For those of you who've had the pleasure of seeing Stephen Sondheim's classic Into the Woods (1986) on stage, you know that, like most of the great composer's once-prolific oeuvre, it is very particularly a Work of Theater. Some artists' skill sets transfer easily between stage, screen, television and literature and so on but others do not. Certain geniuses are so tied to a particular medium they become it; Stephen Sondheim IS Musical Theater.
But musical theater is different from musical cinema. Naturally compromises will have to be made. The person doing the new compromising is Rob Marshall who Hollywood is still giving the musicals to, presumably because of the huge success of Chicago (2002) and not the floppery of Nine (2009). So yes, compromises must be made... but they do not have to be made in casting. Many star actors -- if you're forced to cast that way -- have great singing voices. Les Misérables may have botched its casting of Javert (Ugh. Russell Crowe) but elsewhere Tom Hooper seemed to understand that beautiful melodic musical-friendly trained voices were required and could be found in big stars (Hathaway, Hackman, Seyfried) and rising ones (Tveit & Redmayne) and he cast accordingly... except for that bit about letting Helena Bonham-Carter "sing" again post-Sweeney Todd.
Unfortunately Hollywood loves to repeat its mistakes and somehow Sweeney Todd did NOT result in Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter being lifetime banned from future musicals ...
Yes, they're both good actors and Sweeney Todd was a strong adaptation in some ways. But herein likes the catch: they are not good singers and the music, the property's main-selling point, was deeply compromised as a result.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This recently in: Johnny Depp is in talks to co-star in Into the Woods. Whether this is because Johnny Depp is deeply deeply averse to stretching these days (notice how he just won't work with anyone but his previous directors now?) or the money people are trusting that they need him (really? then where were Sweeney's blockbuster profits?) we can't know.
I was willing to put aside my small "of course!" frustration that Meryl Streep was the defacto choice for the "star" role (if not the lead) in Into the Woods because she is both a fine actress AND a fine singer. You need both no matter what Hollywood claims and I'm sure she will be great even though the role is typically cast for "Sexy Diva" which is not totally Meryl's thing. But I am not at all okay with the choice of Johnny Depp as either "The Wolf" or "The Baker" (initial reports seem to disagree on who he will be playing) and it's reminding me -- at least the Wolf rumor -- of when Rob Marshall cast Daniel Day-Lewis in Nine. You see, both roles require sexual potency and though DDL & Depp are true movie stars, neither has a particularly sexual screen persona and both often come across as actively asexual in their interpretations. There's nothing wrong with that UNLESS IT'S WRONG FOR THE ROLE. Second, they can't sing. Yes, I know Depp won an Oscar nomination for Sweeney Todd but he does not have even a strong character-actor style singing voice. He shouted /growled most of his Sweeney Todd songs and Sondheim's complex musical composition lost out. Try this experiment if you aren't convinced: Play one Depp song from the soundtrack and IMMEDIATELY chase it with Michael Cerveris doing the same song in the Broadway revival recording. I tried this once trying to figure out why some people experiencing Sweeney Todd for the first time at the movies didn't like the songs and it became abundantly clear. The same exact song, with Cerveris voice, suddenly springs to life with nuance, complicated melody and character defining flourishes. I had tears in my eyes by the time the song ended for the second time; it had never been more obvious to my ears why classic songs deserve strong voices.
I only pray that Depp has the Wolf role rather than The Baker because the former is much showier and smaller and not subtle and narrative-carrying. The Wolf would have a better chance of capitalizing on Depp's gifts and less of a chance of ruining the movie as a whole since if there's anything Depp is bad at these days it's coming across as "regular human" and The Baker and his wife are the civilian-sized soul of this musical.
But I digress. Back to the point: Musicals need good singing. This just seems like an obvious truth. It's my broken record, I know, but I'll just have to keep playing it until Hollywood stops trying to drown me out with their own tuneless sing-alongs.