Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez on how the ‘Agatha All Along' cast ‘became a coven' when recording ‘The Ballad of the Witches' Road'

Yahoo

2 days ago

When it came to Agatha All Along , it was the songwriters who may have cast the most tantalizing spell.
"The crew was telling us, 'I don't usually say this to songwriters, but wow, I had hairs standing up on the back of my neck,'" Robert Lopez says of the reactions to the cast recording the show's haunting song "The Ballad of the Witches' Road." As the double-EGOT winner's multiple award-winning partner and spouse Kristen Anderson-Lopez tells Gold Derby, "When Agatha got a spin-off, [creator Jac Schaeffer] knew instantly that she wanted it to be based around a song, and built it into the very fundamental architecture of the show, which was a huge gift to us. We would work with her for the rest of our career if we could, because she understands music and it gave us this chance to do this thing that we love." (Watch our full interview above.)
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Marvel's Agatha All Along, a follow-up to the Emmy-winning WandaVision, follows Agatha Harkness (Emmy nominee Kathryn Hahn), as she regains her freedom and embarks on the Witches' Road to reclaim her powers. The main cast features Joe Locke as Billy Maximoff, Sasheer Zamata as Jennifer Kale, Ali Ahn as Alice Wu-Gulliver, Tony winner Patti LuPone as Lilia Calderu, Emmy nominee Aubrey Plaza as Rio Vidal, and Debra Jo Rupp reprising her role as Sharon Davis. Drawing inspiration from witch lore and pop culture, the series blends dark comedy with supernatural elements, exploring themes of identity, power, and redemption.
SEE Kathryn Hahn reveals the unusual way she learned about her Golden Globe nom for 'Agatha All Along'
'The Ballad of the Witches' Road' is a central musical and narrative element in Agatha All Along, composed by the acclaimed duo behind the Emmy-winning 'Agatha All Along' tune from WandaVision and the iconic Oscar-winning anthem "Let It Go" from Frozen. The song is framed as having been originally created in the 1750s by Agatha Harkness and her son, Nicholas Scratch, used to lure unsuspecting witches into a trap where Agatha would absorb their powers. Throughout the series, the song appears in various versions — including the haunting 'Sacred Chant,' a '70s rock-inspired rendition, and a pop cover by Japanese Breakfast — each reflecting different facets of the show's themes and character arcs. The lyrics serve as both a literal guide and a metaphorical warning, symbolizing the dangers of the Witches' Road and the personal trials that each of the characters endure throughout the first season's nine episodes.
" If you heard the demo of this song, it's a lot less powerful; it's a lot more choral," Robert Lopez says. "We thought, they'll be singing in a group and I don't know what this is going to be like, but here's an arrangement of it. We laid down each one of these incredible performers who are also at this very moment bonding with one another. They hadn't really gotten to work yet. This was the first thing they did, and they became a coven, track by track," he explains.
"It was one of the first things they all did together; we had to record the sacred version before many of them had even stepped on set to act," Kristen Anderson-Lopez reveals. "The beautiful thing that happened that day is that everybody stayed for each other's. We had to record them one by one in layers, and everyone stayed to support each other. Then a week later they were on screen, on set in their iconic costumes, recording it together. And by that point, they had become an a capella group. They could sing it without backup. They had 'in ears,' but they didn't really need them," she says. "When each person had their closeup and had to do their own solo version, after each one, everybody applauded in the most wonderful, supportive way. It really was this meta thing where the coven was created through this sisterhood song."
"The Ballad of the Witches' Road" might end up being yet another feather in the duo's cap, now that Lopez is a double EGOT-winner and Anderson-Lopez is this close to achieving EGOT status. They both have won two Oscars (2013 for "Let It Go' and 2017 for 'Remember Me' from Coco) and were nominated in 2019 for 'Into the Unknown' from Frozen 2. They both won an Emmy in 2021 for 'Agatha All Along' from WandaVision, Lopez won a Grammy for The Book of Mormon and they both won Grammys for "Let it Go" and Frozen, and Lopez has three Tony wins to his name (Avenue Q in 2004 and The Book of Mormon in 2011). When Lopez completed his EGOT in 2014 with Oscar win for "Let it Go," he became the youngest ever to achieve the feat (he was 39), the fastest to achieve it (10 years), and eventually he became the first to win all four of those coveted awards multiple times.
"First of all, it is a huge honor. To be recognized for anything, it's a huge honor and I do think that the first Tony that I won for Avenue Q made my whole career possible. I think awards really do make your dreams come true for more than one project. Having that award allows you to get to do all the things you wanted to do or do many of them. And I think that our Oscar for 'Let It Go,' that created Kristen's career," he says of his wife, who is just a Tony shy of completing the EGOT herself.
"Winning an Oscar for 'Let It Go' gave me an in with the theater world, which at the time was so male dominated," Anderson-Lopez explains. "There were very few seasons that ever had a female songwriter in the running. So I needed fuel to be able to open doors here in New York," she notes, adding with a playful smile that "when it comes to Bobby being the youngest and the only double EGOT winner, I like to use it to make fun of him sometimes, like when he does something particularly stupid, and I'm like, 'No, no, don't listen to the youngest double EGOT winner.'"
Agatha All Along is now streaming on Disney+.
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