2AMt: I love Into the Woods. I love the music, I love the book, it’s one of my favorite musicals. So I’m more than a little nervous at the thought of Disney and Rob Marshall teaming up to bring it to the big screen. Yes, it’s been in development before, the prospects no less scary, but this time might be the one. It might be good, might not. Will it be better than the stage version? It’ll be different. But it won’t affect my memory of the stage version.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Seeing the Forest
2AMt: I love Into the Woods. I love the music, I love the book, it’s one of my favorite musicals. So I’m more than a little nervous at the thought of Disney and Rob Marshall teaming up to bring it to the big screen. Yes, it’s been in development before, the prospects no less scary, but this time might be the one. It might be good, might not. Will it be better than the stage version? It’ll be different. But it won’t affect my memory of the stage version.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Actually this is a really interesting topic and the author makes a comment which I don't agree with for larger audiences. Loehr states, "Will it be better than the stage version? It’ll be different. But it won’t affect my memory of the stage version." It may not affect his pre-existing memory, but it will mold any new memories. And it may affect people's memories. I see it much as how if I see a National Tour of some show, and I enjoyed it so I buy the CD. There are funny one bit lines here and and there and maybe I really liked how one of the characters was sung with such personality. I think to myself, these are the things I want to remember about the performance. Then I go home and listen to my CD and in six months I have forgotten the specifics of the production I saw. I know it was different than the CD, and I might even remember where the differences occurred, but I can no longer name them. On them opposite side, if I have a musical CD I really like then when I go to see the live performance I will notice all the differences. Movies have a similar effect. (Think Sweeney Todd.) People will either replace existing memories or mold new ones around pre-existing ones that are based on the experience that has been repeated. It is unfortunate that memory distorts, but the advantages of having that CD or movie may outweigh this con.
That aside, the points Loehr makes about stories being the main focus of a play and being able to see (though not necessarily experience) that play that everyone was talking about are also valid, and I think if the question on HowlRound (“How do we create ‘albums’ that excite audiences to go to the ‘concert?’”) could be translated to bridge the movie to play gap, we might not have to worry so much about what movies could be doing to live theatre shows.
Post a Comment