...and ITW opened in almost 700 less screens the UNBROKEN which only made $500,000 more yesterday...that is good business...but with only a B rating from the audience surveys it will be interesting to see if ITW can hold up now...
One NYC theater near Times Square oversold yesterday. Someone I know bought tickets weeks ago but when they got there, they had changed the actual "theater" in the complex which had less seats.. so they were given a refund (and of course the other shows were sold out). They were very disappointed.
I am not sure it was the same theater but when my fam and I got to the AMC Multiplex at 42nd Street, we got out Fandago tickets in the machine that printed out the showing was CANCELLED. We raced through the crowds to the box office and was told that it was NOT cancelled but they changed the theater we were seeing it in. So we then had to race to the customer desk on the third floor. It was one of those theaters with reserved assigned lounge seats and Fandago didn't note that for the reservation. This one poor usher was trying to settle it all for a LOT of frantic people. It was pretty hectic but our party of 7 miraculously wound up sitting down just when the previews started(and managed to get seats together as well and not in the front row... a true Christmas miracle..)
The movie itself was fabulous. Perfectly cast -worked extremely well as an ensemble, beautifully filmed, not exactly the play, but a wonderful adaptation that kept the spirit and emotion of the original in tact. Yes I missed some things, but if you are not going to film a real theatrical production on stage for posterity, you need to make changes for it to work on film. Would I have made the exact same changes throughout? Probably not but I wasn't hired to make the movie and the choices made were totally reasonable. I would have liked to see a little more time for mourning for the witch when her daughter left - I would have liked to see act 2 a little bit longer...a few minutes here and there. But overall, it's the best adaptation I've seen in a long time.
I didn't think it was really going to bother me that "No More" wasn't there, but it really did. For crying out loud, the scene wasn't even good and they played "no more" behind it. I don't understand why they didn't just sing it. It wouldn't have slowed the film down at all. By cutting it, they sped it up too much. It also didn't give the Baker a chance to really shine.
I'm also having fun reading the Rotten Tomatoes audience reviews. My favorite pull quote so far is: "It was like Twilight mixed with Guantanamo Bay."
I figured this was going to be a bit more divisive than the average Disney-produced show - especially as a Christmas Day release. Here's hoping, however, that at least some newcomers to the material (rather than just us theater folks) enjoy it.
Updated On: 12/26/14 at 12:35 PM
Besides the Prologue, the average song length is only around 2.5-3 minutes. If someone hates musicals, it's not likely that this film will change their mind. A Sondheim score takes effort on the listener's part, and that's the beauty of it.
I saw this last night and I absolutely loved it. Such a good adaptation. The entire cast was great, and the entire film was just beautiful. I can't wait to see it again!
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
I saw this last night and I absolutely loved it. Such a good adaptation. The entire cast was great, and the entire film was just beautiful. I can't wait to see it again!
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
I love "No More" - but it would bring the film to a screeching halt, in my opinion. The same was said for the Witch's new song. It slowed down the movement of the film and was too similar to "Last Midnight."
however i have to say how absolutely impressed i was with emily blunt...her rendition of no one is alone [reprise] was absolutely flawless...she has an absolutely wonderful voice...and dare i say she will be remembered for this role for many, many years to come. she made the role her own.
I love "No More" - but it would bring the film to a screeching halt, in my opinion. The same was said for the Witch's new song. It slowed down the movement of the film and was too similar to "Last Midnight."
I think they should've cut all of "No More" up until the Baker sings at the end. That little section has so much emotion in it and it would've fit perfectly into the film. I feel like those few verses allow the Baker to come to terms with the fact that he is a father, as well as to forgive his father, and that he has lost the love of his life. It wasn't properly addressed in the film at all due to this being cut.
I would say this is the role that finally delivered on Blunt's promise from years ago. She had been doing consistently steady work but had yet to get a part that was as rich and central to the story (I do hear she was wonderful in EDGE OF TOMORROW, but I doubt the role is as great as the Baker's Wife), and she sure went with it. This is a pretty definitive performance from her.
"No More" is a brilliant song, I just don't see a place for it in this version. With the Mysterious Man gone, some of the lyrics don't have the same impact, and the movie just needed to end. I don't think Marshall said we shouldn't be upset it's gone; in fact, at the live Q & A on Yahoo I recall him saying it hurt him to cut the song, but that it would've hurt the flow of the film. He also said something like "you think you want to see the show on stage, but you don't." I just think it was a smart cut, and the scene works beautifully, with Corden's breakdown being one of the emotional highlights of the film. I did miss "Maybe They're Really Magic," one of the most illuminating songs about the Baker's Wife, and it's so short I wish they'd kept it.
"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"
I haven't seen the movie yet, so I'm reserving judgment about "No More" being cut. I initially WTF'd like a lot of people did, but I'm inclined to agree that, no matter how much I love it, if The Mysterious Man's role has been chopped out of the story, including the song would completely alter and diminish its impact.
Now I'm expecting the cut of "Maybe They're Magic" to hurt even more. It's, what, 45 seconds? A wonderful, wonderful 45 seconds. So, it's obviously not a cut for time, and its beautiful economy gives us so much of the Baker and the Baker's wife and their relationship.
Even if I end up disagreeing with the "No More" cut, I hope I at least can understand the logic behind it. I have a feeling I'm gonna have a hard time seeing the logic behind cutting "Maybe They're Magic."
CHURCH DOOR TOUCAN GAY MARKETING PUPPIES MUSICAL THEATER STAPLES PERIOD OIL BITCHY SNARK HOLES
I thought the NO MORE sequence was wonderfully scored with the lush orchestration that only added to the Baker's grief for me...I teared up both times I have seen it now...and it would have been strange to bring in the father to sing at that point but yet it worked perfectly to have the father pop in to make that scene work dramatically...IMHO
agreed that corden played the scene beautifully...both audiences ive seen it with were moved...
imo...even though the mysterious man was cut they could have reworked 'no more' in very much the same way 'on the steps of the palace' was...i dont think it would have slowed things down as too many have voiced that the 2nd act is too short...
I'm finding it really difficult to take some of these "reviewers" seriously...
"...The production looks handsome, but Marshall's direction renders it all a bit stiff, with no real passion behind the proceedings, and the deficiencies in the original source material are present and actually amplified here (Wicked is far more clever in its revisionist take on classic fantasy tropes).
Between the season's musicals, Into the Woods will trump Annie for a number of reasons (larger budget, more star power, other reasons best not mentioned, etc.), but on balance, I'll take the latter's heart over the former's art."
-There's the muddle in the middle. There's the puddle where the poodle did the piddle."