From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.theatre
Subject: Re: INTO THE WOODS
Date: 9 Oct 92 19:05:59 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware

Lots of good things to respond to here; this is a fun topic.  Let me try
to organize what will necessarily be a disorganized note, with topic
sentences:

* My previous suggested cast:  As I said immediately afterwards, this is
not a cast I'd expect Hollywood to choose.  BUT if we're all talking
about our "dream casts," these are people I'd like to imagine in the
show, and you could never get all of them for a stage production.  (It's
easier to get an "all-star" or even a nonstar but "talent-heavy" cast
together for a movie, since they're not committing to a long run,
they'll be more widely seen, and length of a role matters less.  Imagine
Alec Baldwin doing his one-scene role in GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS onstage!)
After all, Hollywood casting directors are not reading r.a.t to get
their ideas, right?  Why not have fun with it among ourselves?  AND:
Sometimes movies DO go for the talent rather than the name.  Consider
the film of HAIR:  the leads were cast with Treat Williams, Annie
Golden, Don Dacus, John Savage, Dorsey Wright, and Beverly d'Angelo.
One or two of those are well-known names now, but believe me *none* of
them were in 1977.  Milos Forman had the clout to insist on the cast
*he* wanted, as he did when he wanted F. Murray Abraham for AMADEUS.

Here's somebody I forgot in my "favorite show performers" cast.  How
about Beth Howland as Jack's Mother?

* Making a movie of it:  Someone (David Fristom?) said a year ago here
when the possibility was first publicized, and I agree, that with the
video in existence as a preservation of the stage show, the thing to do
with a movie would be to do it differently.  A real re-imagining on the
authors' part, in terms of a movie rather than stage premise.  I loved
INTO THE WOODS on the stage, and as some may remember (let's not reopen
this one) I don't want to see local productions rewriting it for their
stages.  But if the authors want to tear it apart for a different
medium, there are some possibilities there that might be intriguing.  I
certainly don't think they got every moment 100% perfectly right
onstage.  Which brings me to

* The original cast:  Yes, it was a good one.  Perfect beyond imagining?
I don't think so, except for Joanna Gleason, and perhaps Kim Crosby and
Ben Wright.  Many people could play the other parts well, IMHO, and part
of the fun of imagining a movie is that you could consider people who
would never play such ensemble roles onstage (too expensive, so big a
star they'd throw things off -- as Bernadette Peters perhaps did onstage
-- etc.).  Which brings me to

* Meryl Streep:  Yes, she can sing.  Aside from her stage work in Happy
End and Alice in Concert, there are the movies Silkwood ("Amazing
Grace," very beautifully done), Postcards from the Edge, and the opening
number in Death Becomes Her.  AND yes, she can be light and funny.
Check out her performances in Manhattan, The Seduction of Joe Tynan,
She-Devil, Defending Your Life, Postcards from the Edge, and Death
Becomes Her.  In the latter, she was the only one of the principals who
caught and maintained the light, satirical tone, and the only one who
made me laugh.  HOWEVER, I wouldn't necessarily expect to see her end up
in the movie; she's probably in the initial announced cast of every
movie project with any kind of female role, often without her knowledge.

* Realities of the movie biz:  Whoever said this was quite right.  At
least half the announced projects "in production" never get made.  This
might well end up in that category, especially after the moneymen see
the budget and realize a video version already exists.  Remember,
"Follies" was sold to the movies too, and a screenplay written, way back
in the 70s; and "She Loves Me" got kicked around for decades before
expiring as a movie project.

That said, I'm still puzzled by complaints of "Hollywood ruining things
by overproducing them" in relation to this show (especially as this is
all theoretical at this point).  Methinks the rose-colored glasses are
being used here, as with the original cast.  It wasn't exactly an
austere high-art production onstage; it was as elaborate and colorful as
budget would allow, and rightly so.  Save the art-film approach for a
movie of SWEENEY TODD, if anyone ever makes one.

I agree that it's possible to do this show too darkly, putting all the
subtext on the surface; that's always a big danger with the kind of
director attracted to Sondheim in the first place.  But with the authors
of most of Ron Howard's comedies writing the screenplay, I don't think
that's the danger we need to worry about!  Rather the contrary.  I just
hope they've really re-thought it, and not just transcribed it into
screenplay form.  Maybe add another fairytale or two to the mix!

Basically, some of us just find it fun to speculate about this kind of
thing, knowing that nobody in power will pay a bit of attention to our
ideas.  I'm still hoping to see other people's casts.  Nobody suggested
Michael J. Fox as Jack, or Julia Roberts as Cinderella.  (Those are 
jokes....I think.)  Where is people's imagination?

Jon Alan Conrad