I am home from INTO THE WOODS, a show I really dislike. I still remember from the original production that stupid moment where the dead giant, looking much like a 20-foot bowling ball in a wig, toppled over and I thought, bad finish to a second-rate Sondheim show. Thanks to the cult, he's believed only to have produced works of monumental genius, but I still think INTO THE WOODS is a second- or third-tier one. I still have no idea what the hell that idiotic number "The Last Midnight" is all about. It's a dud, one of the worst things ever penned by the deified Sondheim. so of course i'm going to hell, but "Giants In The Sky." "The steps of the Palace," "Agony," and other numbers in the show are quite wonderful.
That said, I loved the movie, which is a big improvement over the stage show; it's not nearly as noisy, and the second act body count is lower. To me, the two halves still mesh badly, but the cast is really fine, and James Corden, whom I loved in ONE MAN, TWO GUV'NORS, is really wonderful. I never felt that Chip Zien and Joanna Gleason felt part of the Grimm locale; they were far too urban New York Jew; it was hard to believe he's Rapunzel's brother. Corden and Emily Blunt seem to be living in the same vicinity as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and the others. Speaking of the rest of the cast, I loved the boy who played Jack, Tracey Ulman as his mother, and the Red Riding Hood. I'm on the fence about Anna Kendrick, but I thought the princes were both great, and came off nicer than they did in the stage show. It's not a pleasant show; the authors are very mean to their characters in Act Two
"Agony" got a big round of applause from the audience. I liked the costume and set design very much, and the musical adaptation is quite wonderful. i think giving Tunick more than 12-15 instruments to write for gave the score a lot of enchantment missing from the stage show, and I was moved at the end.
I still think "The Last Midnight" is complete dreck.
