Making broken things seem whole: A family’s conversation about Into the Woods

Abstract

A family shares their recollections and insights regarding Into the Woods and their engagement with Sondheim and with musicals more generally. Recalling that their parents were on the brink of divorce when Into the Woods appeared on American television in March 1991, sisters Rachel Knapp and Jenny (Zelda) Knapp dialogue 31 years later with their father Raymond Knapp about their separate and mutual involvements with the musical’s themes – including broken families, separation and connectedness, responsibility and consequences, learning, mistakes, disappointment, tragedy, leaving home, absence, forgiveness, repair and just growing up – and how the show fostered and sustained their shared love of musicals over the decades.