Into the Woods- Page 2

[Ciaron McCarthy]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:39pm

The witch is the catalyst and "Last Midnight" is her letting the cast know what it is they ALL did to cause the evil deeds. It is a brilliant song. Robbie I can respect your way of acting but I don't think the emotions should be dismissed. What about method acting? I also dont think that "Moments in the Woods" is crystal clear on its own. It def takes the actor to bring it across. Case in point, Joanna Gleasons BW. Nobody has played that role better. I have seen a lot of BW's through the years and they cannot even come close.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:41pm

Who replaced Joanna Gleason? And, was Dick Cavett any good as the Narrator (I Can't imagine him not being good, but you know)

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:47pm

I never said emotions should be dismissed. I said actors shouldn't focus on them. They should focus on the playing the action. Emotion will come naturally. That's my problem with the Method...at least as practiced by some. Some actors get so involved with the emotion that they forget to play the action. And it's torturous to watch. The reason I say the song is crystal clear is because you don't need to really add anything to it. She's not covering feelings. She's not speaking in hyperbole. She's literally working through it lyrically. Like the best of Shakespeare, it's all right there for you.

And Kay McClelland was pretty f*cking great, too. No one, not even Gleason, delivered the line 'Will only a Giant's footstep stop you from arguing' like she did. No one.

[Ciaron McCarthy]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:48pm

I saw Kay Mclleland and Lauren Mitchell after Joanna. Neither of them held a candle.

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:50pm

Would I say Gleason is definitive?

Absolutely...but the show survived without her. And will continue to do so.

[Ciaron McCarthy]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:57pm

OK Robbie. I'm not an actor so I wouldnt know the first thing.

Kay was good but she was no Joanna (IMO). I saw Imelda play it and it was nothing compared to Joanna. Joanna just had the timing down and she could be so heartbreaking. I think it is one of the greatest performances to ever grace the stage. Amazing!

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:58pm

"Moments in the Woods" was pretty clear to me just from listening to it before I saw the show. I am really enjoying reading this thread. It is funny, a friend just e-maile me and asked what I was doing this evening. My response was that I thought I was going to stay in and watch "Into The Woods" as I haven't watched it all the way through in a while. (I tend to pop it in and watch certain scenes)

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:58pm

True Husk. The Witch IS the only character in the show who understands everything that is going on, but like you said, she is unable to stop the inevitable. Heh, now I understand the "had to get your wish" part better too!

Rereading the lyrics on the song...you're right it is all there.

"Separate and alone
Down on all fours"

"Beans were made for making you rich"

So the beans are sort of serving as a metaphor--the beans represent their wishes that they had to deceive to get--so they do have to band together and "pick up the beans." Fascinating.

"I'm what no one believes."

Hmm...could be referring to a couple of things...consequences to their actions? That sometimes the right thing isn't the nice thing?

When she said "you're the world" I always saw that as what she described in Stay With Me, there are princes but wolves too...when I was younger, I thought that was a brilliant description, and more that's what she was referring too, but no, it's human desire.

I'm actually rereading the lyrics of all the songs now. "I wish more than life"--significant.

"Don't mess around with my greens--especially the beans." Metaphor fits here too.

"Are you certain what you wish is what you want?"

"It justifies the beans"

"You could stay a child with me." The witch knows what happens when the child grows, so she wants to Rapunzel free of the complications.

Anything can happen in the woods, right and wrong don't matter...like the unconscious.

Wow, Moments in the woods make all these parallels between the and/or I mentioned earlier. Heh.

The beans are constantly mentioned in "Your Fault."

"No More" is perhaps my favorite song in the score.

"You move just a finger, say the slightest word, something's bound to linger."

The point of the song is totally in the words, I just never thought about them.

"Wishes come true, not free."

They've all learned "you can't just act."

"But now there's you, me, her and him."

To mind, to think...wow.

And ending on "I wish."

It's all in there, brilliant in the lyrics. wish I read them more carefully much earlier on.

[Ciaron McCarthy]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 4:58pm

but the show survived without her. And will continue to do so.

You're right but the bakers wife never gets the same reaction from the audience that Joanna got. At least at the performances I have seen. Especially the revival (ECK). It all seems to be about The Witch now.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:02pm

wickedrentq-
I always took the "I'm the Witch, you're the world" line to mean that you look at me as something, evil, and wrong, but you are just as evil and wrong as I am, I just admit to it. She doesn't try to hide anything from anyone. Just me though.

[robbiej]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:03pm

Actually, I think the performance of the revival was Benanti's sublime Cinderella.

I don't disagree with you about Gleason's performance...at all. Her performance was towering...but that entire original cast was pretty much perfect. The one thing I appreciated about the revival (perhaps the only thing, other than Benanti) was the different tone taken in Act 2. The original felt a bit existentialist. It was slow and thoughtful. The revival's Act 2 was paced extremely well and had an urgency that I thought was right on.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:04pm

Very astute, Husk. Thinking about it, I definitely agree with you.

[uncageg]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:06pm

Wickedrentq, I agree, "No More" stands out as one of my all time favorite songs from any show.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:06pm

I really did not like Benanti's Cinderella...really the only one I came close to liking was Adam Wylie's Jack. The revival honestly felt too...Disney, it wasn't dark enough. But that's just me.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:07pm

Oh man I want to direct this show. I have a concept that I think would work really well (although not for family audiences).

For my thesis project this year I am going to be designing the sets and costumes for a large-scale musical (Only going as far as a model for the set and finished sketches for the costumes) and Into the Woods is at the top of my list right now.

I'll post photos when I am done, but I am very excited about my idea.

Akiva

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:10pm

I did a design set once and set it in a 1980's city, with the suburbs being the kingdom...it worked quite nicely.

[Link Larkin Wanabe]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:11pm

oooh cool...any photos?

Akiva

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 5:13pm

Not here, sadly, it was back in High School.

[LostLeander]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 6:54pm

Robbie, saying that Moments in the Woods is easy to sing because it's so well constructed is like saying Shakespeare is easy to perform because it's so well written.

I certainly see what you're saying, but it's quite simplistic.
It's easy on paper, but hard in practice.

It's up there as one of the hardest songs to perform well.

This show is ALL about the community and the responsibility to take care of each other - which is a hugely universal subject.

Act One is all about cheating to get what you want, and they basically do, and all is happy in the world.

Until Act II, of course, when they have to face the consequences of their choices.

Your Fault is a perfect little allegory of the world's need for blame, when generally, everyone is to blame.

And lastly, I can't bear to listen to Adam Wylie's Jack. It's utterly painful.

[aspiringactress]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 7:08pm

I gotta go with robbie on the matter of "Moments in the Woods". You need the technique to deal with the complex music of course, and you can't deny yourself emotion, but all you ever need to do is play the action and the objective to get to the emotion. What do you want an how will you get there? And Shakespeare is simpler to perform than a lot of people admit. Sure, you need the vocal training to put the sound where you need it, but if you just allow yourself to listen to the words and live IN them, they take you where you need to be.

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 7:13pm

Thank you Lost for putting my huge, ramble post into two sentences.

I really need to learn to do that one of these days...

I did get the idea that "what's important [to us] is the blame" when I first became familiar with it.

I very much enjoyed seeing the revival, a live production, but I felt most of them didn't hold a candle to the OBC. I mean, no one can be as great as Bernadette and Joanna, and that Red Riding Hood...was just totally characterized that she lost all humor. I don't know if it was the actor's or director's fault, but yikes.

I did very much enjoy Christopher Sieber as Rapunzel's prince, however.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 7:34pm

wickedrentq: You're so verbose!

[HOUFlip04]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 7:38pm

"Think of those crisp, AGING bones (i.e. not fully developed)
Then something fresh on the PALATE"

I always thought "those crisp, AGING bones" was refering to Little Red's Grandmother. The way Robert Westenberg sang it in the original, there was a different acting beat right before 'then something fresh on the palate'.

[TomMonster]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 7:42pm

You are correct HOU. It's about Grandma and Red.

[HOUFlip04]

Posted: 10/27/06 at 7:44pm

Thanks fellow South Park-ian!