# Into the Woods: Have You Seen It? (Open Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 30, 2014, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540 "2014-12-30T15:36:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/81 "2015-01-05T15:51:31Z")
I have never seen the show on stage, although I did try to watch the filmed play version when it was on Netflix but I got distracted and never finished it. I enjoyed the movie a heck of a lot. Meryl Streep was fantastic and I agree with whoever suspected it earlier that she recognized how weak her voice was after Mamma Mia and took steps to fix it. I grew rather attached to the Baker’s Wife and was quite disappointed that not only did she get killed off, but we didn’t even get a death pose. I suppose it’s for the sake of the kiddies but c’mon! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/82 "2015-01-05T15:52:22Z")
I was surprised to read above that the actor who played Jack and who played Gavroche is 15- he looks 10. England seems to have a lot of young actors who delay maturity for professional reasons, and most get jobs on _Game of Thrones_. Tracey Ullman wasn’t as annoying as I usually find her (does anybody else think she mugs too much?) and I love Christine Baranski in anything. I do wish they’d had the line from the play from the stepsisters when it’s suggested (I think by Jack’s mother) they be sent to the giant to put them out of their misery: “We’re not\* that \*miserable!” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/83 "2015-01-05T18:15:11Z")
Saw it a couple weeks ago when the showing of _Unbroken_ we wanted was sold out. I saw the stage version on _American Playhouse_ and forgot much of it so I wasn’t really bothered by the missing bits other than the narrator not appearing on screen. > [@WhyNot](#): > > Send in The Clowns. > > And, um…Send in the Clowns. > [@bienville](#): > > I love the songs he wrote for _Dick Tracy_. “More” is one of my all time favorite Sondheim songs, and the Oscar-nominated “Sooner or Later” also counts as one of his best songs. Of course, these songs were specifically _meant_ to stand on their own. Even within the context of the movie they are performed as cabaret numbers with no connection to any narrative. > [@Lamia](#): > > The cast of _Glee_ has actually performed quite a few Sondheim songs. “Unworthy of Your Love” has not, IIRC, ever been featured on the show, but they did do “You Are Not Alone”. In that same episode they also did “Not While I’m Around” from _Sweeney Todd_ and “I’m Still Here” from _Follies_, and in other episodes they’ve done “Being Alive” from _Company_, various songs from _West Side Story_, and a version of “Rose’s Turn” from _Gypsy_. “Comedy Tonight” has been performed by Muppets and elsewhere other than in _A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum_. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/84 "2015-01-06T14:40:00Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Send in The Clowns. > > And, um…Send in the Clowns. > > I think you’re right, and also, Sondheim isn’t easy to sing. Or to hum. He likes all those weird intervals that are wonderful in the hands of a competent singer, but when you sing them in the shower, you realize you’re not entirely sure where to go next. I’m not a huge Sondheim fan (I think he’s overrated\*) but [ul] [li]Lovely[/li][li]What More Do I Need? (obscure, from “Saturday Night”, but his catchiest song ever)[/li][li]Pretty Women[/li][/ul] I might be able to come up with a few more but yeah, there aren’t many. 🙂 \*He’s the definition of overrated–no matter how good he is–and he is good, don’t get me wrong, he couldn’t live up to the utterly insane hype Frank Rich and other Sondheim groupies have saddled him with. Gabriel, in Heaven directing the Choir Invisible with music of the spheres, composed by God himself, couldn’t live up the idiotic level of Sondheim hype. He’s an excellent composer, but he’s not all that. He couldn’t be. ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/85 "2015-01-06T14:43:24Z")
> [@Scruff](#): > > We went yesterday, and quite liked it. I’m very familiar with the stage play, having run lights for a production in Boston back in the day. This was (in my opinion) a pretty good adaptation. Just out of curiosity, what production did you run lights for? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/86 "2015-01-06T23:14:39Z")
I recognize the great talent of Sondheim more than I enjoy his shows. With some the problem is the story and-or the book: _Passion_ and _A Little Night Music_ both have some great melodic moments (including of course _Send In the Clowns_ of course) but, imho and to borrow a line from Blanche on _The Golden Girls_, “why the hell tell it in the first place” stories that I just can’t invest in (Scandinanian Downton Abbeyists and Handsome Soldier Fatally Sexes Up World’s Most Depressing Military Cousin just don’t do it for me). Sweeney Todd is so over the top it’s hard not to like but so unrealistic it’s hard to take at all seriously. It occurs that I have similar problems with Sondheim to the ones I have with Gore Vidal’s fiction: a sort of intellectual Pinocchio syndrome in that I find them structurally brilliant but unable to come to life. The characters aren’t emotionally real to me. Unlike Vidal, Sondheim does have a couple of exceptions in his plays: _Sunday in the Park With George_ has a couple of moments of real emotion, and _Assassins_ has, in _Unworthy of Your Love_, a song that’s as beautiful as its singers are warped. Like Vidal, Sondheim had an absolutely terrible and loveless relation with his mother. No idea if there’s any meaning there. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cdc98d/32.png) [@Hermione](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/87 "2015-01-07T04:48:47Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > “Comedy Tonight” has been performed by Muppets and elsewhere other than in _A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum_. Would you believe that the very first place I heard the melody was in a commercial for Stouffer’s frozen food? (Or some other frozen food, I may be misremembering.) ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540/88 "2015-05-03T03:34:41Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Yes, I was counting that. Still, you’re right that _Into the Woods_ is actually the fourth Sondheim film, not the third. I had forgotten the film version of _A Little Night Music_. > > The other one, of course, is _A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum_. Speaking of _A Little Night Music_, did anyone else catch the snippet of music we hear from the castle during the King’s Festival? It’s “Night Waltz,” from _A Little Night Music_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/into-the-woods-have-you-seen-it-open-spoilers/708540.md?page=4)