Weakness of Sondheim's Second Acts

There are a lot of books about Sondheim that cover his career show-by-show. Some of the ones I've read are sort of annoyingly editorialized, but that actually may be able to help you, if you're dealing with something fairly subjective like dramatic "weakness."

Try:
Joanne Gordon, Art Isn't Easy: The Theatre of Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Banfield, Sondheim's Broadway Musicals

There are also some books that are collections of essays by various writers... I'm not sure what there is on Sunday or ITW in either of these offhand, but they're pretty easy to find if you want to look through them:
Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Essays, edited by Sandor Goodhart
Stephen Sondheim: A Casebook, edited by Joanne Gordon
They mostly deal with really specific things, though, so they might not be of use to you.

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Updated On: 4/16/08 at 10:31 AM

I blame James Lapine. Baaaaad book writer.

Check out the Sondheim review. Great magazine with lots of great articles, and I would consider it a journal.

I'm sorry, but by saying the 2nd Act of Into the Woods is weak, you're missing the point of the entire show. I'd actually say, though I think the entire work is well-crafted, Act I, being a set up for Act II, is weaker.

And while some consider Sunday's 2nd Act weaker, which I agree, I don't think you'll be able to pull an entire essay on the subject. Many want Act I to flow into Act II which would have been a foolish choice on Lapine's part. But as far as finding support in books for the Woods argument, I don't think you're going to find much support unless, as husk charmer noted, you have very strong ideas.

But many believe Into the Woods is about the AIDS crisis. You wouldn't have that theme without the 2nd Act. Think as a writer, not as a fan and you'll have a better paper. Perhaps it would be better to write on the Lapine/Sondheim collaboration and include Passion. But your teacher, if they know anything about musical theatre, has heard the weak argument that Woods' Act II is weak. I think people just don't like that its darker. Perhaps that could be a great focus. The darkness of the Sondheim/Lapine collaborations, you'll find a lot more to support that.

And I don't agree with Lapine being a bad book writer. I just think some audiences don't expect his books to go where they do and become writer rather than critic. Passion is a finely crafted book and I adore Sunday and Woods for the braveness to go where musical theatre hasn't gone before. Woods is in Act I musical comedy/Act II musical drama. This is hard to take for some aesthetics. It bothered me when I was younger but I appreciate it more as I get older, and I hope, wiser.

My main issue with act 2 of Into the Woods is something that no one ever seems to discuss--that in an act based around consequences of ones actions (deceit, theft, murder) the "happy conclusion" is brought on by the murder of the Giant's Wife. Ya, she wrecked a lot of stuff and killed a few characters, but so had the wolf and THAT wasn't okay.

Anyone care to change my mind and defend this?

sondhead-
It's not really a happy conclusion. They are doing what they can to survive. The difference is this time they know there is a consequence.

And in theory, we can also say that there are no more beans, so no more beanstalks, so if she dies, there's no way another giant (if there IS another giant) can come down and wreak havoc.

For me, the show doesn't end happily, it just pauses.

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I can't think of a single Sondheim show where the second act was weaker.

Re: ITW/AIDS... I think the connection people were making was about more than just the giant, but the utter feeling of helplessness that pervades the second act. By the time we get to "Wake up: People are dying all around you", for a 1987 audience, the allusion was inescapable. However, if Sondheim and Lapine were influenced by AIDS, it was subconsciously.

I think you have the start of a great paper but I'd encourage you to think outside the box with this one.

"sondhead-
It's not really a happy conclusion. They are doing what they can to survive. The difference is this time they know there is a consequence.

And in theory, we can also say that there are no more beans, so no more beanstalks, so if she dies, there's no way another giant (if there IS another giant) can come down and wreak havoc."

So now that they know there are consequences, they do the same stuff anyways? I agree with the survive part--I think Lapine painted himself into a corner here because I can't imagine another way to end the story without it being incredibly hokey, but I think it's not a very satisfying ending at all.

Taryn--EXCELLENT way of putting it.

I don't think it has to do with sheer age so much as it does, simply, expectation. I remember when my mother went to see the revival of ITW, and she came back telling me that she loved the first act, but that the second act was just awful because it was dark and scary, when she thought it was going to be a typical fairy tale all the way through. It's just about what you want to or expect to see -- and while yes, maybe young audiences are often part of the group who expects a happy ending, it's not limited to young naivete. Sondheim's whole challenge-the-happy-ending convention is a huge part of what often makes people uncomfortable about his work.

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Updated On: 4/16/08 at 12:43 PM

Thanks for your comments everyone.

This is a college paper- and it does not reflect my opinion at all. I was having a conversation with my professor about the revival of Sunday- and somehow he got on the topic of Sondheim's "weak" second acts. I told him that, when done properly, I didn't think it was necessarily weak (I thoroughly enjoyed it in the revival, but cannot follow it at all on the video of the OBC). He recommended that I write my research paper on this- finding journals and such about why some of his musical's have this weakness, and then discuss why I thought the revival worked.

Something like that. Heh.

Jstor actually has very little on Sondheim...trust me, I looked.

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In fact, most of my "book" work came from a book called "The Witch Must Die" it doesn't deal with ITW directly, but some of the common themes are there.

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