OPINION: These Two INTO THE WOODS Potion Ingredients are Too Similar in Color

by Rocky Paterra. @rockypaterra.

The cow as white as milk. The cape as red as blood. The hair as yellow as corn. The slipper as pure as gold. But wait…yellow and gold are kind of similar in hue. Could this oversight be considered lazy imagery work from the late Stephen Sondheim? Let’s take a closer look.

While I’m positive that Sondheim put a lot of thought into how the four potion ingredients would serve both the narrative journey of the show and the internal journeys of the characters, I also can’t help but think he could’ve thrown a blue in there.

The Witch sings an entire rap about greens, making that particular color its own thing and not a contender for the Fab Four. So ultimately, it’s overwhelmingly obvious that blue would be the most sensible choice. Blue can even represent themes of sadness, which one or more of the characters feel at some point during the events of the story. Sondheim had to have been aware of the sadness.

This brings us to our next dilemma: do we then rework the hair, or the slipper?

Well, Rapunzel’s hair could be blue, ignoring centuries-old German lore. But this change might read as jarring and/or unnatural, so let’s save that for some undergrad’s experimental blackbox production. Cinderella, on the other hand, allows for more wiggle room.

While a blue slipper would be heinous, what if we focus on the dress? A potential lyrical adjustment could be as simple as “The ballgown as blue as sky,” staying consistent with the scansion of the original lyric and even creating a moment of alliteration, something Sondheim didn’t do there. Also, who wouldn’t want to have seen Joanna Gleason hilariously rip off a chunk of Kim Crosby’s sleeve?!

However, there’s an unshakeable voice inside me saying that my new line doesn’t sound nearly as good as the original and that I have some nerve to even suggest that Sondheim’s iconic array of items was anything less than balanced. I guess we’ll never know for sure. But if someone out there wrote him a letter about it, please make yourself known.