Moments In The Woods

Imelda Staunton

Imelda Staunton
“Moments in the Woods”
Into the Woods: Original London Cast Recording 

moments in the woods

Donald Butchko

“Moments in the Woods” from Into the Woods (1988 National Tour)

music/lyric Stephen Sondheim

performance Mary Gordon Murray

As you may have noticed, I’ve been enjoying an audio from the 1988 National Tour of Into the Woods.  My initial interest was in hearing Cleo Laine and Charlotte Rae as The Witch and Jack’s Mother respectively.  There were also a few other familiar names: Chuck Wagner (this time as Cinderella’s Prince), Douglas Sills as Rapunzel’s Prince, and Nora Mae Lyng as Cinderella’s Mother/Grandmother/The Giant.  To my delight, the cast members I have not heard of are, across the board, excellent, particularly Mary Gordon Murray’s The Baker’s Wife.  She apparently had played Gussie the James Lapine Merrily at La Jolla (alongside John Rubenstein, Chip Zien, Heather MacRae and Marin Mazzie)!  Don’t you wish YOU were one of the cool kids club that did multiple musicals with James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim (and sometimes William Finn) and in the 80s and early 90s?

(photo from the NYPL Martha Swope collection)