elphaba610 reviews Into the Woods CD- Page 6

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:35pm

Again I throw my support to the BobbyBubby analysis, the characters are in the end aspects of the author's (or actually the audience's) mind.
A traditional show such as MFL is limited to the social straegems of the characters, in ITW the characters are all Sondheim, in essence. (Although again, I don't think it is his own self analysis, but rather an analysis of those themes for a generalized Storyteller, as SitPwG is not about Seurat or Sondheim, but "Artist." ) Representing different sides of a mental balance, is the character of Jack's mother, therefore she is speaking at the level she should.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:37pm

Well, yes, and likewise, you wouldn't want Huck Finn singing broad ALW-style ballads for Big River, either. Certainly, music and lyrics do have to match a character.

Sondheim's usually an exception, though. Mrs. Lovett and John Wilkes Booth have lyrics that are probably more intelligent than their characters, too, but nobody minds. Jack's Mother is a pretty broad character -- we don't know much about her background, other than her husband left her, she's poor and she's not very attractive.

Looking back at Bobby's post, I was actually trying to say pretty much the same things. These shows are more conceptual and not so much straight narrative, like My Fair Lady or Big River, so the suspension of disbelief bar is pushed a little higher.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:40pm

Now I have the question:

Just because someone is poor, does that mean they are stupid?

going through my head...

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:41pm

I think unrefined would be a much better word.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:43pm

I don't think they're stupid, they might just be ignorant, which is often not their faults. The poor may not always have access to things that would enlarge their vocabularies.

Updated On: 9/9/05 at 03:43 PM

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:46pm

I would assume that if the show were to be taken as "realistic" the poor figure of Jack's mother would be "uneducated" and therefore unable to express her feelings with the words she uses in the show. That may not be the case though. I mean it is "A Long Time ago, in a distant kingdom" so maybe they had a solid educational system there.
However, since the entire story is a fairy tale I think yet another level of "disbelief" is added.

Why are we bothering to discuss such an "immature" show though?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:53pm

I know. I don't trust those "rap" musicals.

[bjivie2]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:55pm

Yeah, when I think poor in a peasant sense, I think that they don't go to school, don't really have the access to education and such.

And I didn't know Bob Saget knew words like "mollified". Good for him!

Updated On: 9/9/05 at 03:55 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:55pm

So, when Elphaba sings "The Wizard and I," wouldn't it be more true to her character if she did it with the more colloquial "Me and the Wizard"?

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 3:57pm

I think Bob Saget only knows words that have F**k and Sh*t in them.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 4:01pm

Now don't be so hard on the Sagmeister, it is hard.. what with the kids and the no mother and the writting of the shows and the acting of the wizahd and what not and so forth. A guy with that much pain has to be rauchy a*s comedienne.

Since Elphaba is from the eastern heartland of farm country it is probably "Me and that there Wizard type fella"

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 4:02pm

Well, see that's a good point Calvin. Am I really to believe that Schwartz thinks about the characters "social status" when coming up with a lyric, at least in the same way Sondheim does.

Not really.

He does rhyme Nessa and confessa after all.

[Calvin]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 4:03pm

Yeah, and how is it some dude from Kansas knows how to build all those fancy contraptions? Didn't Kansas, like, outlaw science or something?

The Wizard should be teaching intelligent design to the people of Oz.

eta: Wait. He was from Nebraska, right? Sorry. I saw Wicked only once, I must admit, and that was enough. Updated On: 9/9/05 at 04:03 PM

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 4:04pm

Well, at least they don't rap in Wicked.

[kgee30]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 4:05pm

Ah, thanks to y'all for making this thread much more intelligent than it has any right to be. You've saved the day.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 5:22pm

Yup, we all is real smart and junk.

[Eliza0114]

Posted: 9/9/05 at 6:42pm

oh my god, smart penguin, you made my day with that comment. pure genius.