The beauty of “Lost in the Woods” (which I’d highly encourage the reader to sing along with via the above video), is that it requires Jonathan Groff to sing a duet with himself, half of it in a reindeer voice. I particularly enjoy how Kristoff does that whole recitative thing that they do in musicals, where he’s sort of half-speaking, half-singing the immortal line, “Reindeers are better than people. Sven, why is love so hard?”
Not to be outdone, the reindeer Sven gives Kristoff moral support, assuring him that his feelings are real and he needs to let down his guard. This is perfect reindeer advice, applicable not just to an iceman’s broken-hearted ’80s-style fantasy ballad, but to the very specter of the apocalypse. If nothing else, you can’t fault Groff for wanting to please his 8-year-old “Knock at the Cabin” co-star, Kristen Cui. Lord knows they probably needed something to lighten the mood on the set of a tense thriller that involves Groff’s character, his husband, and their young daughter being taken hostage by four armed strangers, who demand that one of them be sacrificed to avert (you guessed it) the apocalypse.
It’s heavy subject matter, which is further complicated by the natural disasters that play out on TV (in both the movies and the real world). If you ask me, we could all use a little Reindeer Jonathan Groff support in our lives.
“Knock at the Cabin” is in theaters now.