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This evening while making dinner, Richard suggested we watch a movie while eating. So we popped in Into the Woods - one of my Christmas presents – and settled down on the couch with plates full of garlic mesquite chicken (the spice mix was also a Christmas present) and rice. I am a major fan of Steven Sondheim, and have been since my father first introduced me to his work by suggesting I watch Sweeney Todd. Anyone who can make a play as dark and twisted as this one gets my attention (although it probably didn't hurt that Angela Lansbury played the meat pie shop owner to perfection in that version as well). And after I had been exposed to the little tale of the murderous barber, he gave me the soundtrack to Assassins, and somewhere around the same time the local PBS station aired Into the Woods. For anyone who hasn't yet seen this play, go out and rent it right now. Steven Sondheim combined a whole host of fairy tales together into one plot, with all the characters and dialog and songs intricately interwoven so that it all makes sense, and that's just the first act. The second act goes beyond the happily ever after, getting darker and much more serious, but still just as skillfully done. I've seen local theater groups perform it, but the best performance ever is the one they normally show on PBS – the one with Bernadette Peters playing the witch (and looking as if she's enjoying herself immensely in the process). The girl who plays Little Red Riding Hood delivers her lines with such a straight face that it's hard not to laugh. The duet between the princes about their never-ending search for what's always out of reach is one of my favorite songs from that play, second perhaps only to the witch's emotional solo in the second act. And my favorite line ever from a play comes from this one – in Act II, the prince says with all seriousness "I was raised to be charming, not sincere."
Tis the season for Holidailies!
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