I went to an advance screening knowing nothing about the broadway musical. I have to say that the songs in this are extremely awful. And this is coming from someone who knows musicals very well. I've enjoyed Little Shop, Phantom, Rent, Hairspray, Joseph, Tommy, Mamma Mia and Jersey Boys. Not only does Into the Woods lack a showstopper but it lacks a single memorable song with any sort of hook. The lyrics have a sprawling structure, with sentences shoehorned into weak melodies. The movie does have some positives. It has a senses of cleverness in how it threads together 4 different fairy tales.
This reminds me of when the Sweeney Todd movie was released and people were complaining that Danny Elfman would have done a better job writing the music..
"You can't overrate Bernadette Peters. She is such a genius. There's a moment in "Too Many Mornings" and Bernadette doing 'I wore green the last time' - It's a voice that is just already given up - it is so sorrowful. Tragic. You can see from that moment the show is going to be headed into such dark territory and it hinges on this tiny throwaway moment of the voice." - Ben Brantley (2022)
"Bernadette's whole, stunning performance [as Rose in Gypsy] galvanized the actors capable of letting loose with her. Bernadette's Rose did take its rightful place, but too late, and unseen by too many who should have seen it" Arthur Laurents (2009)
"Sondheim's own favorite star performances? [Bernadette] Peters in ''Sunday in the Park,'' Lansbury in ''Sweeney Todd'' and ''obviously, Ethel was thrilling in 'Gypsy.'' Nytimes, 2000
This reminds me of when the Sweeney Todd movie was released and people were complaining that Danny Elfman would have done a better job writing the music..
One of my dearest and oldest friends made that exact comment when she saw Sweeney. To this day, I still think less of her. Ha.
Sondheim definitely isn't for everyone, the themes aren't as melodic as your average musical but they certainly are more compelling lyrically.
Still. In 2014? We're still doing this ****? I feel like people don't even know what "melodic" means. If you're going to tell me "Stay With Me", "No One Is Alone", "Children Will Listen", "Agony" etc. are not melodic, I'm going to Liz Lemon eyeroll you so bad.
That and the mix of people claiming to be Sondheim disciples who are complaining "HOW COULD THEY CHANGE THE LYRICS TO ON THE STEPS...????" etc.
Some people are just hopeless. If Jesus Christ were to arrive on Earth and say anything that altered something in the good book, the purist Christians would just end up turning on him ala George Lucas.
Fanaticism sure can turn us into creatures who are grossly out of touch with the big picture.
Anna Kendrick and I have something in common, the cartoon 'Cinderella' used to terrify me too. I bet she also was afraid of the palace guards chasing after Cinderella at midnight and the stepsisters tearing a dress to shreds.
Contrary to what BWW posted incorrectly earlier, Anna Kendrick is instagraming on the Disney account today because the NYC film premiere for Into the Woods is tonight!
And, I've said it once, but I'll say it again.
BWW: The article you posted with a "new clip" from Into the Woods needs editing. The "new clip" is not released by Disney. It is something a YouTuber spliced together from footage released from trailers.
"Some people can thrive and bloom living life in a living room, that's perfect for some people of one hundred and five. But I at least gotta try, when I think of all the sights that I gotta see, all the places I gotta play, all the things that I gotta be at"
F.Y.I. according to BOX-OFFICE Business these are the latest twitter trends for INTO THE WOOD...it shows the ratio of good to bad tweets regarding INTO THE WOODS...as you can see after last night's premier the ratio improved 80 to 1...:)
RATIO Dec 09, 2014 1685 80:1 Dec 08, 2014 9183 33:1 Dec 07, 2014 4012 22:1