Vocal Dubbing in the Film Version of INTO THE WOODS — Page 2

Okay but then the other question would be "why" would they do it? They clearly didn't make an effort to noticiably enhance the other (mostly mediocre) singing voices in the film- and Marshall didn't take the initiative to say, make Nicole Kidman sound like Laura Benanti in NINE. So why would they do this for Streep whose voice has always been fine and at least as good as the principals in his other musical movies.

Good question. If you look at Sondheim's work, he is the first to say he writes for actors who sing, not singers. Best example is Lansbury — not a trained singer, occasionally dubbed in her MGM films (i.e. THE HARVEY GIRLS) but allowed to sing for herself in less presentational, more British-centric pieces, like THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY or TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY. On stage, she emerged as the prototype of the actor who sings. "The Worst Pies in London" could trip up the best of singers, but not an actor. So, barring an occasional "Green Finch and Linnet Bird," Sondheim usually writes for actors. INTO THE WOODS was written largely for actors who sing, but, based on his knowledge that Bernadette Peters was cast, his writing for the Witch is different. He knew he had a singer to work with, and the result is that her music is more challenging, more rangy, especially the bridge in "Stay With Me" and all of "Last Midnight." The reason they would have needed to dub those sections in the film version is because their name-above-the-title Witch was now an actor who sings. In Kendrick, they had a singing actress as Cinderella, and Pine is off the table because Marshall directed "Agony" broadly, almost for laughs, in the movie. All other characters in the film are actors who sing.

It was clearly Rob Marshall's intent that all of the actors sing for themselves in this film; Streep's dubbing likely became a necessity after the fact, especially given the pyrotechnic staging of "Last Midnight." If her vocal performance did not adequately merge with the imagery in rushes, something would have to be done. Once they had Murphy in the studio, they probably took inventory on all of Streep's vocals and decided to add the bridge of "Stay With Me" to her chores as a safeguard. And if you recall, it was that clip — the "Stay With Me" bridge — that was most often used by Disney during the film's hype period. It was the first clip released; you saw and heard it everywhere, presumably so that, in conjunction with the unveiling of Streep's distorting make-up, audiences would immediately accept the voice they were hearing as hers.

Updated On: 9/23/16 at 10:12 AM

I will not deny that when I first saw the film my mind went immidietely to Donna Murphy when things got belty. But after repeated listenings, I was not so sure, and after listening to the sections you outline I am less sure than that. There's absolutely digital sweetening going on, but I think it is all (or almost all) Streep. If Murphy's in there (and it's possible) I think it's on idividual notes. And no, that is not Bernadette on "It's Yours" - I'll admit it's a similar sound, but thats just how the word lands in the phrase.

It's like saying Julia Childs was overdubbed for her performance in that one movie.

Sure she resembles Murphy a tad, but I don't think it's identical.

This sounds like a bunch of conspiracy theory. It's certainly the rangiest part she's done on film, but the vocal choices and timbre sound distinctly her. And if anything, we'd be talking about, what, a belted note or two at the end? Silly.

Without question sweetened, though. Much like her appearance after the transformation is heavily CGI'd.

I find it even eerier that this same topic was posted on ATC. Initially, I thought this thread was crazy but now I'm absolutely fascinated by it.

Isn't there a similar rumor that Ben Vereen is actually singing "All Good Gifts" on the Godspell soundtrack?

Just listened to LAST MIDNIGHT and the similarity to Donna Murphy's vibrato on the word world during "I'm the witch, you're the WORLDDDD" is uncanny. Wow.

If this was a dub job, I wonder if it was so secret that not even Streep knew? Wasn't it said that Roz Russell didn't know for years that 95% of her Gypsy vocals were dubbed in the final cut?

Updated On: 9/23/16 at 04:06 PM

In the world of social media, it seems like it'd be easy to just outright ask Donna Murphy if there is any truth to this. If she says "no comment" then it is forever open to speculation, if she gives a definite answer, then there we'd have it.

It seems people are already comfortable coming up to her on the street to ask questions about her career, so why not tweet at her or something? It has to be more polite than spreading unfounded rumors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKIwY_Hd0tE

(Voice over) EARN YOUR DEGREE AND START YOUR NEW CAREER IN:

Home Care Nursing

VCR Repair

Hollywood Dubbing Historian

Personal Computer

Businesses.

Don't wait! Call today!

I saw bits of the Into the Woods movie last summer and was impressed by the overall level of talent - Baranski was sensational (she's perfect in everything she does, the caliber of her work in Good Wife and even smaller supporting roles like in the Birdcage is consistently stellar) and Streep was awesome (when isn't she?).

Didn't notice too much about the specifics of the dubbing and accompanying arrangements with ITW though - with Les Mis, it was an entirely different story. I loved the live singing - the authenticity conveyed (sounds like terminology from someone with film pedigree wearing a beret, but it's definitely something I'd wager most people appreciate even if they can't put a label on that phenomena - as I couldn't as a younger child) was noticeable - the vocals had a certain grit associated with them (Jackman in particular - the guys doing the audio capture (less in the way of editing here given that it was caught live during the action) were geniuses - little vocal nuances - a vibrato during the Soliloquy, the vocal gruffness of Crowe's Javert (awesome performance - if some (and to each their own - it's a completely valid perspective regardless of my own thoughts) thought of his performance: "he's miscast", etc - I respect that opinion, it certainly has its merits, but I'm in the camp that thought he brought something interesting to the work from a perspective outside the theater world.) All of the vocals - even during Look Down (used to listen to that one frequently and marvel at the gloriously orchestrated music written by Boublil and Schonberg - the ensemble chanting was more than a theatrical way to start the story and bring the audience right into the narrative in a pretty compelling way.)

Just rewatched this last night and I can definitely hear what people are talking about. I didn't noticed it when I first watched the film. But last night all I could hear was Donna Murphy. Of course that doesn't convince me of anything. Artificial manipulation of Meryl's singing could have resulted in that.

On another note, I don't remember it being mentioned in discussions before, but did anyone notice the few bars of The Night Waltz from ALNM played when we see the guests arriving at the first night of the festival?