I am not a film critic, so I waited until the holiday crowds had abated to see Disney\u2019s film of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine\u2019s “Into the Woods,” which intertwines several stories of the Brothers Grimm as a baker and his wife try to reverse the curse put on their family tree. Nonetheless, I eschewed the reviews sent to me by others, many of whom worked on and were present (as was I) at the musical\u2019s 1986 Old Globe Theatre premiere and its subsequent Broadway debut. Every night during the original Old Globe run, I\u2019d say, “I\u2019ll be home right after curtain rise.” My husband never believed me, knowing the work had cast a spell on me and that I\u2019d find a perch in the balcony house right and stay till the last note had died away. It was a heady time with Sondheim in residence, a giant striding through the admin halls in real-time. “Sondheim and Company,” Craig Zadan\u2019s show-by-show biography, had come out in its first edition, and I made bold to ask the composer to inscribe my copy. “I\u2019d be forever grateful,” I said. “One day is long enough,” he said. The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle recently nominated the Fiasco Theater touring production, seen at the Globe last summer, for an award in its annual invitation-only ceremony, to be held at La Jolla’s Museum of Contemporary Art campus next month. Having become so accustomed to the original, I believed rightly that everything would fall short of my expectations. Indeed, Fiasco\u2019s version was disappointing from several aspects, not the least of which was a decided lack of musical excellence. Granted, the troupe was not singers, but neither are the film stars. The film, which I viewed Jan. 2 at Fashion Valley AMC, was more satisfying than Fiasco\u2019s production. What Sondheim\u2019s brilliant lyrics and music had conjured so vividly in the mind played before my eyes in the Rob Marshall-directed movie. I loved the casting \u2013 Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) so young and na\u00efve but not simpleminded; James Corden, such a practical baker; Emily Blunt, understatedly heroic as his Wife (Joanna Gleason copped a Tony for originating the role). Christine Baranski was a perfect choice as Cinderella\u2019s stepmother and Anna Kendrick perfect as the disillusioned Cinderella, whose Prince (Chris Pine), once he\u2019s won her, develops a roving eye. As always, a high moment is when the brother Princes, Cinderella\u2019s and Rapunzel\u2019s (Billy Magnussen), get together for “Agony.” Another musical highlight is always Little Red (Lilla Crawford) Riding Hood\u2019s “I Know Things Now,” sung after her encounter with the perfectly salacious but not anatomically correct Wolf (Johnny Depp). Meryl Streep really can sing, and her renditions of “Stay With Me” and “Children Will Listen” got to me \u2013 but then, they always do. “Children Will Listen” was written for the Broadway production, in which Bernadette Peters played the Witch and the Wolf lost his scandalous appendages. I could write volumes about Sondheim\u2019s genius. No matter what Disney does to simplify the Grimms\u2019 fractured, colliding fairy tales and clean up the meaning of Sondheim and Lapine\u2019s invented tale of the Baker and his Wife, and no matter the dumbed-down Fiasco production, such genius can\u2019t be trumped or obfuscated. Sondheim and Lapine\u2019s people are us, so human and obtuse in their losses, confusion and blundering. Coming soon: J* Company\u2019s “Pirates of Penzance,” Jan. 17-25 at David & Dorothea Garfield Theatre at the JCC in University City. (858) 362-1348. The Athenaeum\u2019s free noontime mini-concerts have resumed at 1008 Wall Street, La Jolla and at the Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, Downtown San Diego. See a schedule at ljathenaeum.org. Fresh Sound Series resumes at 7:30 Jan. 15 at Bread & Salt, 1955 Julian Ave., Barrio Logan, with UCSD\u2019s red fish blue fish, directed by Steven Schick (artistic director of La Jolla Symphony). The concert in the series, Feb. 6, features former Schick student Ross Karre and UCSD\u2019s red fish blue fish in a program titled “Opera with Objects,” comprising works of several notable contemporary composers. Additional concerts ($15) will be held monthly through May: See a schedule at freshsoundmusic.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am not a film critic, so I waited until the holiday crowds had abated to see Disney\u2019s film of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine\u2019s “Into the Woods,” which intertwines several stories of the Brothers Grimm as a baker and his wife try to reverse the curse put on their family tree. Nonetheless, I eschewed […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":266577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Into the Woods': There's no escaping Sondheim's brilliance","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}