Edward Copeland's Tangents

Although I like Into the Woods a lot, I wouldn't go so far as to call it one of Sondheim's best. The music - which is lush without being particularly melodic (listen to Follies, ALNM or Sweeney for contrast) - doesn't match the standard of the lyrics (which are brilliant), and Lapine's dialogue is, for the most part, flat, flat, flat (plotwise, the book is strong, but the words are incredibly wooden). I'm among those who find the second act too solemnly preachy for its own good -it's as if the audience is being taken to task for having enjoyed what came before. Still, the show has more than its share of pleasures, and the original cast is remarkably strong; Joanna Gleason probably owns the role of The Baker's Wife just as surely as Mrs. Lovett will forever belong to Angela Lansbury (sorry, Helena). Certainly, it is by far the best of the shows the composer collaborated on with James Lapine, and when given a top-notch production, it can fire on all cylinders.

Personally - and I know I'm not alone in this assertion - I think that most of Sondheim's scores, post-Merrilly We Roll Along, haven't been as interesting musically as they are in terms of their lyrics. Beginning with Sunday in the Park with George, Sondheim became more and more preoccupied discordant harmonies and repetition - consequently, you get shows like Passion where every song sounds exactly like every other song, and none are particularly melodic. Into the Woods is guilty of this as well, although there's a bit more variation than you'd find in Passion or Sunday (probably because there are some lighter, more up-tempo songs in Woods which function in a comic vein). In terms of musical vocabulary, Assassins is his only post-Merilly show which encompasses a real range of styles, and makes full use of over a century's worth American musical traditions - consequently, there's less discordant harmony (sometimes you wonder if Sondheim spends too much time listening to Phillip Glass), more melody, and it's one of his best scores.
 

Of course, I admit I'm a lyric man, but I felt that the similar music strains worked for ITW. The occasionally clunky dialogue doesn't bother me, simply because of its storybook world setting, so by praising the book I'm more praising it because it doesn't get in the way and actually survives from beginning to end (for me at least) as opposed to something like Follies, which has a much better score but a very problematic book.
 

Yeah, there's definitely preachiness in the second act, and it's not helped by some clunky dialogue on Lapine's part. But the big issue I have with Act II is all the ballads in a row. Individually they're lovely, but together they're repetitive and a bit disconnected to the story. "No More" is a lovely song, but the one-two punch of "No One is Alone" and "Children Will Listen" dilutes everything. For the first time, I feel as if Sondheim was consciously trying to write standards rather than the songs the narrative needed at that point. "Send in the Clowns" became that kind of song somewhat in spite of itself, but here Sondheim seems to be pandering and making the songs "universal" much too much.

(I don't mean to be too hard on the show, which I do like a lot, but I recently finished a production of it and the Act II issues are fresh in my mind.)
 

There is a children's version called "Into the Woods, Jr.". It's most of Act I (they took out Red Riding Hood's song in the version I saw) and "Children Will Listen" added in at the end. It works well as children's theatre.

I couldn't agree more about how fabulous Joanna Gleason was in this. I want to see her in more shows! And this is definitely one of my favorite Sondheim shows, both for the lyrics and the music.
 

Josh R. I'm among those who find the second act too solemnly preachy for its own good -it's as if the audience is being taken to task for having enjoyed what came before.

I remember going to see Into the Woods during its Broadway run, and I felt exactly the way you do. I disliked the second act enough that it ruined the musical for me.

When they ran it on TV, my sister wanted to watch it. I taped it for her, and I warned her "don't watch this, you'll feel like shit afterward." But like her hardheaded eldest brother, she didn't listen. I think she liked it a tad more than I did, but she had a luxury I didn't have: she could turn it off and come back to it later. And she saw it for free.

At least there was no Send in the Clowns.

Uh-oh, here come Josh and Ed, the Sondheim lovers, with pitchforks and torches! I liked Sweeney Todd and I love Gypsy! That should count for one less pitchfork stab!
 

I won't come after you, Odie - although I may have been forced to take out a contract on your life had you bad-mouthed my beloved Sweeney.

There's no denying that the second act is problematic, for several different reasons - too much heavy-handed moralizing, too many similar-sounding songs covering more or less the same ground, a shortage of humor, and the fact that the characters are a little too one-dimensional to make sense as figures in a Drama with a capital D. I didn't realize The Baker's Wife was, as written, is just as one-dimensional as the others until I'd see someone besides Joanna Gleason play it - she's a great example of someone bringing more to a part that what's on the page.

It's become so automatic for people to beat up on the second act of ITW - it seems as though everyone always has, as far back as the original - but really, when you get right down to it, I don't think it fits that well with the first act...sometimes it feels like two very different shows shoehorned into one. But it didn't ruin the entire experience for me to the extent that it did for you and others I've talked to - I just let my mind wander when Sondheim and Lapine start in on the Sunday School lessons and try to focus the good stuff.

And even though I find the music repetetive and unmelodic in patches, I do like that first act an awful lot.