STAGE TUBE: Inside Look - THE WOODSMAN Original Off-Broadway Solo Recording Tugs the Heart Strings

The original music from off-Broadway's THE WOODSMAN - The Tragic Story of The Tin Man is available in a solo recording, composed and performed by violinist Edward W. Hardy. The album is produced by Jim McElwaine, and recorded and mixed by Jonathan Jetter at Right Angle Recording, New York, NY. Click below to listen to Hardy play a beautiful selection from the album in the recording studio!

THE WOODSMAN is based on the beloved writings of L. Frank Baum. This virtually wordless piece is sustained throughout with the beautifully textured original music score composed and performed by Edward W. Hardy.

The Woodsman focuses on the story of Nick Chopper. Each morning as the sun rises over a cerulean sky in munchkinland, he sets off into the forest to earn his living. He is a sensitive and lonely man. He meets and falls in love with, the slave-girl of the wicked witch of the east. The witch puts a powerful spell on his axe, every time he uses it he pays with a limb. Tinkers replace them with tin ones until he is entirely made of tin. Believing that love can no longer exist without a heart, he leaves her, goes into the forest and rusts in the rain.

The Woodsman 2016 Off-Broadway production was produced by Robb Nanus, Rachel Sussman, Ryan Bogner, Adam Silberman and was originally created by James Ortiz & Diana Stahl and produced by Steven Laing & Jason Ralph. A recipient of the 2014 Jim Henson Foundation Grant, The Woodsman premiered at Brooklyn's Standard ToyKraft in 2012 and was followed by a production at the Ars Nova ANT Fest in 2013 before transferring to 59E59 Theaters in January 2014 for a strictly limited three-week, sold-out run. The Woodsman returned by popular demand for a critically-acclaimed limited engagement at 59E59 Theaters in January 2015, making it one of the only shows in the theater's history to ever make a return engagement.

Directed on stage by James Ortiz and Claire Karpen and written by James Ortiz with music composed by Edward W. Hardy and lyrics by Jen Loring, The Woodsman creative team also includes James Ortiz (set and puppet design), Molly Seidel (costume design), Carol Uraneck (original costume design), Catherine Clark and Jamie Roderick (lighting design). The Woodsman ensemble featured Benjamin Bass (Kalidah/Munchkin), Devin Dunne Cannon (understudy), Will Gallacher (Pa/Tinker), Alex J. Gould (Tinker/Munchkin), Amanda A. Lederer (The Witch/Tinker), Aaron McDaniel (understudy), Lauren Nordvig (Ma/Kalidah), James Oritz (Nick Chopper), ELiza Martin Simpson (Nimmee), Meghan St. Thomas (Munchkin) and Sophia Zukoski (The Witch/Munchkin).

The Woodsman, concluded its critically-lauded Off-Broadway run on Sunday, May 29, 2016 (following the 7:30pm performance) at New World Stages.