Movie: INTO THE WOODS (a review, of course)

[Dave (imported)]

INTO THE WOODS

Is it any surprise that with all the carryings on I do about music that I like this.

This is the stage musical by Stephen Sondheim about fairy tales.

For those who don't know how it all starts - Once Upon A Time there was a village with a mistreated stepchild (Cinderella), a poor woman and her son (Jack), a young girl who always wore a red cape, a childless baker and his wife, and a Witch.

Cinderella wishes to go to the ball. Jack's mother wishes she were rich. Red Riding Hood just wishes, a girl with long blond hair trapped in a tower wishes to see the world, and the Witch wishes she were young and beautiful again.

Be careful what you wish for. . .

The Witch it seems has cursed the childless baker and his wife and if they WISH to have a child they must bring four objects - The cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold, and the Cow as white as milk. Bring those things before the clock strikes midnight on the third night And all wishes will be granted. And they all live happily ever after.

yeah, right sure they do. And I'm Mary Queen of Scots and the Pope's alter-identity.

They all go INTO THE WOODS and come out very different - the prince and his brother, Rapunzel and her golden hair, The giantess who has the goose that lays golden eggs, Cinderella and her ball, The farmer and his wife and a very precious baby.

The movie version is shorter than the stage version (for those who have seen this on the stage) but it is true to the original play.

It is gorgeously filmed and staged, wonderfully sung and simply a delight for the holidays.

The actors are cast well and they all sing. Chris Pine (the current Captain Kirk) and his princely brother have a wonderfully funny duet "Agony". . .

The Witch's Rap is there (Meryl Streep is great as the witch)

And lessons are learned when we go INTO THE WOODS.

[gareth19 (imported)]

Meryl Streep is great as the witch.

And lessons are learned when we go INTO THE WOODS.

But can she be a great as Bernadette Peters, whom I saw in the role as a child and was enthralled?

[Dave (imported)]

I never saw Bernadette Peters live onstage but I have seen her in movies and on TV.

I can't tell you if she is better or if Meryl Streep is better as the witch.

However, I have seen more than one production of several shows, specifically MAN OF LA MANCHA (David Atkinson and Bernice Massey in the original production. Richard Kiley retired before I saw it) and about 10 years ago the Pittsburgh Public Theater did a production of La Mancha onstage and that was still thrilling and exciting. It wasn't the same but it was good.

I've seen three live productions of Madame Butterfly (I know, it's not Broadway but Opera) and all have been excellent.

But I will agree with you that you will likely find no one to match Bernadette Peters because she's the actress who formed your image of the musical (or play or opera or theater piece). No one will replace Carol Channing as Dolly Gallagher Levi for me. No now will replace Ben Vereen in Pippin. But I don't have anyone who is my favorite CARMEN or Brunhilde or Floria Tosca.

Meryl Streep is good. She sings well, she acts the part of the witch without overdoing it or underplaying it and the theater full of people liked what they saw.

[Riverwind (imported)]

I not sure I ever thought Meryl Streep was not a witch, maybe it was type casting or maybe I see to much of my ex in her. I do love Bernadette Peters, loved everything I have seen her in.

River

[gareth19 (imported)]

Meryl Streep is good.

Yes, she certainly is, and I didn't mean to imply that she wasn't, but when the witch regains her beauty, Bernadette Peters' transformation was spectacular, a great piece of stage craft with no camera work or smoke screen. The thing I liked best about Into the Woods was the retelling of the Die zertanzten Schuhe (The Worn-out Dancing Shoes, sometimes called The Twelve Dancing Princesses). In The Grimm's telling, the cashiered soldier outwits the arrogant princesses and reveals their secret, and as a reward, he gets his choice of princesses for a wife. Instead of the youngest, on whose cloak he steps, who feels his extra weight in the boat, and who hears him snap a twig, he chooses the eldest who scoffs at her sister's apprehensions and dismisses the soldier as dull-witted. He choses the eldest because he is no longer a young man and the older daughter will suit him better. It is an element of realism that I find interesting in the Grimm anthology. Sondheim, however, carries this even farther. When offered the choice of daughters, his soldier rejects them all. Who would have as a wife the sort of woman who lets men be beheaded in order to keep her nocturnal dance parties secret? Quite a nice twist on the familiar story. I want to see the movie.

[Dave (imported)]

...

when the witch regains her beauty, Bernadette Peters' transformation was spectacular, a great piece of stage craft with no camera work or smoke screen...

My "fixed" memory of Meryl Streep is from the movie SOPHIE'S CHOICE. I Saw the movie firs and then read William Styron's very harrowing book.

I tell young people (mostly teens) to go see a show on stage and watch the magic unfold.

And you said it in the words I quote - it's done onstage, right before your eyes and without any electronic means.

Movies are so easily made fantastical. BUT stage plays require real thing happen and actors and actresses convince the audience to see more than a stage and more than pieces of cloth or a set. They ask the audience to imagine and believe that they are real - sometimes nine times a week - - that is the best entertainment.

When MacBeth see the ghost of Banquo, we as the audience see an actor onstage but let our minds convince us that it is a ghost. When Lady MacBeth walks trying to wash imaginary blood from her hands ("out damned spot") we feel her guilt and see that non-existant blood dripping from her, coloring the world with her guilt.

When Henry, Fifth king of England gathers his troops before the imaginary walls of Harfluer and calls on his troops to assail the walls - no stage holds that scene, no dozen actors make up an army but Henry begins "Once more unto the breech, deer friends, once more" and ends with "Follow your spirit, and upon this charge, Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'"

The audience understands and participates in what the scene is and THAT is what makes the magic.

[Riverwind (imported)]

I have not been to many stage plays however I have never been to a bad one, each has its magic and energy that can never be put on a screen, there is just to much going on for a camera to capture it all. Maybe thats why real actors love the stage over movies.

River