Your interview skills are amazing! Such an inspiring role model.

I love the idea of this. Woods is in my top five musicals of all time. I, like the host, experienced the birth and rise of it in real time - before we had much internet to obsess over it with. My touchstones through high school came from the PBS recording and the cast album and the Tony awards. The difficulty of hosts who are mega fans of a thing is that you spend your time researching your obsession- understand when you interview people who participated in it that they don’t research it- they don’t know the weird fan theories usually. Some of these interviews are like interrogations- because the host’s exuberance for the subject matter railroads the guest. Let them talk. Ask questions- let them talk. We want to hear the guest- and the host is talking over them way too much. It comes from a place of love - that’s obvious, but I wish someone had told the host early in the show to leave room for the guest to expound. Sometimes his ADD/impatience to get the guest to speak leads to him just talking over the guest to get to the answer he wants. These people did this decades ago- they may not remember. That’s okay. Let the guests talk - the fans will listen.

Wow. I’m hooked.

This is a must for anyone who wants to learn what goes into creating a broadway show. The oral histories dive deeply into all aspects of the development of the show.

So interesting to hear about the creation of this great musical by the greatest talents.

An endlessly fascinating deep dive into my favorite thing. But beyond …Woods (beyond witches, and slippers, and hoods), this offers a fun look at Broadway in the late 80s, the creative process, and the mystery of learning what happened when the only source material is the memory of people who were there.

This is a treasure trove of musical theater history! You will never hear, “It’s the witch from next door” the same way again. I wish every show had this kind of deep dive. To bastardize a Sondheim lyric, “I could listen to this forever…”

I had no idea when I first listened to this podcast that I would become addicted. I saw the original production and loved it. Bernadette signed my playbill and it’s still hanging on my wall all these years later. The podcast is truly amazing to listen to. I enjoy hearing the different points of view and the recollections of people who have been involved in ITW. Ben has a knack to make everyone he interviews interesting and relevant to the story of ITW. Ben’s passion for ITW is contagious and I would never miss an episode of this podcast.

What a brilliant idea to do an oral history of the creation of Into the Woods, a beloved show for generations! I love hearing all the different perspectives, from James Lapine to the stage manager, dismissed cast members, and even Sondheim’s intern. The host shares my obsession with the idea of Betty Buckley as the Witch. I wish she had recorded those songs then. Thank you for documenting all these recollections and making it available to the public!

Unlike many, ITW was not my “gateway” into Sondheim and I used to dislike it, yet this podcast (and the 2022 revival) has deepened my understanding and appreciation of the piece so much that it’s now in my top 5 Sondheim shows. Ben is a great interviewer and it’s fascinating to hear each artist’s perspective on the same events.