Into the Woods: stage vs screen

Rob Marshall's 2014 Disney film, starring Meryl Streep as the Witch with James Corden and Emily Blunt as the Baker and his wife, follows the 1987 Broadway musical closely in its first half. The differences pile up in the second half, where several songs and some of the darkest turns were cut or softened. Here is what changed.

Stage

Broadway musical (1987)

Screen

Into the Woods (2014)

1. The Narrator is gone

On stage, a Narrator guides the story until the characters hand him over to the Giant in Act Two. The film drops the role entirely and has the Baker narrate instead. That also removes one of the show's most unsettling moments, when the storytellers lose their storyteller.

2. Rapunzel survives

In the musical, Rapunzel is trampled by the Giant in Act Two, which leads to the Witch's grief. In the film, Rapunzel refuses to go along with the Witch and rides off with her prince. Her pregnancy subplot is also dropped.

3. No second Agony and no wandering princes

The Act Two reprise of Agony, where the two princes confess they have moved on to Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, is cut. The film keeps the original Agony from Act One and keeps Cinderella's prince's encounter with the Baker's Wife in the woods, but the princes' new conquests are left out.

4. Songs cut from the film

Besides the Agony reprise, the film cuts I Guess This Is Goodbye, Maybe They're Magic, the First Midnight and Second Midnight interludes, Ever After, So Happy, and the Into the Woods reprise. Ever After, which closes Act One on stage, survives only as instrumental music, and so does No More.

5. No More is not sung

On stage, the Baker runs away in Act Two and meets the spirit of his father, the Mysterious Man, and they sing No More before the Baker returns to face the Giant. The film greatly reduces the Mysterious Man's role and cuts the song, leaving only its melody in the score.

6. The Giant's Wife arrives at the weddings

In the musical, the Giant's Wife first strikes the Witch's garden. In the film, her first attack comes during the royal weddings of Cinderella and Rapunzel, which pulls the two halves of the story together more tightly.

7. Cinderella's father and a lost new song

Cinderella's father, a speaking role on stage, is cut, and he is mentioned only as having died. A new song written for the Witch, She'll Be Back, was filmed but removed because it slowed the story down, and it appears only on home media releases.

8. A Meryl Streep Witch

Meryl Streep played the Witch, the role Bernadette Peters created on Broadway, and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The film is rated PG, and its overall tone is gentler than the stage show's darker second act.

Into the Woods movie vs musical: FAQs