The Girl and I are both pretty giant Broadway Geeks. I have clearly passed down my love of musicals and she has taken the genetic gift and run with it, memorizing the soundtracks to more shows than I even knew existed. (Thank you internet music.)
As you might imagine, she has been talking about Into the Woods for months. In fact, I didn’t even realize a movie was coming out when she first started yammering on and on talking to me about it.
Needless to say, when I was given the opportunity to see a sneak preview of the movie a few weeks ago, I jumped at the chance (even though we drove nearly two hours to the theater!).
The show, and seeing it with my girl, was worth every minute of the drive. She sat on the edge of her seat for the entire thing and tried her hardest not to sing along too loudly.
I’m usually not big on movie adaptations of Broadway shows, but I went into this one with an open mind because my kid was so excited it was hard not to follow her lead.
Well, I picked a good show to be enthusiastic about because they did an excellent job staying true to what makes Broadway great (big, sweeping musical numbers and subtle humour in dialogue, will utilizing the grand sweeping scenery that film allows without making the whole thing feel overdone and trite.
The movie was fantastic. The casting was perfect, especially the Princes who were as beautiful and full of themselves and good fairytale princes should be. The actors all could sing really well too. You didn’t feel like they picked actors for their cache and then just figured out a way to edit songs to suit them. No, everyone in this film had Broadway caliber chops, which almost never happens (see Les Miserable).
My only complaint would have been that the movie is as long as a Broadway play without the bathroom and snack break the theater offers. We combatted my entertainment ADD by seeing the film in a theater with those awesome recliner chairs and plenty of M&Ms, so we did just fine.
I always think movies on Christmas Day are such a fun idea for families.
Into the Woods is the perfect excuse to make that so.
