Talk:Into the Woods

Into the woods

Who are the actors 159.196.12.195 (talk) 05:57, 16 October 2022 (UTC)

Basis as "Uses of Enchantment"

This is an inaccurate statement. In the "Uses of Enchantment" article, it links to the following article , which only describes the use of fairy tales as "psychological". This story was not based on that book, as that book is nowhere in the credits of the musical. 2600:4040:3182:D900:4102:4723:DBE5:1BEC (talk) 15:09, 3 March 2023 (UTC)

Lower-case names for generic roles

The Gale Cengage textbook A Study Guide for 'Into the Woods' is typical of the style we should be aiming for. The study guide uses lower-case names for the baker, the narrator, the wolf, the two princes, the various wife characters, and so on.

MOS:PLOT says that "Plot summaries and character descriptions should be written in an out-of-universe style, presenting the narrative from a displaced, neutral frame of reference from the characters or setting." We should not be using the in-universe capitalized style of Lapine and Sondheim except in direct quotes. Binksternet (talk) 20:33, 15 December 2024 (UTC)

Regardless of what a textbook might say about the roles, the Playbills for the 1987, 2002, and 2022 productions all state the characters names as capitalized, so they should be credited as those roles in the Principal Casts table, without "The", too. The names of the characters, or titles, are "Baker", "Mysterious Man", and "Jack's Mother", so they should be named as such in the cast lists.

I don't have an opinion on whether the names should be capitalized in the plot summary or anywhere else. I think either way is reasonable. Wikipedria Editor (talk) 03:40, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Removal of 2025 London Revival under 'principal casts'

Hi,

TLDR: The Bridge Theatre functions as a West End theatre, even if it’s not in the traditional postcode club. “West End” is a commercial category, not just a map.

Myself and Smitty1999 have had our revision undone, putting in the cast of the 2025 London Revival, currently open at the Bridge Theatre. The reasoning being that it is not a big enough production? This production is a major market production, with a star-studded cast, in a SOLT (Society of London Theatres) Theatre, eligible for Olivier Awards, which has just extended the original booking of Dec 2025-April 2026, now set to sell until June 2026. The Bridge Theatre (which previously housed the OIivier award-winning Guys and Dolls revival) is a newer theatre that operates alongside the West End, and should be recognised as such. MusicalsFan99 (talk) 14:32, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

The reason is that popular musicals receive numerous productions all over the world, and for the cast tables to be useful, we need to draw a line on how to limit what to include in them so that they are not WP:UNDUE and leave the article in balance. Cast tables are only one aspect of a balanced article to summarize one aspect of the Productions section so that readers can see a tabular presentation of the most important casts in history. At the WP:MUSICALS project, where I have been contributing to hundreds of musical theatre articles since 2006, I and others have long advocated drawing this line to include only the original production, and West End/B'way revivals. Often we also put in long-running (meaning more than a year) national tour productions, but we have removed national tours if the cast table has so many WE/B'way revivals that it would be hard to fit more productions in one table. We have excluded off-Broadway, off West End (Bridge, Barbican, etc), Australia, Toronto, Paris, Tokyo, Chicago, Manchester, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and other theatres that could be considered "major" (and usually are by local WP editors) from the Cast table, because otherwise they quickly become unmanageable and prevent the tables from fulfilling their function of presenting in an easy-to-view format, the most important casts in history. The Productions section can and should present the key cast information for all the other major productions that do not fit in the limited table. There are, of course, many articles where the cast tables are out of control and, I would argue, WP:UNDUE. In 20 years, or 100 years, when there are dozens more productions of Into the Woods that someone thinks are "major market", how will we usefully present the information. Personally, I would make the cast tables even more compact like in Carousel (musical). If this production transfers to the West End, then it would go in the table. -- Ssilvers (talk) 17:33, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Thanks so much for your response, I appreciate it. I’m struggling to see the consistency here: in the Guys and Dolls article, the London Revival (Bridge Theatre) is listed in the cast table. Agreed that many other productions and cities wouldn’t be relevant, but I fail to see how this one isn’t!

RE some of the other listings: the 2023 US Tour is the same production as the Broadway 2022, just on tour. Multiple cast members are the same and it’s not a ‘new’ production. If that production is listed, surely this latest London revival has to be there, already set to be running for the best part of a year. MusicalsFan99 (talk) 18:57, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

• Agree with Ssilvers here: it's UNDUE to include non-major market revivals in the table, which would become bloated and unusable if that continues. - SchroCat (talk) 19:09, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

  Completely agreed - however this is definitely a major market revival! MusicalsFan99 (talk) 19:10, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Re: Guys and Dolls, I can't patrol every musical theatre article. But I think we should delete all the productions other than original, B'way, West End (I personally wouldn't include national tours unless they run for, say, more than 2 years with a reasonably starry cast) or some very unusual production, like, for instance, one that runs for more than 20 years and wins the Olivier/Tony for Best revival, or creates a totally new version that becomes the standard version thereafter. The Bridge production is slated to run for less than a year in an off West End theatre. If it transfers to the West End, we can list it. Until then, the key cast members are mentioned in the Productions section, and if there is anything else noteworthy about the production, it can be mentioned there. -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:32, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

I agree with Ssilvers above here - we can't list every single production as it will make the table unwieldy and unmanageable. Jack1956 (talk) 21:43, 10 December 2025 (UTC)

Again, the 2025 London revival is a Major Market production. I am not suggesting adding every major productions, but London is a major theatre hub like Broadway. This production is highly unlikely to transfer to the West End. Smitty1999 (talk) 09:13, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

No, it is not. If it transfers to the West End, Or if it runs for 30 years AND wins the Olivier for best revival AND becomes the standart production, it will be. -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:45, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Yes it is a Major Market production. I do not understand what further proof you need to make you aware that this revival is a major market production.

As someone who saw this specific production, I highly doubt that this will transfer given the complexity of the set design. We need to have a discussion on the WP:MusicalTheatre to find some sort of common ground because there is obviously disagreement here, but you do not get to have the final say here. We need to discuss this in some capacity so that other fellow editiors can have a say and find common ground. Would it help to possibly do the casting table format like on Cabaret and Moulin Rouge? Smitty1999 (talk) 11:18, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Agreed. Press night yesterday - reviews are out. It’s huge. MusicalsFan99 (talk) 13:32, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

I have updated the cast table talk discussion on WP:Musicals, let's move the discussion there so that more people can discuss this issue. Smitty1999 (talk) 14:32, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

Upcoming 2026 West End production

Just adding that the Bridge Theatre production will transfer to the West End in September 2026 for an initial limited 3 month run. Source Cthulhudk (talk) 08:01, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

This is already in the article under the heading Planned West End revival (2026). What we need to do next is add a source dated June 1 or later stating that the Bridge run has closed and then update the article to reflect that. -- Ssilvers (talk) 17:36, 30 May 2026 (UTC)

Reception

The "Awards and nominations" section could likely use broadening into an overall critical reception section. Sdkb ^talk 16:36, 30 July 2026 (UTC)

Agreed, although it should be a separate section above the "Analysis of book and music" section. Like other musicals with numerous productions, it should summarize the reviews of the original B'way and West End productions, and some later assessments by scholars and historians, but not try to summarize the reviews for all the revivals. -- Ssilvers (talk) 17:51, 30 July 2026 (UTC)