Ep. 49: Adapting Into the Woods - Disney, Broadway Junior, and Hudson Talbott

Of Slippers and Spindles - Fairy Tale Retellings and Adaptations in Books, Film, and Theatre

"People make mistakes. Fathers, mothers, people make mistakes…"
Our journey through Into the Woods continues! This week, Drew and Cassie look at how Into the Woods has been adapted in a few different ways. First we break down the 2014 film starring Meryl Streep, James Corden, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, and Chris Pine. We discuss the adaptations between mediums in general, Disney's changes to the Narrator and the Mysterious Man, the changes to important songs like On the Steps of the Palace, giving away plot twists too early, Johnny Depp as the Wolf, the brilliance of Agony, the cuts they made like No More, and much more. Then we talk about Broadway Junior, which adapted the first act of Into the Woods to be performed by children. Cassie gets on her soapbox about very existence of the Broadway Junior collection and then we get pretty meticulous with exactly what was eliminated in order to turn the musical into a 60-minute... skit. We also briefly touch on the illustrated book by Hudson Talbott and a couple of interesting changes he made. And yeah, we get super dramatic about all of it, but it's because we CARE!
Of Slippers and Spindles is not a spoiler-free podcast, so we do recommend watching Into the Woods before listening to the episode because we're not going to explain the story in as much detail as we usually do, since we've already done so this month. But we do want to let you know that in this particular case, watching these particular versions may not be necessary! Viewing Disney's movie in advance may help to follow along, but you do not need to seek out Into the Woods, Jr. or the Hudson Talbott book unless you wish to!
In today's episode, Drew references the YouTube video "Adaptation, Brand, and Into the Woods" by Zack Paslay - https://youtu.be/1736u5QdVKU
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Music: Through The Woods by Shane Ivers - https://www.silvermansound.com