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re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film

Posted by: ashleylm 04:28 pm EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film - MikeR 10:30 pm EDT 08/14/14

I'm firmly in the camp that thinks you ought to deviate from your source material where it will make a better film. You can go too far (we've all seen films based on books that were so altered one wonders why they bothered to keep the title) but eliminating a song here or there is not the end of the world, and in many cases (e.g. "Ever After") probably make sense to lose.

Songs are written for a number of reasons: to signal the end of an act, to give more for the star to do, to cover set changes, etc., none of which matter to a movie. The stage musical will still exist, and the film will be something different.

Cabaret was much changed, and works extremely well as a film. Little Shop of Horrors altered its ending, and thank goodness or my kids would have been in tears last weekend. The Producers was very faithful to the source, and ended up meh.


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re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film

Posted by: Chazwaza 10:09 pm EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film - ashleylm 04:28 pm EDT 08/15/14

Those are all fair points. I think only one applies to Into the Woods, which has a song clearly written to end Act 1.

And yes, there are many musical film adaptations that are stronger as films because of deviations from the stage text or even order of events... and The Producers was meh at best... but not because it was too faithful to the material, but rather to the stage director's direction. You could point to plenty of great movie musicals that were incredibly faithful to counteract your Producers example.


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re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film

Posted by: Chromolume 11:31 pm EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film - Chazwaza 10:09 pm EDT 08/15/14

Those are all fair points. I think only one applies to Into the Woods, which has a song clearly written to end Act 1.

Indeed. In fact, if you consider the process in reverse - if the property had been a film first, there most likely would have been no "Ever After" - the structure of the film wouldn't have wanted or needed it. But a stage adaptation of that film would have wanted a more definite ending to Act I - and perhaps a song like "Ever After" would have been written to accomplish that.


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re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film

Posted by: Chazwaza 11:55 pm EDT 08/15/14
In reply to: re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film - Chromolume 11:31 pm EDT 08/15/14

Though I am curious how they've done without "Ever After" which so perfectly sets up the seemingly ended "I wish" stories, before the "to be continued" that leads into things not ending with "happily ever after" at all. It's such an integral part of the concept of the show... in fact, I imagine one could have found a way to film it and make it work. But I'm curious to see what they do instead.


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re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film

Posted by: Chromolume 12:37 am EDT 08/16/14
In reply to: re: All those songs cut from INTO THE WOODS film - Chazwaza 11:55 pm EDT 08/15/14

I don;t know how they're doing it, but in my head, the fact that a bit of "So Happy" precedes "Ever After" in the show says to me that one could just segue to a modified version of "So Happy" - which really serves the same purpose as "Ever After" in terms of plot.

Things that are covered in "Ever After" not in "So Happy" - for instance, the new beanstalk, the Witch lamenting her loss of power, etc, could all be worked into a modified "So Happy," or could be shown visually without having to be voiced in the song.


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