Into the Woods (1986 Demos Steven Sondheim) Noise-reduced

[@EricMontreal22]

The Children Will Listen demo is actually "Second Midnight" which introduced the song originally. But these were (it seems) done around 1991--and were commercially released on the 2008 original cast album reissue as bonus tracks (3 of them) and on the Story So Far Sondheim box set from around the same time (the other three) with little info of where they came from. What I've heard, including a vague letter from Sondheim himself when I asked, were they were recorded at that time for a planned project that would focus on the making of Into the Woods, so they used these performers to do recordings of early versions of the songs. I've heard that this was meant to be a TV (PBS?) special or else part of the planned CD-ROM connected to Into the Woods that I've also heard would teach young people about music... Anyway great to have them collected here. As for the workshop--Buckley did two workshops but that sure sounds like Bernadette as the Witch...

[@ARedRedRose]

Yeah, the only two women playing The Witch in this collection are Maureen Moore (in the studio) and Bernadette Peters (in the rehearsal). Interestingly enough, there does exist a recording of Ms. Buckley rehearsing as that character, and it's really good (of course).

[@EricMontreal22]

Yeah by all reports she sounded great (of course) I'll need to track that down ;)@@ARedRedRose

[@lewisedmundscomposer]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing this!

[@jonathanbrantley8908]

I believe this is Maureen More, not Bernadette Peters.

[@kevinschwab4023]

Who played Jack for this recording?

[@AjatheAsianBeatle]

John Cameron Mitchell