Anyone else have a problem with the ending of Into the woods? Its pretty morally disgusting — Page 4

" he says a friend was going to eat him. It doesn't say for certain if it was the husband. Maybe the giants have have kids or a dog."

That's not at all what the song says. It says he befriended the Giant's Wife, and then someone bigger than her came along to eat him (the Giant).

The song indicates he only decides to steal AFTER being pursued by the Giant.

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"just acknowledging that they might have their reasons for the way that they think about you."

No doubt. But then, I have my reasons for the way I think about them.

In my case, sound ones.

In any event, I hope you have a good experience on this board. You've already made many astute comments here.

Just bear in mind the expression, once burned, twice shy.

I have a real problem with the end of a number of musicals:

HELLO DOLLY- a vulnerable older widow makes a highly suspect decision about her future happiness based on grounds which seem psychologically grounded in her inability to escape the grief of her departed first husband. Apparently we should celebrate her emotional fragility and irrational approach to her future security and happiness.

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES- a couple with a firm moral outlook are blackmailed into abandoning their principles in order to avoid undeserved shaming by the paperazzi. An emotionally fragile fading star performer is expected to reconcile with the lover who betrayed him and virtually banished him from his own house in the desire to hypocritically pose as a respectable heterosexual father.

DEAR WORLD- unpunished murder in the sewers; need I say more?

MACK & MABEL- a self-deluding,unrepentant, neglectful, philandering work obsessive attempts to rewrite history and reclaim the woman he drove to heroin addiction, possible murder and an early death.

- and all with the zippiest, most hedonistic, unapologetically breezy music indeed!

Odious! Outrageous! Vile! Putrescent!

(I hope I haven't willfully ignored the moral complexity of any of these works- what kind of a poster would that make me?)

Fantod, cherish AfterEight's friendship while you can. Because I can guarantee it will be eventually go away, when he will decide that your opinions, tastes, or writing style no longer fit in with his worldview and will lament that a bright bulb on this board has dimmed. And then you will be added to his bizarre narrative of his time on this board, in which he is a humble and kind truthteller, one of the regrettable few who is immune to the cabal of tasteless self-proclaimed intelligentsia constantly hoisting odious works upon the naive ticket-buying public and a constant victim of baseless attacks by lesser minds, who yearns for a simpler time in the early 80s, when the last good new musical, La Cage aux Folles, was written.

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Updated On: 11/14/14 at 12:20 PM

No doubt. But then, I have my reasons for the way I think about them.

In my case, sound ones.

An odious response.

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PalJoey is a class of his own to the point where NO ONE will ever take that away from him. He's a treasure and one of the absolute best members of the boards.

His posts (and that of the late Margo Channing) are one the true reasons why I joined in the first place.

No. It is one of the best musicals around. It states you better be careful what you want/wish or the tale you tell that is the wish because there will be consequences to that wish/action.

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You as a person probably have hopes and dreams, but do you deserve to have everyone you love killed because of that?

Yes.

"Yes."

Yes.

Fantod, I'm sure you know Lapine isn't saying "Just be content with what you have and never wish for anything." He's saying, "Be aware that the wishes you make and the actions you take have consequences. Always."

The characters aren't just "talking to the air", as you put it. They all take actions to achieve their desires.

Wow. I'm way off base.

I thought the moral was don't ever mess with the greens, especially the beans.

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The moral is never to mess with the greens, especially the beans because that is what caused the whole mess to begin with.

Stay in your own damn back yard!

THE END.