Into the Woods

Another Christmas, another movie musical.

Into the Woods, considered the most accessible of Stephen Sondheim's challenging canon, has made a movie debut at last. And just as it did on Broadway, is garnering everything from confusion to cheers to... more confusion.

I was admittedly a little hesitant about this one. I'm a pretty big fan of the original Broadway production with Bernadette Peters in the role of the Witch. A musical movie that does not have a lot of Broadway people in it is usually a warning sign for me that I might be getting something that does not do a fantastic score justice (see Les Mis). And Into the Woods, which features actors who have done musical movies before i.e. Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia, Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect which kind of counts I guess, Daniel Huttlestone was a standout Gavroche in Les Mis (edit: I found this out after the first draft of this post but Lilla Crawford who plays Little Red was Annie on Broadway in a production that closed about a  year ago).  Anyway, not a lot of Broadway people in this show that is very Broadway. Into the Woods score is not in any way pop, like the tunes of Frozen or even the bit-of-both in Les Miserables (sorry for all the comparisons). This initially worried me.

However, I am happy to report that I quite liked the movie. I think it is one of the better results of what is beginning to be a new era for the movie musical.

Into the Woods is the most accessible for a reason. It takes some of your favorite old fairy tales, and then some new stuff, and basically runs with it, examining morality and wishes, and that happily ever after rarely turns out like we think it should. It's about delving into the psychological depths of some of the world's most beloved characters.

It follows the baker and his wife, cursed with barrenness by their next door neighbor, the witch, and how they intertwine with stories like Cinderella and Rapunzel and Jack and the beanstalk and Little Red and so on so forth. It plays off of your  Disneyfied expectations of these stories to create something new and not entirely nice.
Which is awkward, because Disney produced the movie.

Therein was another of my doubts about ITW. It was created as a rebuttal to the sanitized fairy tales the youth of American grew up (and are still growing up) on. A PG rating for a musical that could easily be rated R in its original content produced by a company famous for child-safe sanitary fairy tales? It was puzzling to say the least.

And therein was probably the biggest, but one of the few, gripes I had with this film. Did you know Rapunzel dies in the original? Did you know that Cinderella's prince and the Baker's Wife do more than just kiss? I'm not trying to be on my high horse or anything of that nature, but I feel that it took away some of the emotional punch of the story, all in the name of getting it a kid's rating in order to perhaps entice some families. The kid behind me started crying when Milky White, Jack's cow, died. I couldn't help but feel sorry for the things these kids would have to deal with later on in the movie.

However, that was one of my only gripes. This movie surprised me in how good it actually was.

There is not a bad singer in the bunch, thank God. Meryl Streep positively kills it as the Witch, one of the most demanding Sondheim roles. She absolutely commits to it. James Corden and Emily Blunt are perfect for the Baker and his Wife, possessing that kind of every-person quality necessary for this kind of thing. Lilla Crawford brings a Broadway edge to the role of Little Red (which makes sense, since she was in the latest Annie revival that closed about a year ago). Little Red is easily my least favorite character of the bunch in Into the Woods, but Crawford manages to make it more likeable in the film, which surprised me so, so kudos for that. Daniel Huttlestone, who killed it in Les Miserables, plays Jack of beanstalk fame, and does an excellent job.  It's a little weird to see someone who actually looks Jack's age playing him (it's usually someone in their late teens early teens) but Huttlestone is really good and his singing sounds fantastic. Again, it lends that credibility to it. What works on stage doesn't always work on film, and it'd look super weird to have some late teens early twenties  guy playing a kid in a film, even though it works in the show.

I was just a tad disappointed in Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, but only in regards to her singing. It's not that it was bad by any means, I just feel like it did not fit the character as well as a more classical soprano might have. although Kendrick's acting is spot on. She's a very endearing Cinderella. On the other hand, Chris Pine has a pretty good singing voice as the Prince (and gets easily the best moment in the show along with Rapunzel's prince), his acting is so phoned in it takes you out of the story. Luckily, he's not that involved in a lot of speaking scenes. Rapunzel and her Prince are super minor characters, but both are excellent, and I have no bad words about either.

On another note, can we stop putting actors who don't have more than five minutes in the movie top billing on the poster? Johnny Depp makes a very creepy wolf and does good with what is given to him, but he is literally only in it for one song. From the way they were promoting it, I thought that maybe they'd given him some extra stuff, which is confusing, but they didn't.

In technical aspects, the movie also excels. The costumes and make-up are a fantastic compliment to the story, and I especially adored the Witch's costume post-transformation (I promise, that's not a spoiler). The set and production design are just the right blend of realistic and fairy-tale, and the actual Woods themselves are just perfect, so props to the set team. And the orchestrations and music are just beautiful, and props to putting in the first Night Waltz from A Little Night Music in the scene at the ball, that's a really neat Sondheim easter egg!

Anyway, I really did enjoy the movie, and hope this continues to bring movie musicals that are good adaptations that are made to work on screen as opposed to just copying what was on the stage. They're different, and that's not a bad thing.

Heathers: The Musical (or, Randi Posts A Lot of Musical Reviews at the Same Time)

As anyone who is currently within a ten mile radius of me at this very moment can tell, I really really love theater. Musicals, plays, whatever. So in an effort to incorporate that more and try to do something besides fandom-centered posts because I've kind of had it with fandom life at this particular moment. So here's the first in a series! I'm sure there will be at least 20, most of which you can probably watch on youtube!
Not this one though. At least not yet.

So Heathers. This was playing across the hallway from me when I went to go see Avenue Q in New York in April, so I thought I might check it out too.

Although this show has already closed (and never made it to Broadway), it was actually one of the most promising new shows that has come in a while. I'm usually a fan of original content, and although Heathers does not exactly fall into that category, this feels so much more original than half of the stuff playing up the street right now.

Based on the movie of the same name, Heathers incorporates a pop score of all original songs that are in turns funny, dark, sweet, and scary, with the storyline to match. Veronica Sawyer: geeky, outcast, beautiful, and whipsmart has an unfortunately low social status at the start her senior of highschool. And if you want to change that, you could do no better than to get in with the Heathers, a group of three girls who are all named (wait for it) Heather. They are everything. Of course, Veronica uses her excellent forgery skills to get a makeover from aforementioned Heathers and is of course, instantly more popular. Then there's JD, this kid with this awesome trench coat (props to the costume shop, like dang, that thing is awesome) who has instant chemistry with Veronica. They seem perfect for each other, cute slushie love song included.

Of course, he's also a murdering psychopath. And the targets? You guessed it, the Heathers (and their on again off again football player boyfriends). Creepy villain love song with dinosaur references included.

The storyline, while surreal what with all the murders, is actually a startling and accurate portrait of high school. Take it from someone who is still there, Heathers nails the anxiety, the fears, and the ridiculous confines of the social ladder.

The music is all fantastic. I especially love Candy Store, Dead Girl Walking, Freeze Your Brain, Lifeboat, Fight For Me, and Seventeen, but there really isn't a skipable song on the cast album. The character solos cut to the core of the broken and twisted characters that inhabit the show, and the ensemble numbers shine. There isn't a weak singer in the whole cast.

The original cast of the musical is just perfect as well. Barrett Willbert Weed as Veronica is an absolute revelation. Her singing compliments the music perfectly. Jessica Keenan-Wynn, Elle McLemore, and Alice Lee are picture perfect as the Heaters, and their trio, Candy Store, is one of the best songs in the show. Ryan McCartan plays JD perfectly. You're not supposed to like him, but you're also supposed to fall in love with him. It's interesting to see how he interprets arguable one of the most interesting characters in the show. Extra points also go to Katie Ladner, who plays Veronica's oft-bullied best friend Martha. Her big solo, Kindergarten Boyfriend is absolutely stand out, and she kills it in performance.

It's not a surprise that Heathers, both movie and musical, have developed a cult following. There isn't a bad a song in the musical, but it could use some workshopping all the same. Some of the musical numbers are just a tad bit too long, and there should be a little more time devoted the titular Heathers while they are still together. But you can't deny the pure, crazy, and funny entertainment value inherent in a show this absolutely crazy.

-Randi