Into the Woods: Red Riding Hood was Anna Kendrick’s First Choice

According to ET, Anna Kendrick told them that the role she really coveted in Disney’s “Into the Woods” was that of Red Riding Hood, But the 29-year-old “Pitch Perfect” star was told that the role was going to a child. 12-year-old Lilla Crawford got the role and Kendrick got to play Cinderella. Kendrick believes she has done justice to the role of Cinderella, telling ET that she had one of the toughest songs in the movie.

“It’s a register I haven’t sung in before,” said Anna. “I hope I’m not being biased to say I think it’s one of the most challenging songs in the piece.”

We don’t know which song she is referring to. We’ve also heard that Disney has cut out some of the songs from the original musical that ran on Broadway from 1987 to 1989 and was later released on DVD

Here is a Cinderella solo from the play sung by Kim Crosby:

Danielle Ferland was 16 when she got the role of Red Riding Hood. In this clip, Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason play the Baker and his wife.

The musical is about a baker and his wife, who desperately want a child but can’t have one because The Witch put a spell on his family after she found the baker’s father stealing her rampion, and made him fork over his child (yes, Rapunzel). The Witch says she will lift the curse if the baker brings her back a laundry list of items:

“You wish to have
The curse reversed?
I’ll need a certain potion first.
Go to the woods and bring me back
One: the cow as white as milk,
Two: the cape as red as blood,
Three: the hair as yellow as corn,
Four: the slipper as pure as gold.

So he and his wife go off into the woods in search of them. These objects are already in the possession of the fairy tale characters: Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and, of course, Cinderella.

In addition to Kendrick as Cinderella and Crawford as Red Riding Hood, the film, which opens on Christmas Day, features:

James Corden – the Baker
Emily Blunt – the Baker’s Wife
Mackenzie Mauzy – Rapunzel
Daniel Huttlestone – Jack
Chris Pine – Cinderella’s Prince
Billy Magnussen – Rapunzel’s Prince
Meryl Streep – the Witch
Johnny Depp – the Wolf
Christine Baranski – Cinderella’s Stepmother
Tracey Ullman – Jack’s Mother
Frances de la Tour – The Giant
Cinderella’s stepsisters:
Lucy Punch – Lucinda
Tammy Blanchard – Florinda