The movie musical trend is here to stay, at least for a while longer. Disney is currently in the process of casting a movie version of Steven Sondheim’s Into the Woods. This popular musical combines the stories of several fairy tale characters including Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jack the Giant Slayer, and Little Red Riding Hood.
Two roles appear to be set already: Meryl Streep as the Witch and Johnny Depp as the Wolf. The rest are rumored/“in talks” and include Emily Blunt as the Baker’s Wife, James Corden as the Baker, Christine Baranski as the evil stepmother, and most excitingly (for me) Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Pine as Cinderella’s Prince and Rapunzel’s Prince.
The two princes are great comedic roles you can see from their song, “Agony:”
I cannot judge any of the casting until I’ve seen the movie, so my only real concern thus far is that Disney is helming the project. Often drawing on the original tales by the Brothers Grimm, Into the Woods is much darker than the Disney version of these stories. For example, in the show, as in the original story, Cinderella’s stepsisters literally cut off pieces of their feet in their attempts to fit into the glass slipper. This gruesome detail was absolutely left out of the Disney film.
It’s not that I want these details for their gross factor; I appreciate the larger theme behind them. By ending Act 1 of the show with the traditional “happily ever after,” Sondheim gives the audience the entire second act to explore just how false that concept can be. In the musical, as in life, there is no simple “happily ever after.” It’s more complicated, often sadder or more horrifying, than that. People make mistakes. Good does not always win. Right and wrong are not always evident. Hopefully Disney won’t attempt to erase that message.
The title character of CBS’ hit show How I Met Your Mother was finally revealed in last night’s season finale, and she’s played by Cristin Milioti, the delightful lead actress from Once! (I also talked about her in my Mike Birbiglia post, as she played his sister in Sleepwalk With Me.)
Watch the dramatic reveal below:
What do you think? After 8 seasons of buildup, does she meet your expectations?
Before I show you this delightful Broadway clip, I have an important public service announcement: this week is Frappucino Happy Hour Week at Starbucks! Frappucinos are half price from 3-5PM. I just thought I’d share, since it’s one of my favorite weeks of the year!
Now on to my theater-related topic: As the Tony Awards draw near, I thought I’d make sure you all have seen clips from my favorite “Best Revival of a Musical” nominee: Pippin.
The plot of Pippin is hard to explain, so I’m not even going to try. Instead, I’ll just let the video speak for itself:
Guys, it’s like Cirque du Soleil meets Broadway! What more could you want?!
How about you? Who are you rooting for this Tony season?
Happy Spring! In honor of the season, I have decided to review Spring Awakening this month. The musical was based on an 1891 German play of the same name, which was banned for its exploration of controversial topics (sex, homosexuality, child abuse, suicide, and abortion). The musical also explores these issues, but with rock music!
Basically Spring Awakening is a coming of age story that shows how detrimental adult behavior can be towards adolescents. The tension between the teens and the adults of the show is even represented in the casting. Each teen character is represented by a different actor, but there are only two actors, a man and a woman, to play all of the adults (parents, teachers, doctors, etc) in the show. The implied message is that all adults are the same; they don’t try to understand the teens or to help the teens understand the darker issues of the world.
Here’s a video of the cast performing at the Tony Awards, where they won 8 awards including Best Musical. (Note how they cover their mouths at points during the last song. They are just censoring the language for the purposes of the Tony broadcast. The song is called “Totally F*cked.”)
Do you notice the people sitting in risers on the sides of the stage? Every performance some audience members get to sit onstage. I was one such lucky audience member. Unfortunately, I get very emotionally involved in shows, so I had to keep fighting the urge to comfort the characters who were upset. Thankfully, I went with a friend who was fully prepared to stop me from touching the actors.
If you read my last post, you’ll know that one of my favorite musical theater songs comes from this show. I loved the character of Moritz, and I absolutely wanted to run out to the middle of the stage and stop him when he (SPOILER ALERT) kills himself right after this song:
Spring Awakening actually launched many careers. The actors who played the two main characters, Lea Michelle and Jonathan Groff, starred/appeared (respectively) on Glee. John Gallagher Jr., who won a Tony for his work in Spring Awakening, went on to appear in Rabbit Hole, American Idiot, and now the HBO show The Newsroom. Skylar Astin recently played opposite Anna Kendrick in Pitch Perfect. He also played Mark in the Neil Patrick Harris Hollywood Bowl production of Rent.
So how are you guys feeling about these reviews? Are there any shows you’d like me to talk about? I love musical theater, but I’m going to try to throw in some more straight plays for you!
One of my friends has a birthday coming up in May. Back in November, she jokingly told me I should make her a mixed CD of Broadway songs for her birthday, since I’m so obsessed with them and she knows very few of them.
Obviously, I did not take this as a joke. I took this as a very serious assignment, and I’ve been carefully considering song choices for months. While making a prioritized list of songs, I noticed some things about my top five choices.
Firstly, not one of my “top six most-listened-to” musical songs comes from my three favorite musicals (Les Misérables, Next to Normal, and Rent). Perhaps, it’s because I love basically every song from each of those musicals. They work so well together as a whole; how could I ever choose a favorite song from any of those three? I almost never listen to just one song from them. Once I hear one song, I just need to hear the whole album!
Secondly, all of them share thematic elements. They are all songs about hopes and dreams, but those dreams are marred by the knowledge that they can never be real. In two of them, the characters sing with utter joy; they truly believe these things can come to pass. Only the audience knows they’re wrong. In the other songs, the characters are aware that their dreams will probably never come true.
So let’s look at the songs:
“The Wizard and I” from Wicked – Elphaba dreams of putting her magic to use by working with the Wizard of Oz. The most brilliant thing about this song is the dramatic irony built into it.
At one point she sings, “But I swear, someday there’ll be a celebration throughout Oz that’s all to do with me!” The audience knows that there will be a celebration…when she dies.
Other examples include, “I’d be so happy I could melt!” (referencing the death in the classic Wizard of Oz) and “When people see me they will scream” (she means they’ll scream in excitement, but they will actually scream in fear).
“Wheels of A Dream” from Ragtime – Sarah and Coalhouse are a young black couple dreaming of how their son’s life will be so much better than their own. The audience doesn’t even need to know the tragic end of the show to know it won’t quite work out that way. Standing on the other side of history, the audience knows that racism didn’t magically disappear in the early 20th century, but that knowledge just adds poignancy to their beautiful dream.
My eyes well up every time during the final lines: “With the promise of happiness and the freedom he’ll live to know, he’ll travel with head held high, just as far as his heart can go. And he will ride – our son will ride – on the wheels of a dream.”
“A New Life” from Jekyll and Hyde– Lucy wishes for a new start in life, but she doesn’t truly believe she’ll get one. She even sings “a new love, though I know there’s no such thing as true love.”
“The I Love You Song” from The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee – When asked to spell the word “chimerical,” Olive day dreams about her parents telling her how much they love her. When she repeats the definition of the world (“unreal, magical, visionary, wildly fanciful, highly unrealistic”), Olive makes it clear that the day dream is simply a product of wishful thinking.
These last two are a bit more metaphorical.
“Don’t Do Sadness” from Spring Awakening– Moritz would love to be as carefree as a butterfly or the wind, but despite his statements to the contrary, it is clear that Moritz is deeply miserable (especially if you know what he does immediately after this song).
“Falling Slowly” from Once – The chorus goes “Take this sinking boat and point it home. We’ve still got time.” There’s really nothing more hopeless than trying to sail home in a sinking boat.
What does this pattern of song choices say about me? Nothing that I didn’t already know: I’m at once a cynic and a romantic, trapped in one contradictory body.
Now obviously I have room for more than 6 songs on the birthday CD. What songs do you think I’m missing? Which songs should I pick from Les Misérables, Next to Normal, and Rent? I have such a hard time choosing!!! Though perhaps I should include some happy songs as well?
