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Libbey Stearns (Baker’s Wife), Alex Zimmer (Jack), Anna Kate Werge (Milky White). Photo by Nicholas Magrey
‘Into the Woods’
coming April 21
PUTNAM — The Theatre of Northeastern Connecticut at the Bradley Playhouse will present Stephen Sondheim’s masterful Into the Woods. Sondheim turns the world of fairy tales topsy-turvy, reminding us that granted wishes often bring complications. The show opens April 21 and runs for three weekends.
Performances are at 7:30 p.m. April 21, 22, 28, 29 and May 5, 6 and at 2 p.m. April 23, 30 and May 7. Tickets are $27 for adults and $24 for seniors, students, veterans and first responders. Please note: Into the Woods focuses on the original versions of our favorite fairy tales so some material may be too intense for younger audiences. Parental discretion is recommended.
Reservations may be made with a major credit card online at www.thebradleyplayhouse.org or by calling 860-928-7887.
Nicholas Magrey directs the TNECT production, with Diane Pollard as music director and Christine Guerin as choreographer. The show stars Natasha Darius as the Witch, Adam Leidemer as the Baker, with Libbey Stearns as the Baker’s Wife. Alex Zimmer plays Jack, with Krissi Forgues as his mother. Cinderella and her Prince are played by Elena Mercier and Nathan Conrow, who also appears as the Wolf. Elle-Jordyn Goslin and Tristan Arnold appear as Rapunzel and her Prince, with Joey Fortune as the precocious Little Red Riding Hood.
Into the Woods is a modern twist on the beloved fairy tales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel tied together by a story involving a baker and his wife who wish to have a child. A sinister Witch, who is more than she seems, sets their journey in motion. In Into the Woods, we learn what happens after ‘happily ever after’ may not be all we bargained for.
The Music and Lyrics for Into the Woods were written by Stephen Sondheim, with James Lapine penning the Book. Sondheim, who died in 2021, is considered one of the most influential figures in 20th century musical theater and is credited with reinventing the American musical. His shows include A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Sunday in the Park with George. Sondheim won an Academy Award, eight Tonys, eight Grammys, a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Kennedy Center Honor, and Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Into the Woods opened on Broadway in 1987, starring Bernadette Peters as the Witch, and won three Tonys for Best Score, Best Book and Best Actress in a Musical for Joanna Gleason, who played the Baker’s Wife. All the plays on our 2023 season are also films, with Into the Woods being no exception. The film was released by Walt Disney Pictures in 2014. The cast included Meryl Streep as the Witch, James Corden as the Baker, Emily Blunt as the Baker’s Wife, Johnny Depp as the Wolf, and Christine Baranski as Cinderella’s Stepmother.