Into The Woods

The trailer for Into The Woods has dropped and already there are people shrieking like a bunch of little girls who've had their panties pulled down.  "There's no singing!" So what?  It's not the first movie musical to have a song-less trailer.  "There are going to be changes!"  Of course there are going to be changes.  I would like one person to name me one Broadway musical that didn't undergo changes while transitioning into a movie musical.  Look at Burton's horrendous "Sweeney Todd."  I saw that show, on Broadway, with the great Angela Lansbury, and I can tell you there is no comparison to Burton's adaptation.  Ms. Lansbury was funny, what's her name... Burton's wife?... was not.

There are going to be changes.  Take the wolf's costume.  You see, I also saw Into the Woods on Broadway (I've actually seen the show several times in various productions) and the first time the Wolf came on stage I said to myself "that'll never make it into the movies."  You can't have a wolf running around on screen for 6 minutes or so with an erect penis if you want to keep your PG-13 rating.  Take that 8 or so inches away and his song is much less about pedophilia and much more about eating little Red Riding Hood. " But that's going to change the meaning of the show,' some whine.  To some extent... yes, but most likely not enough to change the focus of the show.

Okay, so it wasn't erect all the time.  Sometimes it just hung there.

Or take that other little Sondheim musical which happened to become a major Oscar winner, "West Side Story."  I was lucky enough to direct the show while in college and was surprised to discover, on reading the script, that the song "Somewhere" is actually song by an anonymous character in the middle of the "Somewhere Ballet" sequence.  You say what?  That's right, they cut a ballet which, gruesomely enough, has Riff and Tony (already dead) re-entering and killing each other a second time.  Try to find that in the movie.

Changes happen.  This is normal.  Here's the I wish  Give it a chance.