinda), 22% being of Asian descent (Albert Guerzon as Cinderella’s Father, Ann Harada as Jack’s Mother, and Brooke Ishibashi as Florinda, Kennedy Kanagawa as Milky White), and the remaining entirely of white actors (including but not limited to Sara Bareilles as the Baker’s Wife, Neil Patrick Harris as the Baker, and Julia Lester as Little Red Riding Hood.

The cast saw a change in composition after the play moved to Broadway on June 8th. The transfer welcomed Joshua Henry as Rapunzel’s Prince, Phillipa Soo as Cinderella, and Patina Miller as the Witch as well as many others. The Broadway cast was made up of 27% Black actors and actresses, 22% Asian actors and actresses, and the rest white actors and actresses. What are the implications of this? I find the change interesting. Does it speak to anything broader in a societal sense? Maybe add a little insight here.

In addition to their first extended run, the official Into The Woods Twitter account announced the replacement cast, as half of their original Broadway company would be departing on September 4th. With the role of the Witch being split for two actors as well as previous Encores! cast members returning, the second (and current) replacement cast rounds out to be made of 39% Black actors and actresses, 17% Asian actors and actresses, and the remaining white actors and actresses.

The Conclusion from Contexts

This diversification in the 2022 revival cast brings entirely new contexts to these historically white characters. Recent Broadway productions are straying further away from typecasting and staying within the binaries. 

Chinese-American actress, Phillipa Soo, famed for originating the role of Eliza Schuyler in Broadway’s Hamilton steps into a new pair of golden slippers as Cinderella. Soo says that as a biracial actress, “[she is] different from the character that [she’s] playing, but there is something about [her] own experience that can inform a performance”. A white actress and a Chinese actress playing Cinderella ultimately lead to the character having varying motives – everything about her circumstances and how the world around her reacts to them becomes drastically different.

It is direly important for productions to diversify their cast in order to widely represent the world they are presenting themselves in. After all, is that not what all good storytelling must aspire to do?
The third and final replacement cast has yet to be announced. Into The Woods is now playing 8 times a week at the St James Theatre in New York City until January 8th, 2023 and has plans to release an Original Broadway Cast Recording sometime in September of 2022.