Spoilers ahead: So, Into the Woods. As usual, I went into it with fairly low expectations. I am never happy with the way Hollywood butchers a good musical, but this time I think they did a lot of things right. I did not find my voice teacher self desperately wanting to help any of the actors along, except maybe Johnny Depp. But even though he really shouldnt sing and had intonation issues, he wasnt nearly as bad as some people I could mention in other Hollywood versions of Broadway musicals (coughcoughRussellCrowePearceBrosnan coughcough). I hadnt read much press on the show, except one article several months ago that said that both Rapunzels death and the Bakers Wife/Cinderellas Prince shenanigans would be cut from the show entirely. Being very familiar with the play, I couldnt imagine how having either of these events cut would affect the characters and subsequently the overall message of the show. As it turned out, only Rapunzels death was cut. I felt it made the Witchs anger seem a little over the top when she sang Last Midnight, even though Meryl Streeps performance was solid. Without losing her daughter--and in fact, having Rapunzel be one of the few characters who got to keep her happily ever after--it just didnt make a lot of sense for the Witch to be so upset and focused on giving Jack to the giantess. The other thing I really missed was the Mysterious Man/Bakers Father. I didnt mind that he didnt narrate, but I did mind that the song No More was cut, and that the father/son relationship there was not explored further. The movie definitely gave the first act the most time, and while I understand the need to cut some stuff, I would have loved to see the reprise of Agony (because the first one was so good--still laughing about them ripping their shirts open!) and I would have loved to see So Happy in the beginning of the second act instead of going straight to all the mayhem. I liked how they ended the show on Children Will Listen as it made the message that much more poignant (though it would have been better if Rapunzel had actually died, true), and having the final Into the Woods still played as the credits rolled was perfect. Again, I had no complaints about any of the singing. It was mostly really well done and I was surprised most by Emily Blunts singing chops. Loved Little Red and Jack, and Anna Kendrick did a great job as Cinderella. Meryl Streep is no Bernadette, but she put her own spin on the role and I truly enjoyed her performance. The princes and Baker were mostly so-so, but they were not glaringly awful. Johnny Depp was the only one...but his role was small, so... Anyway, perhaps my low expectations helped, but I think Hollywood finally got it right. Go see it.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 04:56:12 +0000
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