| re: My take on INTO THE WOODS |
| Posted by: portenopete 09:19 am EST 11/18/22 |
| In reply to: re: My take on INTO THE WOODS - Revned 01:11 am EST 11/18/22 |
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I also really enjoyed reading your thoughts, probably because I feel a kinship with the sentiment you expressed about the coarsening of a show that is chock-a-block with Sondheim's trademark insight and wit and that I think is best served by a subtler approach.
One of the best things about Robert Westenberg's original Cinderella Prince was his extreme humourlessness. I suppose Chuck Wagner took more or less the same approach, but he was possessed of genial, California surfer looks, whereas there was something about Westenberg's physiognomy- those broad, bony planes on his face and his deep-set eyes- that gave him a seriousness that seemed effortless. I saw him as George Seurat, as well as in both the live and PBS versions of Into the Woods- and I suspect that was his general style in most things he did.
Gavin Creel- lovely though his voice may be- has always had a lightness about him that is about as far from Westenberg's stolid presence as I can imagine. As his fame and the audience adoration of him have grown over the years, it seems whenever I see him he is spending at least half of his performance slyly glancing out at the audience and grinning, the way a child in a school play would search out his parents and give them a little wave. (Andy Karl is a spectacular buffoon and in the right role- particularly Bruce Granit in On the Twentieth Century- he has been absolutely perfect.) |
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