Skylight Music Theatre closes its season of fantasy and fairy tales with a new production of Into the Woods, one of Stephen Sondheim’s most popular musicals based on the book by James Lapine. “What is so exciting about the stage musical Into the Woods is that you have some of the most famous, iconic fairy tale characters who all come together in one story,” says Stage Director Edwin Cahill. “Our production is really exciting and quite different from any Into the Woods that has happened so far. It makes it very specifically a celebration for Milwaukee audiences.”
This clever and witty story follows a baker and his wife who wish to have a child but cannot due to a witch’s curse. In the original production in the late ’80s, the baker and his wife were New York Upper West Side bakers, but Cahill decided to make Skylight’s couple Milwaukee-specific. They are progressive, gluten-free bakers from the Third Ward who use a local Milwaukee accent and are dressed in a “modern kind of attire that gluten-free bakers might wear around here,” says Cahill. “They go into the woods as this sort of contemporary couple we can all identify with and they run into all these fairy tale characters that are in their very traditional Renaissance or 18th-century dress that children and adults recognize instantly. I think the results of that are really, really fun.”
Cahill adds, “For people who have seen the movie and liked the movie, I think you will love Into the Woods the musical even more; if you haven’t seen the movie, you should definitely come to the musical first; and if you didn’t like the movie, I think you should come to the musical because, in my opinion, it’s better than the movie. The movie has a different feel and I would really encourage people to come and discover the masterpiece that came first. The cast is extraordinary and inordinately talented. It’s such a pleasure for me to come in from New York and discover all of this talent that I had not worked with before.”
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Into the Woods runs May 22-June 15 at Broadway Theatre Center’s Cabot Theatre, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit skylightmusictheatre.org.
Theatre Happening
Marcus Center for the Performing Arts presents The Book of Mormon, a nine-time Tony Award-winning musical from the creators of South Park. The show runs May 19-31 at Uihlein Hall, 929 N. Water St. For tickets, call 414-273-7206 or visit marcuscenter.org. Show contains explicit language.
CORRECTION:
In the May 7 review of UW-Milwaukee’s The Crucible, Eddie Massey was incorrectly described as playing Judge Danforth. This role was actually played by Robert Knapp, while Massey played the role of Hathorne, the deputy governor’s assistant.
